Performing arts

This concise version of the acclaimed Oxford Companion to the Theatre covers all aspects of theatre worldwide and throughout the ages. It contains entries on a vast range of theatrical styles, dramatists, performers, and directors, as well as information on theatres, festivals, and such technical topics as lighting, sound, and method acting. Entries on people and places include Athol Fugard, Anthony Hopkins, Glenda Jackson, Derek Jacobi, Harvey Fierstein, Helen Mirren, Trevor Nunn, Peter O'Toole, Willy Russell, and Stephen Sondheim, Barbican Theatre, The English Shakespeare Company, Michael Gambon, The Swan at Stratford, and the Shubert theatre in New York.

This exciting theatre companion, edited by a former literary manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company, includes over 2500 entries that range widely over theatre in the last century. It features not only exceptional scholarly entries, but a series of fascinating boxed essays written by active professional theatre insiders, including Arnold Wesker writing on playwriting, Ben Kingsley on preparing a part, and Daniel Massey on performing Shaw. The Companion is wide-ranging in geographical scope, with entries on “Portuguese-Speaking African Theatre” and “Arab Theatre”, as well as current, with entries on “Digital performance” and the “Internet”. This is a must-have resource for anyone interested in theatre, professionals, amateurs, and scholars alike.

‘A must-have volume’ The Times

The second edition of this dictionary is a unique single volume reference on all aspects of dance performance. The work covers all aspects of the diverse dance world from classical ballet to modern, from flamenco to hip-hop, from tap to South Asian dance forms and includes detailed entries on technical terms, steps, styles, works, and countries, in addition to many biographies of dancers, choreographers, and companies.

Fans today are likely to attend performances as varied as Indian bharata natyam, Japanese butoh, and post-modern dance. With an emphasis on performance—the dance we see in our theatres today—readers will find both fact and analysis on a wide range of subjects.

With 150 new entries, this new edition charts developments that have occurred over the last ten years, including the rise of new digital technology in the creation and staging of dance and the move to the mainstream of formerly fringe genres such as hip-hop, as well as the arrival of a new generation of dancers and choreographers to the scene.

This dictionary comprises authoritative, highly accessible entries on styles, dramatists, performers, companies, and organizations related to the performing arts. These entries are supplementary to other performing arts titles in the Quick Reference collection, and are written by specialist authors. The dictionary is an ongoing project, and more entries will be added over time.

“The Grove Book of Operas, Second Edition, should be on every opera-lover's short list of indispensable reference books. Highly recommended. ” - Gary Hoffman, Opera Today. First published in 1996 to great critical and popular acclaim, the Grove Book of Operas, is a collection of synopses and descriptions of over 250 operas. Each succinct yet insightful entry is written by a leading authority on the opera and includes a full synopsis of the plot, a cast list, a note on the singers in the original production, and information on the origins of the work and its literary and social background. Contributions conclude with a brief comment on the particular work's place in operatic history. The second edition brings the book up to date with several recently composed operas. Recent additions to the operatic repertory included for the first time in this edition include Nicholas Maw, Sophie's Choice; Poul Ruders, A Handmaid's Tale; John Adams, Death of Klinghoffer; and Mark Adamo, Little Women. Covering all operas in the current repertory along with some less-well-known early and very modern ones, this is an ideal volume for the general opera lover.

1998 Choice Outstanding Academic Book

1998 Library Journal Best Reference

1998 ALA/RUSA Outstanding Reference Source

With nearly 2,000 articles written by scholars from fifty countries, the Encyclopedia covers the full spectrum of dance—theatrical, ritual, dance-drama, folk, traditional, ethnic, and social dance. Cultural and national overviews are accompanied by entries on dance forms, music and costumes, performances, and biographies of dancers and choreographers.

‘a reference book for operaphiles...the answer to a prayer for those who attend operas without doing their homework properly’ - Sir George Christie

A unique and authoritative A-Z reference work that will answer all your questions on who's who in opera. Contains over 2,500 lively entries on operatic characters, with information on the creator of the role and notable performances. From Aeneas to Zaida, A Dictionary of Opera Characters provides extensive coverage of all the characters in operas from around the world and gives synopses for over 200 operas and operettas. It includes feature articles written by well-known personalities from the world of opera, such as Placido Domingo and Dame Janet Baker, plus, new to this edition, articles contributed by Christine Brewer and Joyce DiDonato.

Recommended opera-related web links are listed for relevant and up-to-date extra information. This book is an invaluable source of reference for professionals and amateurs alike, and a fascinating read for anyone curious about opera, for example, who did marry Figaro?

Covering over 1500 singers from the birth of opera to the present day, this marvellous volume will be an essential resource for all serious opera lovers and an indispensable companion to the enormously successful Grove Book of Operas (also in Oxford Reference Online: Premium Collection).

The most comprehensive guide to opera singers ever produced, this volume offers an alphabetically arranged collection of authoritative biographies that range from Marion Anderson (the first African American to perform at the Met) to Benedict Zak (the classical tenor and close friend and colleague of Mozart). Readers will find fascinating articles on such opera stars as Maria Callas and Enrico Caruso, Ezio Pinza and Fyodor Chaliapin, Lotte Lehmann and Jenny Lind, Lily Pons and Luciano Pavarotti. The profiles offer basic information such as birth date, vocal style, first debut, most memorable roles, and much more. But these articles often go well beyond basic biographical information to offer colourful portraits of the singer's personality and vocal style, plus astute evaluations of their place in operatic history and many other intriguing observations. Many entries also include suggestions for further reading, so that anyone interested in a particular performer can explore their life and career in more depth. The articles are mostly drawn from the acclaimed Grove Music Online and have been fully revised, and the book is further supplemented by more than 40 specially commissioned articles on contemporary singers.

A superb new guide from the first name in opera reference, The Grove Book of Opera Singers is a lively and authoritative work. It is an essential volume for opera lovers everywhere.

First published in 1984, Gerald Bordman's Oxford Companion to American Theatre is the standard one-volume source on American theatre. Critics have hailed its “wealth of authoritative information” (Back Stage), its “fascinating picture of the volatile American stage” (The Guardian), and its “well-chosen, illuminating facts” (Newsday).

This online edition was reviewed and selectively updated by the original authors in 2011.

Now thoroughly revised, this distinguished volume once again provides an up-to-date guide to the American stage from its beginnings to the present. Completely updated by theater professor Thomas Hischak, the volume includes playwrights, plays, actors, directors, producers, songwriters, famous playhouses, dramatic movements, and much more. The book covers not only classic works (such as Death of a Salesman) but also many commercially successful plays (such as Getting Gertie's Garter), plus entries on foreign figures that have influenced our dramatic development (from Shakespeare to Beckett and Pinter). New entries include recent plays such as Angels in America and Six Degrees of Separation, performers such as Eric Bogosian and Bill Irwin, playwrights like David Henry Hwang and Wendy Wasserstein, and relevant developments and issues including AIDS in American theatre, theatrical producing by Disney, and the rise in solo performance. Accessible and authoritative, this valuable A-Z reference is ideal not only for students and scholars of theater, but everyone with a passion for the stage.

TheOxford Companion to Indian Theatre is the first reference work embracing both rural and urban modes of Indian theatre spanning its entire history of over 2000 years. Now accessible online for the first time as part of Oxford’s Reference Library, this comprehensive title consists of 750 entries encompassing forms and personalities across India geographically and historically, in twenty-two languages, according to their contribution to the tradition. In keeping with the highest standards of international reference publishing, the editor has compiled and edited this material from 63 contributors. The theatre defined here spans not just conventional proscenium drama, and devotional and secular rural performing genres, but also musical forms such as Kirtan, dance theatre such as Kathakali, and oral narrative such as Katha Kalakshepam, all of which contain theatres' most fundamental element.