The Opera

Opening night for the Santa Fe Opera is imminent (July 1). This year's five operas are:
  Turandot, by Puccini
  The Barber of Seville, by Rossini
  Lucio Silla, by Mozart
  Peter Grimes, by Britten, and
  Ainadamar, by Golijov.
       We have at the moment recordings for Peter Grimes, Turandot, and Barber of Seville, and are scrambling to get the other two. This may not be possible in the case of Ainadamar, about which the opera website says, "The 2005 season closes with the first fully staged production of Ainadamar (“The Fountain of Tears”) by composer Osvaldo Golijov and librettist David Henry Hwang." Same story on the libretti: we have libretti in hand for Turandot, Barber of Seville, and Peter Grimes, and are in pursuit of the other two. Ask for the libretti at the reference desk at any library branch.
       Need to do some serious reading up? We have a ton of books about opera, both for circulation and for reference, including at Main Library the New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Or just let Desirée Mays do your reading up for you, and check out her Opera Unveiled 2005. We just bought a pile of them, and they will be in the catalog and ready to check out in a day or so.
       This is cool. The Amazon website has sound clips for recordings of Peter Grimes, Barber of Seville, Turandot, and Lucio Silla.