I first read Edith Hamilton‘s classic book on Greek mythology about sixty years ago.

What better beach read than a juicy diva autobiography?

The earliest days of recording told by F.W. Gaisberg, the man who recorded Patti, Melba, Moreschi, and Tamagno among many others.

(What else?)

A juicy, guilty pleasure read!

Alex Ross wrote an exciting, gorgeously detailed examination of, for better or worse, Ricky’s far reaching influence on music, theatre, architecture, film, literature, mental illness, Satanism, Homosexuality, and rough sex.

Julian Budden‘s masterful, three-volume analysis of the entire Verdi oeuvre is fascinating reading.

Fascinating account of the role of musical theater in an uneasy context of art emerging from the conflict and resolutions of high culture and popular sentimentality in an era where elites were challenged by political instability.

I think most of us have come around to recognizing John Adams‘s Doctor Atomic the masterpiece that it is.