Midsummer Nights: Tales from the Opera:: with Kate Atkinson, Sebastian Barry, Ali Smith & more - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847248047 ISBN 13: 9781847248046

Publisher: Quercus Publishing, 2009

Synopsis

In 2009, the Glyndebourne Festival of Opera reaches its 75th year. In commemoration of this event, Jeanette Winterson has brought together some of the best loved and most critically acclaimed authors writing today to pen stories inspired by opera. A foreword from Ralph Fiennes and an introduction by Jeanette Winterson are followed by: Alexander McCall Smith on Cosi Fan Tutte; Ali Smith on Fidelio; Andrew Motion on Peter Grimes; Andrew O'Hagan on Eugene Onegin; Ann Enright on Rusalka;; Colm Toibin on Pearl Fishers; Jackie Kay on The Makropulos Case; Joanna Trollope on L'Elisir d'Amore; John Mortimer on Cosi Fan Tutte; Julie Myerson on The Crowning of Poppaea; Kate Atkinson on La Traviata; Kate Mosse on Pelleas et Melisande; Lynne Truss on The Turn of the Screw; Marina Warner on Dido and Aeneas; Posy Simmonds double page of 'Glyndebourne Midsummer Night'; Ruth Rendell on Theodora; Sebastian Barry on Natoma; Toby Litt on Don Giovanni.

About this title

About the Author

Jeanette Winterson's first novel, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, won the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel. Since then she has written eight other novels, including The Passion and been published in 32 countries, as well as adapting her work for TV, film and stage. She lives in Gloucestershire and London.

From the Back Cover

Kate Atkinson. Paul Bailey. Sebastian Barry. Anne Enright. Antonia Fraser. Jackie Kay. Toby Litt. Alexander McCall Smith. Kate Mosse. Andrew Motion. Julie Myerson. Andrew O'Hagan. Ruth Rendell. Ali Smith. Colm Tóibín. Joanna Trollope. Lynne Truss. Marina Warner. Jeanette Winterson. And a beautiful new illustration from Posy Simmonds.

From the Inside Flap

Opera has always needed a story. Some inspirations are direct - like Britten's Turn of the Screw, or Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, and others, like Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, or Verdi's Rigoletto, take a story and shift it.
Why not take an opera and shift it?
This specially commissioned collection of comedies, tragedies and tales of love won or lost is contemporary British fiction at its very finest. Each story is by one of today's most acclaimed writers, taking their inspiration from an opera of their choice. The result is a book as broad in content as it is deep in atmosphere. The characters are from all walks of life, all parts of the world and are driven by all motivations. All the stories are rich with emotion and written to inspire. And in the midst of the book are brand new illustrations from Posy Simmonds.
Written for lovers of fiction and opera alike, Midsummer Nights includes notes explaining on which opera each story is based, with a brief synopsis and a history of where and when it was first performed.
The stories have been written to celebrate Glyndebourne's 75th Anniversary.

Edition details

• Publisher: Quercus Publishing
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1847248047
• ISBN 13: 9781847248046
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Jeanette Winterson