"The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera" definitely needs to be back in print. Compiled by Harold Rosenthal and John Warrack, there are over 3,000 entries covering pretty much exactly what you would want to find in such a volume: composers, singers, conductors, librettists, synopses, details of first performances, characters in operas, the first lines of famous arias, technical terms, and the history of opera in countries around the globe. You will also find a bibliography, a list of abbreviations and a key to vocal compasses. This is a comprehensive little book and its compact size makes it perfect to keep near your opera CDs for handy reference to look up everything from Aachen, a town in northwestern Germany with a small opera house with a high reputation as the cradle of many distinguished artists, to Zurich's Stadttheater, first opened in 1833. Rosnethal had been the official archivist at Covent Garden and an editor of "Opera" magazine, while Warrack worked in various opera companies as an orchestral player and was the music critic of the "Sunday Telegraph" for a decade. I have been using this book for over twenty years and the best thing I can say about it is that even when working at the computer, I turn to this reference guide before I search the internet for anything having to do with opera.