Hugh Vickers

A delightful collection of anecdotes to dip into, particularly if you need cheering up! "Some of the events in this book are well documented and incontrovertibly true; others have a basis in truth but have been somewhat embellished along the way; still others are almost certainly apocryphal". You don't have to be an opera lover to enjoy this book. The disasters are technical not artistic and really very funny!

the buffa in Opera

This is a collection of anecdotes relating to opera and the staging of these great productions. In anything so elaborate as most of the nineteenth-century operas are the margin for error is enormous. These stories are hilarious - especially so to any opera afficianado.