Some books have too much information in them and will sit on shelves, but never be read. This book is not one of them. The articles are concise and interesting, and feature helpful recommendations of CDs currently available.

It is a good resource if you want to keep up to date, because the book gives information about many recent composers, as well as those who are already familiar.

I also appreciate the articles interspersed throughout the book on such topics as:
What is a Fugue?

Sonatas and Sonata Form
Composers at the Movies
Development of the Keyboard

The chronological list of composers is also a helpful bonus.

An excellent resource for students, teachers and all interested in Classical Music.

I owned the previous edition of this book. As someone relatively new to classical music, I found the book to be an ideal place to expand my interests. I initial purched th NPR Guide to begin my collection and then the previous edition of this book.
It is possible to find faults with any guide containing suggestions for recordings and repertoire, I have been highly satisfied with the suggestions in the Rough Guide.
As one of its best features the book contains music from the earlest times and includes contemporay composers. The descriptions of composers and recordings allows one a greater appreciation of the music.
This edition contains twenty essays that did not appear in the previos edition on topics as diverse as gregorian chant to atonlity.
This book is perfect for anyone interesed in Classical Music

The ROUGH GUIDE TO CLASSICAL MUSIC is a very well produced book that has several qualities that make it an essential purchase for lovers of music composed in the European ( Western ) Tradition.

First, the book has a tremendous range ( historic and stylistic ), which extends from Hildegard of Bingen ( 1098-1179 ) thru Thomas Ades ( 1971- ). This far-sighted depth is quite useful for the devotee who is not particularly well informed about say, the Medieval or Renaissance periods ( about 20 composers from those periods are featured ) and is more useful still for those interested in "modern" ( or "contemporary" ) music. Where there is a comparative lack of information in other guides ( GRAMOPHONE, PENGUIN, NPR, etc ), the ROUGH GUIDE features a tremendous number of currently active musicians ( some fairly well known and others somewhat obscure ). In fact, with regard to "difficult" music, the ROUGH GUIDE is actually superior to the BLACKWELL GUIDE, which is a volume solely devoted to contemporary composers.

Secondly, the thumbnail biographical sketches, while necessarily limited in scope, are quite informative ( the writers really seem to have listened to the music ). As is normal, it will be a matter of taste as to whether one agrees with the recommended recordings; this reviewer found a number of choices to quarrel over, but that is half the fun with these sorts of books anyway.

The volume is attractively laid out, with clear type-set and a number of a black and white photos dispersed throughout.
To sum up, THE ROUGH GUIDE TO CLASSICAL MUSIC is a fine book filling a particularly important need for depth and substance. It should perform good service to newcomers and long time fans alike.

I bought this book at the same time I bought "Ticket to the Opera" by Goulding. As an introduction to opera, Goulding's book is better written and more objective; however, "Rough Guide" includes information on more operas and what's available on CD. This is a very useful source of information, but as other reviewers have suggested, investigate other sources before buying anything. Personally, I like to have more than one reference of this sort available, because like all art, evaluating opera is a matter of opinion; guidelines are helpful, but the individual listener or viewer is the ultimate arbiter on what he or she appreciates most.

This book has two great features going for it. There is a (brief) synopsis of probably every opera in the repretoire. Yes, they leave a lot out, but there's enough detail, I think, to prepare yourself before attending a performance or listen to a recording. Each synopsis is followed by the author's commentary, and a brief list of reviews on CD. (which is obviously highly subjective, so longer reviews would have been more appreciated. One paragraph is about enough to say, "this was a good/bad performance." Hardly enough to go on to choose a recording.) I wouldn't make a decision to buy (or not buy) a recording based on their recommendations, but at least you can get an idea of what is available.

The really great thing about the book are various stories about opera stars and productions, such as some hilarious performances of "Tosca" and "Otello". I just coulnd't stop laughing about those stories.

Their treatment of Wagner, I thought, was pretty balanced, portraying him as a composer of great music, but much less than a great man. However, their commentary on Parsifal was unfair, making it seem like a "pro-Nazi" work, which it emphatically is not.

This is a very useful guide, improved in the second edition over the first. It gives informed and opinionated summaries of the history of opera and its major composers and works. It also has a useful glossary of terms, and potted summaries of major 20th century singers and conductors. Not complete, of course, (eg. Frederica von Stade mysteriously is not included among the singers, though her contributions to varioius recordings are always lauded.) It contains a remarkably extensive survey of 2oth century opera (one is up to the Russian late 19th c. composers by the mid point of the book). The groupings are sometimes strange -- bel canto is tacked onto romantic operas --but it gives one of the best short critical and informed discussions of how opera has evolved with which I am familiar. The evaluations both of composers and of the selected operas are necessarily short, but still informative though I am not sure that the plot summaries really add very much. These bits are a great deal better than the typical discussion one finds in the booklets accompanying recordings or the contents of the program notes of most live performances. The recording reviews do give an indication of why the author made the first picks he did and some indication of what other recordings are available. On individual recordings, about as informative as (say) the Penguin guide. There is a strong liking for old recordings and the singers one suspects of Boyden's youth, and of recent operas. Overall, it is a great deal of fun. One doesn't have to agree with it to learn from it and enjoy it.

The value of this book depends on your interests and knowledge in opera. I agree with the previous reviewer on the books' strenghts so let me just emphasize the reasons why I din't like it: 1 - The authors defend their choices by stating that they do not know how to define the 100 best operas so they just pick the 100 essential ones. That seems silly to me. One could have objectively decided what are the 100 most performed or recorded operas and recomend their best recordings. That, I think, would have been a useful introductory text. 2 - Quite aside from the actual choices of operas the chosen recordings are, at times, quite idiosyncratic, just like in the original, full size, rough guide to the opera book. They seem to compensate the choices of modern operas for the "essential" repertoire by picking many old recordings for several of them. For these reasons I can not think of any group of people (begginers/experts/occasional collectors etc..) to whom I would recommend this book.

If you are new to the area and are going to buy only one book on Opera, this is the one. Essentially it is a book of recommendations - 100 CDs to buy and listen to: Fundamentally it is a well-written introduction to the music, the composers, librettos and performers. 100 Opera recordings have been selected, not for being the best, but for being "key works by seminal figures." The composers are arranged alphabetically (from Adam to Weill) and the works listed chronologically under each composer. The earliest opera listed is Monteverdi's, 'L'Orfeo', the most recent, Birtwistle's, 'Gawain'. Each recording is reviewed in approximately 500 words. This includes a listing of performers, a cover photograph (useful when searching in a shop, as I found out) and the most recent (almost) catalogue number. The reviews follow the formula of: Introduction, plot, significant points about the music/text and an assessment of the recommended performance. This works well: Context is given to the individual Opera (e.g. Britten is quoted on Tosca; you also find out which Opera was "too tough for the teeth of the Viennese" and who was called an "old crank") and some guide as to what to listen out for in the music (the "darting around" and "shimmering orchestral textures" of Ligeti; the "exhilarating" role of Canio in 'I Pagliacci' requiring "stamina, flexibility and power"; the strings imitating the breezes, the bassoon used for comedy/ horn for more serious episodes in Mozart's 'Cosi fan tutti' - credited with being "the most perfect ensemble opera ever written"). The recordings are selected intelligently to give as wide a range of performers and performing styles as possible whilst preserving the quality of both performance and recording. They really are benchmarks against which other recordings and live performances can be measured! All 100 should remain in the catalogues of both Europe and North America for a long time (although the selection criteria mean the listed performances are frequently top price). I already own a number of the recordings (some on records) and agreed with what was said about them. As a test of the book, I slipped a copy into my trouser pocket (it is that small), went off to the only decent music store in Moscow (Melodyia) and selected two recordings I would not normally have considered buying - both turned out to be absolute gems! A word of warning - one of the recordings has already changed its cover (the book warns this can happen) but the listings were detailed enough for me to identify it without any problem. I am really impressed by the range of selection, the clarity of the writing, the handy, well-made format - and the price - of this book. It will be an essential guide (not dictator) to my purchasing over the next few years (and the Rough Guide to 100 Classical CDs is almost as good).

This book is a snore and a half because it does not depict the composers life in a realistic view. The auther must have read an encyclopedia exert and then thought he knew enough about him to write a book, because the book can be summerized into 1 scentance and that scentance would be Richard Struass was a great composer. All in all I am very disappointed in this book.

This is a fascinating, impressively researched, balanced biography of Richard Strauss. The author clearly appreciates Strauss's music, but refuses to either gloss over or demonize Strauss's personal flaws, anti-Semitism, or involvement with the Nazis. (Strauss was not a party member; his involvement with the Nazis was in part because of career pragmatism, in part because of his interest in composers' rights, and, well, in part because he agreed with their cultural agenda.) He was a great composer and an outstanding conductor, but hardly a hero.

Until reading this, my knowledge of Strauss was limited mostly to various album notes and a few encyclopedia articles. I'd heard that some biographies trash him, and some are basically a whitewash. I'm glad I chose this one. It gives a comprehensive view of his influences and his life. Other composers had spectacular flaws; Strauss's reputation has probably suffered disproportionately.

Be warned: this is a thesis. You will experience the horror of endnotes. I don't know why Northeastern University Press didn't turn these into footnotes; perhaps some editor there has a fetish for turning back and forth between pages. Given that some chapters have over 50 endnotes, you're forced to either ignore them, read them all at once out of context, or place a post-it on the appropriate endnotes page and flip back and forth. Pointlessly annoying.

Although this is not always a fast read, especially because of the endnotes, toward the end it does become a page-turner. The epilogue, with the author's conclusions, is impressive.

If you love Strauss's music and want to know more, this is worth buying.

M. Brian Kelly

In a fairly straightforward biography emphasizing the composition and production of Strauss's music, this book also looks unblinkingly at his anti-Semitism (which diminished after the birth of his two adored half-Jewish grandsons) and at his confused and confusing involvement with Hitler's Third Reich. The music is lovingly and skilfully described. This is the portrait of a man who is utterly devoted to his art and his family, and who is all too human when confronted with the political pressures bearing on them.