`Joyce Bourne has rightly identified a gap in the operaphile’s library’ ~ BBC Music Magazine

"Who Married Figaro" ~ Joyce Bourne

Here is a marvelous guide to over 2,500 operatic characters, along with invaluable synopses of over 250 major works. Each entry provides a full description of the role, indicates its vocal category, and discusses who first created the part and other notable performers.

Previously titled Who’s Who in Opera, this new edition has been revised and fully updated, with a fascinating new appendix of contemporary operas of the last ten years, including detailed synopses and world premiere cast lists, plus a list of opera-related web links. The book remains a gold mine of information on opera characters, ranging from brief identifications of minor characters to extensive multipage essays of major figures. Best of all, the volume boasts more than two dozen feature articles on major characters such as Brunnhilde and Violetta, written by well-known personalities who themselves constitute a who’s who of opera. Readers will find Placido Domingo writing on the character of Otello, perhaps his greatest role. Bryn Terfel writes on Leporello, Janet Baker on Mary Stuart, Thomas Hampson on Posa, and Theodore Uppman on Billy Budd. Other contributors include Andrew Porter, Sena Junnac, Philip Langridge, Jonathan Miller, Sir Charles MacKerras, and Marie McLaughlin. New to this edition are articles by America opera stars Christine Brewer and the charismatic Joyce DiDonato. Taken together, these special articles reveal much about the creative process behind some of the most famous performances in opera history.

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The Naked Voice ~ W. Stephen Smith

Joyce’s voice teacher, W. Stephen Smith, invites all singers to improve their vocal technique through his renowned and time-tested wholistic method. Focusing not only on the most important technical, but also on the often overlooked psychological and spiritual elements of learning to sing, his book allows readers to develop their own full and individual identities as singers. With philosophies and techniques drawn from a lifetime of teaching voice, Smith demonstrates how one can reveal the true unique sound of one’s own voice by singing with the whole self. The master’s method, presented in concrete and comprehensible terms with helpful illustrations, is enhanced by a CD containing exercises performed by singers from Smith’s own studio-singers whose talent and training bring them across the country and around the world. The clear and easy style of The Naked Voice welcomes the reader into Smith’s teaching studio, and into conversation with Smith himself as he presents the six simple and elegant exercises that form the core of his method. These exercises provide a foundation for free singing, and lead singers through the step-by-step process of mastering the technique. Throughout, Smith speaks sympathetically and encouragingly to the singer in search of an unencumbered and effective approach to the art. The Naked Voice is a must-read for all singers, giving teachers and students, amateurs and professionals, access to the methods and concepts that have earned Smith his reputation as one of the most highly-sought-after vocal instructors in the international arena today.

“With The Naked Voice, Steve Smith has given each singer who reads this book a precious gift: one that not only gives insight into the seemingly elusive term of vocal technique, but one that grants individual artists the license to express themselves freely, live meaningful lives, and let their naked voices rattle into the rafters. ”
~ Joyce DiDonato, Mezzo-Soprano

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Currently only available in German, but the English version is on it’s way!

Der Oper kocht ~ Evelyn Rillé and Johannes Ifkovits

Join Joyce and your other favorite singers on the International Circuit as they share their best family recipes with vibrant pictures and tantalizing recipes from borscht to guacamole to Joyce’s signature cinnamon rolls!

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Joyce is a featured artist in this fascinating collection of 20 wide-ranging interviews with the preeminent opera professionals working on and behind the stage today.

Living Opera ~ Joshua Jampol

Joshua Jampol invites opera-lovers to listen in as performers such as Renée Fleming, Natalie Dessay, Rolando Villazon and Placido Domingo speak in exceptionally frank terms about their strengths and weaknesses, and address such hard-hitting, enduring topics as how they deal with critics, vocal troubles, and balancing their career and family lives. We hear conductors such as James Conlon, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Kent Nagano discuss their likes and dislikes about the state of contemporary opera, their own inspirations, and whom they themselves hope to inspire. World-class directors such as Robert Carsen and Patrice Chéreau discuss the complexities involved in staging a successful opera, and how opera can remain relevant today. Jampol has unprecedented access to these major singers, conductors, and directors, and the table of contents reads like a “who’s who” of the global opera world.

Each interview highlights a distinctive voice, and Jampol brings immense knowledge and a wonderful flair to these conversations. He allows his subjects to follow their thoughts wherever they lead, and reveals in the process a more intimate, reflective side of the emotional and extravagant world of the lyric arts.

For anyone wanting to know more about the people behind the performances–what they think, how they feel, and who they really are–Living Opera is full of delights and surprises.

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International Best Seller and self-proclaimed “Handel Freak” dedicates her latest sensation to Joyce DiDonato.

A Question of Belief ~ Donna Leon

Set during an oppressive Venetian August, Leon’s masterful 19th Commisario Guido Brunetti mystery (after 2009′s About Face) presents Brunetti with two puzzles that impinge on his most intimate beliefs. Close associate Ispettore Vianello, who’s worried about his elderly aunt’s involvement with an astrologer, nudges Brunetti toward ruminations on the differences in male and female evidences of affection. Meanwhile, Toni Brusca, head of employment records at the Commune, who’s perplexed by a female judge’s erratic court case postponements, surprises Brunetti by implying that a woman could be more criminal than a man. Brunetti patiently untangles a sordid skein of desires warped, trusts abused, and loves distorted into depravity. As one good man who still believes in the rule of law despite his disgust at Italy’s mounting corruption, Brunetti allows readers to share his belief that decency and honesty can, for a little while, stave off the angst of the modern world. (May)

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