There are few art forms as visceral and emotional as opera--and few that are as daunting for newcomers. A Mad Love offers a spirited and indispensable tour of opera's eclectic past and present, beginning with Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in 1607, generally considered the first successful opera, through classics like Carmen and La Boheme, and spanning to Brokeback Mountain and The Death of Klinghoffer in recent years. Musician and critic Vivien Schweitzer...

Luigi loves the opera. He listens to the musical stories in his grandpa's car. And on this special day, Grandpa Rigoletta is taking Luigi to a real opera performance about a ghost ship! Luigi and readers alike with learn what it means to visit the opera house, get dressed up, read a ticket and enjoy the show.

"User's guide to opera -- Matthew Aucoin, "the most promising operatic talent in a generation" (New York Times Magazine), describes the creation of his groundbreaking new work, Eurydice, and shares his reflections on the past, present, and future of opera"--

England, 1923. A gentleman critic named Leslie Shepherd tells the macabre story of a gifted young composer, Charles Jessold. On the eve of his revolutionary new opera's premiere, Jessold murders his wife and her lover, and then commits suicide in a scenario that strangely echoes the plot of his opera---which Shepherd had helped to write. The opera will never be performed.