The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is just wonderful; it's like a "Cliff Note" of the opera, and extremely informative and educational. I particularly like the size; these guides are not cumbersome and fit right into my shirt pocket. The ladies will find sufficient room in their pocketbooks.

The story narrative with the music examples is excellent. I prefer it to a libretto; indeed, it's a much easier way to follow the essence of the story. The essay is magnificent; very well written, not pedantic, and extremely insightful and comprehensible. I congratulate Burton Fisher for a job very well done and Amazon for making these handy, information-laden booklets available. The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is a wonderful contribution to opera education and opera appreciation.

My tip: acquire the entire collection because you will be in easy reach of superbly presented opera guides consisting of story analysis, principal characters in the opera, story narrative with music highlights, background, analysis, and commentary.

Heinz Dinter, Ph.D.

This is a biography at once fascinating and charming: a source of fascination because one cannot help marvel at Mazzini's dogged refusal to give up hope of creating a brave new world in Italy, and charming because Mack Smith brings out the tension between Mazzini the somewhat desperate revolutionary in exile and Mazzini the courteous and likeable private individual. Of the three great men who created the Italian nation-state, Mazzini was both more honourable and less cynical than Cavour, and more humane and less hot-headed than Garibaldi. The contempt in which the new state held him after 1861 was little short of disgraceful, but this biography - well up to the standards of Mack Smith's other works on modern Italy - does a great deal to restore his reputation. If only Italy had had a Mazzini in the latter half of the 20th century.

The little book was well written and the pictures just enhanced the story. I enjoyed reading it and if you can look past the fact that it is written for children there are a lot of facts that are portrayed in a interesting fashion. I would add it to my collection and would read it again. It was inspiring!

From the back cover of "My Double unveiled" few short quotes written by scientists in the field:

``This book gives a very lucid presentation of a far reaching model for the brain functions, based on the theory of dissipative quantum processes. It is addressed to a general public, so that the main stress is on the basic concepts, without the exploitation of any explicite mathematical formalism. This has been quite a difficult enterprise, but the author succeded very well to convey the essential physical features participating to the model, in a way which is very clear and very deep.
It is worth to say that the book will be also well appreciated by physicist, and specialized people, for its clean conceptual presentation, and the availability of the mathematical formalism in the published scientific literature.
I think that the most important aspect of the book is to encourage the various scientific communities, as for example in Physics, Biology, Neurophysiology, Psycology, to reinforce a fruitful dialogue, based on the peculiar aspects of the various desciplines, and the comparison of different formulations of analogous concepts.
I also think that the young people can usefully benefit by reading this book, and meditating on the main issues. In particular, they will learn the beauty of working at the frontiers of knowledge, in a very important interdisciplinary field.
In conclusion, this book will be a very enjoyable and stimulating experience for a very large community of potential readers''.

Francesco Guerra
Department of Physics,
University of Roma "La Sapienza"

``...Prof. Vitiello writings provide a fundamental advance in the quantum theory of brain functioning, and astonishingly in the present book, without requiring any technical mathematics''.

Gordon Globus,
Irvine, USA

``...the clearest exposition of the theory of brain functions, based on highly abstract and mathematical theory of Quantum Fields. Professor Vitiello successfully carried out this difficult task without a single equation''.

Yasushi Takahashi,
Department of Physics,
University of Alberta

"My Double Unveiled" is an exciting and delightful book. The excitement stems from his innovative use of Quantum Field Theory (actually a doubling of such fields)to explain how brain processing can entail our awareness of our existential imbeddedness in the world and at the same time our awareness of the aware "self". The book is delightful in that it tells Vitiello's story without recourse to mathematical equations, a story of professors, students and colleagues working fruitfully to resolve the age old problem of human existance, as it has come down to us in terms of understanding how our brains allow such understanding.
Bravo!

Karl Pribram
Center for Brain Research and Informational Sciences
Radford University, Radford, USA

Mazzotta's latest creation has set the standard for Vican scholarship. A shift of the pendulum to a new paradigm of Vican philosophy for the new millennium!

One sleepy afternoon in Sant' Agata, Giuseppe Verdi's estate, Arrigo Boito, Verdi's former rival, came to call. He was there to ask Verdi to set two libretti he'd written on Shakespearean subjects to music. The request was, indeed, a great shock to both Boito and Verdi. Boito had, for many years, insisted that Verdi's work, in light of Wagner's innovations, was no longer of any importance. Yet with these libretti, Boito recognized the truth. Simply put, Verdi, and only Verdi, could compose these operas, and if Verdi would do so, the results would be monumental. Boy, what an understatement. Otello drips with innovation. It takes Wagner's techniques and applies them to Italian opera in an Italian way. The chromaticism, the leitmotifs, the thick orchestration, they are all there, but with an Italian sensibility. It also testifies not only to Verdi's great love of Shakespeare, but his depth of understanding Shakespeare, as well. This score "roars loud, and thunders in the index." Dover's edition is a reprint of an early Ricordi editon. Ricordi is the best source for Verdi, indeed all late romantic Italian opera, simply because Ricordi specialized in late Romantic Italian Opera, and understood the composers' wishes vis a vis their scores. For example, Giovanni Ricordi and Verdi, were good friends. The Dover edition is well crafted, easy to read, and printed on acid free paper, so it is resistant to fading. The score may be too big, and this book too small, to make it useful for the podium. Still, for the student and lover of opera, it is the non pareil.

The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is just wonderful; it's like a "Cliff Note" of the opera, and extremely informative and educational. I particularly like the size; these guides are not cumbersome and fit right into my shirt pocket. The ladies will find sufficient room in their pocketbooks.

The story narrative with the music examples is excellent. I prefer it to a libretto; indeed, it's a much easier way to follow the essence of the story. The essay is magnificent; very well written, not pedantic, and extremely insightful and comprehensible. I congratulate Burton Fisher for a job very well done and Amazon for making these handy, information-laden booklets available. The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is a wonderful contribution to opera education and opera appreciation.

My tip: acquire the entire collection because you will be in easy reach of superbly presented opera guides consisting of story analysis, principal characters in the opera, story narrative with music highlights, background, analysis, and commentary.

Heinz Dinter, Ph.D.

this subject is very important because all recent research give the first place to the uterine artery hemodynamic

This is an excellent translation of the libretto of a deservedly popular opera. Unlike many translations, this one is not at all stiff and formal; on the contrary, it flows, much like the opera itself. The Dover edition is a particulary nice size and weight, making it convenient to carry to the opera or to read while listening to a recording of it.

The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is just wonderful; it's like a "Cliff Note" of the opera, and extremely informative and educational. I particularly like the size; these guides are not cumbersome and fit right into my shirt pocket. The ladies will find sufficient room in their pocketbooks.

The story narrative with the music examples is excellent. I prefer it to a libretto; indeed, it's a much easier way to follow the essence of the story. The essay is magnificent; very well written, not pedantic, and extremely insightful and comprehensible. I congratulate Burton Fisher for a job very well done and Amazon for making these handy, information-laden booklets available. The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is a wonderful contribution to opera education and opera appreciation.

My tip: acquire the entire collection because you will be in easy reach of superbly presented opera guides consisting of story analysis, principal characters in the opera, story narrative with music highlights, background, analysis, and commentary.

Heinz Dinter, Ph.D.