Listen to New Releases Audiobooks in Arts & Entertainment, Music

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Title: Leoncavallo: Pagliacci

Author: Thomson Smillie

Narrator: David Timson

Format: Original Recording

Length: 1 hr and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 10-26-12

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

Pagliacci may be the most completely compelling short opera in the repertory and owes much of its impact to a brilliant story based, it is said, on true life and told through the device of a play-within-a-play. The action is set in Calabria in the deep south of Italy where the jealousies and illicit passions of a troupe of strolling actors precisely intersect with the play they are performing - to both touching and tragic effect. Leoncavallo was his own librettist, and his literary skills, allied to great melodic creativity, guarantee that in its two short acts Pagliacci - Clowns - delivers an overwhelming emotional experience.

Editorial Reviews:

Pagliacci, which means Clown, is composer and librettist Leoncavallo's tragic short opera, written in the late 1800's. If you don't know the opera already, you will be entranced by the first notes of the tenor aria, which opens the audiobook. The music is romantic and heart-wrenching, and narrator David Timson quickly pulls listeners into details of the opera's setting, music, and history. He's narrating the work of expert music historian Thomas Smillie, who is unparalleled in his knowledge of opera. Timson's voice gives the educational book a fun, lighthearted appeal. Listener get to know each character in the opera intimately, enriching their experience of the music tenfold. Opera lovers and those new to the genre will be equally satisfied with this thorough introduction to Pagliacci.

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Title: The Barber of Seville

Author: Thomson Smillie

Narrator: David Timson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-26-12

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

The Barber of Seville is Rossinis most popular opera. Its effervescent overture (written originally for another work!) presents a perfect platform for the amusing plot in which the barber, Figaro, stage-manages a romance between Count Almaviva and Rosina, and puts to flight the old suitor, Dr Bartolo. "Largo al Factotum" is one of the most popular arias in opera - nearly 200 years after its first performance it is still one of the great show-stoppers.

But why was the opera received with boos and catcalls at its first performance in 1816, and why did Rossini return to the plot and environment presented so sublimely by Mozart? Opera writer Thomson Smillie and actor David Timson present the background in their informative but entertaining manner.

Editorial Reviews:

Narrator David Timson's joie de vivre is contagious as he performs Thomson Smillie's informative and charming exploration of Rossini's most popular opera, The Barber of Seville. Timson shares Smillie's fascinating trivia with a flourish, including how the Rossini crescendo was not actually invented by Rossini, as well as how the opera was received with boos and catcalls at its first performance in 1816. This audiobook is sure to inspire an appreciation for this amusing opera, and listeners new to The Barber of Seville will find themselves holding their breath upon hearing "Largo al Factotum", still one of the most show-stopping arias in the history of opera.

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Title: Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro

Author: Thomson Smillie

Narrator: David Timson

Format: Original Recording

Length: 1 hr and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-26-12

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

Many opera-lovers would name The Marriage of Figaro as their favorite opera. It appeals to the most intellectual listener, but also to music-lovers seeking great melodies and ensembles (while it remains accessible through its fascinating plot and memorable characters) and to those seeking only entertainment. One of three operas by Mozart to libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte, it represents one of the pinnacles not just of operatic but of human achievement.

Editorial Reviews:

Thomson Smillies series of Opera Explained audiobooks on individual operatic works is the perfect introduction for the would-be opera fan. Each title in the series runs about an hour, features plenty of recorded clips, and is narrated with pluck and good humor by David Timson. Your opera education starts here.

Praised by many as the single greatest opera ever, The Marriage of Figaro may be Mozarts finest achievement. Premiering in Vienna in 1786, the opera was based on a play and depicted a servant - Figaro - outsmarting his master. The most casual listener will recognize several pieces from the opera, including its explosive overture.

Members Reviews:

Not the audio that it promised.

The file was corrupted and it crashed the app. Do not download this file. now I have to figure out how to get a refund.

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Title: Tancredi

Author: Thomson Smillie

Narrator: David Timson

Format: Original Recording

Length: 1 hr and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-26-12

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

Rossinis comic operas, like The Barber of Seville, are better known than his tragedies though he wrote in fact many more tragedies than comedies. One of them, his last, William Tell, is actually credited with launching the whole age of Grand Opéra. Tancredi is an early work - indeed his first smash hit - and it established his international fame. It has all the youthful verve of the comedies allied to a sure dramatic sense, and several of the arias, including the famous "Di tanti palpiti", are magnificent examples of the sort of virtuoso vocal writing that earns the title bel canto: beautiful singing, first and last.

Editorial Reviews:

Despite the many tragic operas written by Gioachino Rossin, he is best known for his comedies like The Barber of Seville and Tancredi, which launched him to international prominence. Thomson Smillie provides a brief history of Rossino's life and career before conducting a comprehensive synopsis of Tancredi's plot, which is interspersed with beautiful performances of Rossino's work. David Timson proves a valuable match for Smillie, as he performs his descriptions with a delicate and unassuming grace. There's a lightness and joy to Timson's style that seems to take delight in the wondrous music that abounds in Tancredi: Opera Explained.

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Title: Werther

Author: Thomson Smillie

Narrator: David Timson

Format: Original Recording

Length: 1 hr and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-26-12

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

Massenets Werther combines a deeply tender story with music of beauty and eloquence. One act alone contains two of the greatest arias in the repertoire: the mezzo-soprano aria "Va! Laisse couler mes larmes" and the tenors "Pourquoi me rèveiller". In their sentimental power and melodic richness these arias encapsulate the qualities that account for the universal popularity of this great work.

Editorial Reviews:

As part of the Opera Explained series, experienced radio broadcaster and voice talent David Timson delivers a Thomson Smillie lecture on the 19th-century opera Werther. Jules Massenet was one of the most successful composers of 19th-century France and Werther one of his most celebrated works.

With lush audio clips from relevant operas this lecture guides you through the history of the French opera from the 17th century up through Werthers time and the Grand Operas of the Palais Garnier in Paris. The tragic love plot of Werther, based on the novel by Goethe, is explained and dissected alongside Massanets compositional techniques. Timsons engaging performance along with the sumptuous sound clips provide a palpable history lesson and aural treat for any lover of great opera.

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Title: Verdi: Il Trovatore

Author: Thomson Smillie

Narrator: David Timson

Format: Original Recording

Length: 1 hr and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-26-12

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

Il Trovatore has been ruthlessly parodied. It is a tale of murder and mayhem, burned babies, roasted hags, would-be nuns, strolling minstrels, and bad baritones. And indeed the libretto does call for a willing suspension of disbelief. The reward is in the music, a score as prodigally melodic as only the mature Verdi could write: the "Anvil" chorus, the "Miserere" scene, two great tenor arias, a beautiful baritone aria - a richness without embarrassment.

Editorial Reviews:

Thomson Smillies series of Opera Explained audiobooks on individual operatic works is the perfect introduction for the would-be opera fan. Each title in the series runs about an hour, features plenty of recorded clips, and is narrated with pluck and good humor by David Timson. Your opera education starts here.

Following its 1853 premiere, Verdis Il Trovatore, or "The Troubador", has been an opera staple. Set in the 15th century, the opera features a wild plot full of gypsies, executions, and other feats of high drama. When you hear someone making fun of opera for its outlandishness, Il Trovatore is probably the object of their ridicule. But it also features some of operas greatest works, including the Anvil chorus and soaring pieces for soprano voices.

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Title: Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division

Author: Peter Hook

Narrator: Peter Hook

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-11-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

Joy Division changed the face of music. Godfathers of the current alternative scene, they reinvented rock in the post-punk era, creating a new sound - dark, hypnotic, intense - that would influence U2, R.E.M., Radiohead, and many others.

Inspired by the attitude and energy of punk, Peter Hook and school friend Bernard Sumner joined lead-singer and lyricist Ian Curtis and drummer Stephen Morris, and with some cobbled-together instruments, they created their own unique sound. In 1980 they had released two albums and were on the cusp of touring America when Ian Curtis committed suicide. In this no-holds-barred account, Peter Hook gives us the inside story of life with Joy Division.

He talks with candour and reflection about Curtis's suicide and covers the band's friendships and fall-outs; their rehearsals and recording sessions; and the many larger-than-life characters that formed a vital part of the Joy Division legend.

Members Reviews:

Superb!

Hooky brings honesty,warmth,humour and intelligence to this book and his reading is great, like sitting in a warm pub on a winters day lunch time huddled over a beer with a great mate sharing fantastic stories.

Quite perfect

While I also bought the paper version of this, Peter Hook's narration tells you so much than he puts on the page and his fondness for Ian Curtis is so much clearer in his voice. And he is proper, sweary funny. I have a bit of a crush.

A great listen regardless of being a fan or not

If you could sum up Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division in three words, what would they be?

Interesting witty insightfull

Who was your favorite character and why?

It has to be Peter Hook really

Have you listened to any of Peter Hooks other performances? How does this one compare?

I've not listened to any

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I almost did and had to fight myself not to. I bought this book specifically to listen to durring a long journey I had to make and thought I'd have a sneaky listen the day before. BIG MISTAKE I couldn't stop listening to it and ended up having to download another book for my journey

Any additional comments?

I think as boys growing up thinking how cool it would be to be in a band and how you'd live the high life this book shows how wrong this perception can be. These guys did it for the love of doing it, their naivety of the industry and even making music is refreshing in a day of manufactured rubbish that is x factor and pop idol. Its a bygone age that brought us a wealth of music with a heart which is quite a depressing thought in itself.

Heart and Soul

Listening to Peter Hook reading brought humour, unexpected warmth, and depth to this incredible story

great and truthful and frank insight to the group.

great insight into the great band and find tourcherd souls. Missy have been an adventure and great insight to the Manchester scene

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Title: Group Harmony: The Black Urban Roots of Rhythm and Blues

Author: Stuart L. Goosman

Narrator: Armand Hutton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-23-12

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

In 1948, the Orioles, a Baltimore-based vocal group, recorded "It's Too Soon to Know". Combining the sound of Tin Pan Alley with gospel and blues sensibilities, the Orioles saw their first hit reach #13 on the pop charts, thus introducing the nation to vocal rhythm & blues and paving the way for the most successful groups of the 1950s.

In the first scholarly treatment of this influential musical genre, Stuart Goosman chronicles the Orioles' story and that of myriad other black vocal groups in the postwar period. A few, like the Orioles, Cardinals, and Swallows from Baltimore and the Clovers from Washington, D.C., established the popularity of vocal rhythm & blues nationally. Dozens of other well-known groups (and hundreds of unknown ones) across the country cut records and performed until about 1960. Record companies initially marketed this music as rhythm & blues; today, group harmony continues to resonate for some as "doo-wop".

Focusing in particular on Baltimore and Washington and drawing significantly from oral histories, Group Harmony details the emergence of vocal rhythm & blues groups from black urban neighborhoods. Group harmony was a source of empowerment for young singers, for it provided them with a means of expression and some aspect of control over their lives where there were limited alternatives. Through group harmony, young black males celebrated and musically confounded, when they could not overcome, complex issues of race, separatism, and assimilation during the postwar period.

Group harmony also became a significant resource for the popular music industry. Goosman interviews dozens of performers, deejays, and industry professionals to examine the entrepreneurial promise of midcentury popular music and chronicle the convergence of music, place, and business, including the business of records, radio, promotion, and song writing.

Featured in the book's account of the black urban roots of rhythm & blues are the recollections of singers from groups such as the Cardinals, Clovers, Dunbar Four, Four Bars of Rhythm, Five Blue Notes, Hi Fis, Plants, Swallows, and many others, including Jimmy McPhail, a well-known Washington vocalist; Deborah Chessler, the manager and songwriter for the original Orioles; Jesse Stone, the writer and arranger from Atlantic Records; Washington radio personality Jackson Lowe; and seminal black deejays Al ("Big Boy") Jefferson, Maurice ("Hot Rod") Hulbert, and Tex Gathings.

The book is published by University of Pennsylvania Press.

Critic Reviews:

"A must read for serious students of black music history." (Journal of African American History)

"An important and valuable contribution to the literature of twentieth-century popular music." (American Historical Review)

"A groundbreaking study." (Popular Music and Society)

Members Reviews:

Hidden Harmony

A book for those who follow real doop-wop, meaning the 5 part harmony that many little known black groups brought to popularity. Books covers many well known and lesser known groups. Explains where the sound came from and the influence of gospel/sacred music to early R & B.

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Title: The Pogues' 'Rum, Sodomy & the Lash' (33 1/3 Series)

Author: Jeffrey T. Roesgen

Narrator: John Keating

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-26-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

To absorb Rum, Sodomy, & the Lash is to be taken on a wild voyage with a cast of downtrodden revolutionaries. Despite this notion, the epic themes of the Pogues' second full length record have been overlooked by both critics and biographers in favor of two things: the band's penchant for combining Celtic folk with punk rhythms ("the sound") and the excesses of Shane MacGowan ("the creator"). Instead of reiterating these aspects, this book discusses, in the form of a sea-faring narrative, the record's articulation of what it is found to be magnificently trodden. Through epic imagery gracing the cover of the album and reverberating throughout the lyrics, Roesgen's book shows that what the Pogues created is far more than pub-room music created by drunken men wallowing in Irish nostalgia and pining for something subversive.

Editorial Reviews:

John Keatings nimble, Irish-accented performance is well-suited for this critical appreciation of the legendary Celtic-punk bands 1985 album.

Part of the 33 1/3 series, The Pogues' 'Rum, Sodomy & the Lash' looks at the Pogues second studio album, which was ranked among the top 500 albums of all time by Rolling Stone. Author Jeffrey T. Roesgen mixes his track-by-track discussion of the album with a fictional story, inspired by the album artwork, of a disastrous sea journey to Africa.

Keating alternates between a steady expository tone in the books critical passages and a more expansive, dramatic voice in narrative passages and descriptions of the ocean.

Members Reviews:

Highly recommended!

The author's literary conceit is both innovative & compelling. At first it seemed as though I might end up agreeing with those critics who found fault with his novelistic approach but I was won over by his originality. Can think of no other title in the 33 1/3 series (and I've read quite a few) which pursues a similar tack.

More Analysis, Less Story Please

The 33 1/3 series has taken on the classic Pogues album Rum, Sodomy & The Lash by Jeffery T. Roesgen. There have been many different approaches in this series-some that are traditional critical discussions others are more artistic. For example, Joe Pernice wrote a very entertaining novella about The Smith's album Meat Is Murder. Colin Meloy, of the Decembrists, wrote a compelling personal memoir about The Replacements' seminal album Let It Be. Roesgen tried to combine the two styles by writing a short story using historical references form sources of the painting used as the cover art about a disastrous sea voyage to Africa that ended in cannibalism and tragedy. I found myself skipping the narrative and reading the discussions of the songs from the album that were referenced by a number of sources and gave a lot of insight into the conception of the album. I think it would have been better id the author had focused on that and left the story of the ship, The Medusa out of it completely.

Not Worth a Fiver in the Dark of an Alley

The majority of this book is a fictional sea story that's based on the Pogues' classic record. Unfortunately, the story is unintelligible unless (presumably?) you already know all the stuff the author should have included.

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Title: Sly and the Family Stone's 'There's a Riot Goin' On' (33 1/3 Series)

Author: Miles Marshall Lewis

Narrator: Bill Quinn

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 07-26-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

The story behind the making of the album that signaled the descent of Sylvester Sly Stone Stewart into a haze of drug addiction and delirium is captivating enough for the cinema. In the spacious attic of a Beverly Hills mansion belonging to John and Michelle Phillips (of the Mamas and the Papas), during the fall of 1970, Sly Stone began recording his follow-up to 1969's Stand!, the most popular album of his band's career.

Editorial Reviews:

Narrator Bill Quinn's conversational tone quickly builds a rapport with listeners, which suits the intimate feel of this analysis of Sly and the Family Stone's infamous fifth album There's a Riot Goin' On. Using his own personal history to introduce and examine Sly's importance to his fans and to African American culture in general, writer Miles Marshall Lewis sets up the colorful background of the album's recording. Quinn provides an earnest counterpoint to Lewis' critical eye, although he applies a more somber tone to the stories about Sly's tragic descent into drug addiction. Fans will particularly enjoy the perceptive song analyses which Quinn convincingly delivers.

Members Reviews:

Terrific overview of Sly and the making of an iconic album

completely satisfied w/ this purchase...very entertaining read.

Five Stars

Excellent

AVOID THIS CRAPPY BOOK

Riot is one of my favorite records, and there has been very good articles about the chaoic making of this seminal LP. This is not one of them, in fact I think this one is a piece of garbage.

The writer usually uses artists from today to a-historically connect the dots between a product of the early 70s and a product of the late 90s using passages like "Unlike the self-taught Diddy's sampling production for his early hits by the likes of Mary J Blidge, Sly had...." Please tell me what sense juxtaposing these two people makes at all as at the time of "There's a Riot Goin On" Sean Puffy Combs was 2 years old, and Mary J Blidge was barely born as well. Ugh, this writer always does this too. It is always the "Badu-ness" of this, the author making some imaginary link between Riot and LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" or even the connection Sly has to Hip Hop via Freddy "Rerun" Berry on What's Happening. They must have paid this author by the word.

As a reader, I know it was a seminal record or I wouldn't have bought the stinkin' book off the internet. So talk about the record, don't just blather on about Music and Social History you don't really know then lift all your relevant information from other already published texts.

In the end, the writer lifts 80% of his informative information from the For The Record series by Dave Marsh. If you want to know about this record find the Marsh text that actually covers the entire arch of the band front to back or at least, find the Mojo article (which also draws heavily from the Marsh text, but is fairly hip about it).

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!

A Riot in Meditation

Miles Marshall Lewis tackles the challenge of writing about Sly and the Family Stone's infamous fifth album "There's a Riot Goin' On" (1971) in a very personable way.