Don Alvaro [the Play] & The Force of Destiny [the Opera]

£16.95

New Play and Opera adaptation

With the Romantic era being a high point for Spanish drama, Rivas's Don Alvaro was perhaps the most outstanding example. The play intermingles tragedy and comedy, where high-minded noblemen and country bumpkins pursue their destinies side by side. As often as not, tears and laughter are just a glance apart.

Based on the drama, Verdi's opera The Force of Destiny, though it diverges in major and minor ways from the play, follows the pattern set by the playwright. For this reason some have deemed it diffuse and episodic, whilst others have hailed it as Verdi's most Shakespearean opera.

In this book Paul and Judy Pinto offer a stageworthy English adaptation of the play, as well as a singable, yet readable, English version of the opera. Two swashbuckling stories in one. Alike, yet startlingly different, and both easily enjoyed from your own armchair.

ISBN: 9781852001568 

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: Hardback 

Length: 231pp

Quantity:
Add To Cart

About the authors:

Paul A.M. Pinto

Paul Pinto’s military service in the USA Army was during the Vietnam era. He became a Material Aid Advisor for Church World Service in Algeria, Congo-Kinshasa, and Madagascar. Gaining an MA from New Mexico State University, USA in 1973, he later achieved a PhD from the University of North Carolina, USA in 1979. He worked as a Portuguese Instructor at the Defence Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, California, and has been inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi (an honorary society). He has had a number of articles published associated with his knowledge and interest in operatic work. 

Judith A. Pinto

Judith was the British Yorkshire-born wife of Paul Pinto. She graduated with Highest Honours in Surgery from Hull Royal Infirmary Nurses’ Training School in 1960, and worked as a nurse in open heart surgery at Castle Hill Hospital in Hull, Yorkshire. She directed a Mobile Mother and Child Clinic (as a volunteer with Quaker Services) in Eastern Algeria. In 1979 she sadly succumbed to Huntington’s Disease, a debilitating fatal illness.