San Antonio College Library

Story of the life and career of Serge Diaghilev [1872-1929], Russian Impressario and proprietor of the Ballet Russe.

"'No matter how difficult their jobs are, the president of the United States and the mayor of New York don't have to deal with primma donnas.' So writes Sir Rudolf Bing, the renowned general manager of the Metropolitan Opera for twenty-two years. Every internationally famous diva of our time has crossed his spirited and autocratics path--among them, Birgit Nilsson, Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, Leontyne Price, and, most pyrotechnically, Maria Callas....

Describes the life of the Rothschild heiress and jazz enthusiast who moved to Manhattan and began hosting late-night jam sessions, socializing with Beat poets and made headlines when Charlie Parker died in her hotel suite.

"Born into an Italian Jewish family in 1749, Lorenzo Da Ponte would go on to become a Catholic, priest, a poet, a passionate lover of many women, a scandalous Enlightenment thinker banned from teaching in Venice, the librettist for three of Mozart's most sublime and controversial operas, a collaborator with Salieri, a friend of Casanova, and a favorite of Emperor Joseph II. He lived through the era of the Revolutionary War, the French Revolution,...

In the history of twentieth-century ballet, no company has had so profound and far-reaching an influence as the Ballets Russes. It existed for only twenty years--from 1909 to 1929--but in that brief period it transformed ballet into a vital, modern art. The Ballets Russes created the first of this century's classics: Les Sylphides, Firebird, Petrouchka, L'Après-midi d'un Faune, Le Sacre du Printemps, Parade, Les Noces, Les Biches, Apollo, and Prodigal...

Billy Rose was an American legend, a man who had been an outstanding success in seven varied careers -- shorthand expert, songwriter, night club operator, Broadway producer, impresario of World's Fairs, newspaper columnist, Wall Street investor, art collector and philanthropist. Billy's ninth, albeit, failed career was husband. Billy was married on five occasions to four different women including the Broadway actress Fanny Brice and swimmer Holm....