For anyone who has been intimidated, overwhelmed, or just plain confused by what they think opera is, Who's Afraid of Opera? offers a lively, readable, and frankly biased guide to what author Michael Walsh describes as "the greatest art form yet invented by humankind". From opera's origins in Renaissance Italy to the Who's Tommy and Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, Walsh explores what opera is - and what it's not; which is more important - the words or the music?; why does it take Tristan so long to die?; a (Not Quite) Totally Arbitrary Basic Repertoire; and what makes a great singer. So...

"Brothers in War" is the immensely powerful and deeply tragic story of the Beechey brothers and how they paid the ultimate price fortheir country. All eight went to fight in the Great War on such far-flung battlefields as France, Flanders, East Africa, and Gallipoli. Only three would return alive. Even amid the carnage of the trenches, it was a family trauma almost without parallel. Their wives and sweethearts were left bereft, their widowed mother Amy devastated. It is a tragedy that has remained forgotten and unmarked for nearly 90 years. Until now.
Kept in a small brown case handed down...

A series of studies of aspects of language and culture in different parts of Aboriginal Australia, this book deals with subjects including why a young Aboriginal woman in rural Australia might plead guilty to a crime she didn t commit; the picture of language ownership that can be drawn from recent research on land rights; what is known of the first white settlers attempts to learn the language of the Sydney region; the first dictionaries compiled in South Australia; and how Aboriginal languages are now being used in the media and education."

In 1914 almost one quarter of the earth's surface was British. When the empire and its allies went to war in 1914 against the Central Powers, history's first global conflict was inevitable.ã It is the social and cultural reactions to that war and within those distant, often overlooked, societies which is the focus of this volume. From Singapore to Australia, Cyprus to Ireland, India to Iraq and around the rest of the British imperial world, further complexities and interlocking themes are addressed, offering new perspectives on imperial and colonial history and theory, as well as art,...