Customer Reviews

Stories from the Opera

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Barefoot Book of Stories from the Opera Retold By Shahrukh Husain, Illustrated by James Mayhew is just the book for parents and kids alike, as you will learn the stories of seven of the world's favorite operas. Because operas are usually sung in foreign languages many people don't feel they are sophistocated enough to understand and so deprive themselves of this beautiful music genre. How wonderful if we had each learned to appreciate opera as children. This is the book to do it. Included are two CD's in which the stories in the book are read, so children can listen without adult participation. However, I felt this is the only thing lacking in the collection: I would have preferred to have the CD play the opera music while the child or adult reads the book. Of course, the opera music and videos are available in most libraries. The end notes of the book tell about famous opera houses of the world and about each of the composers of the seven operas in the book. This is a valuable book for any age.

I purchased this book when preparing to teach a unit on the history of music at a small part-time private school. The book is a good introduction to the stories of the opera but the illustrations are what really drew me in. Such beautiful colorplates! Amazing! The artistic layout and illustrations make the book-helped the stories come alive! The writing sometimes gets a bit scattered...perhaps if an extra page or so were given to each story, a bit more detail in the right places could have provided a better understanding of the plot. Not to criticize the author, no small feat to take a complicated storyline/plot and summarize it in a suitable manner for children... The accompanying CD was a bit disappointing-I was expecting to hear selections from each opera but instead it is a recording of the written book with about a 10 second bit of instrumental (no vocals) music at the end of each story. Would have been great if the recording were interspersed with corresponding selections of the actual opera soundtrack. HOWEVER-I would highly recommend this book because the illustrations are enough to inspired interest in the opera and children will greatly enjoy the stories-read aloud, or as a recorded book with accompanying CD.

This was a Christmas present to a friend who is an opera buff and has a young daughter.