Daniel Snowman Books

Placido Domingo has been one of the greatest stars in the operatic firmament for over a quarter of a century, a man whose combination of vocal, dramatic and musical gifts is probably unmatched in the history of opera. A massive public has learnt to revere his legendary portrayals, while millions all over the world know and love his art through television, film and an immense discography.What the public does not see is the detailed preparation and concentrated hard work that lie behind these towering performances. Now, Daniel Snowman takes us inside the rehearsal room and shows us something of the humour, the pathos, the tensions and the sheer hard work as the clock ticks away and the first night approaches.In a wide-ranging book, Snowman considers Domingo's vocal qualities, the nature and depth of his musicianship, his abilities as an actor and something of the inner motivation that has enabled him to achieve so much for so long.

3000 years of the most important stories from the past in 365 days -- from the Ides of March to D-Day, from Britain's favourite historian

The Hitler Emigrés is the story of those Central Europeans, many of them Jewish, who escaped the shadow of Nazism, found refuge in Britain and made a lasting mark on the nation's intellectual and cultural life. The book features colourful portraits of some of Britain's most celebrated artists, architects, musicians, choreographers, film makers, historians, philosophers, scientists, writers, broadcasters and publishers - all skilfully woven into the wider context of British cultural history from the 1930s to the present.Emigrés helped create the Glyndebourne and Edinburgh Festivals, the magazine Picture Post , films like The Red Shoes , the Royal Festival Hall and the cartoon character 'Supermac'. The founders of the publishing companies Phaidon and Thames & Hudson were émigrés , as were Ernst Gombrich (author of The Story of Art ), Nikolaus Pevsner (who documented 'The Buildings of England') and such key intellectual figures as the philosopher Karl Popper, the biochemist Max Perutz and the historians Eric Hobsbawm and Geoffrey Elton.Daniel Snowman considers the irony that many refugees (including three quarters of the future Amadeus Quartet) were interned by the British authorities as 'enemy aliens' - and some of them deported to Canada and Australia. And he writes of the mordant humour of George Mikes, 'Vicky' and Hoffnung, the entrepreneurial skills of Claus Moser and George Weidenfeld - and the sheer magnetism of such forceful personalities as Arthur Koestler and the musician and broadcaster Hans Keller.Many of the Hitler e migrés became natural bridge-builders who helped enrich their new homeland with fresh insights from continental Europe. A number moved on to North America and elsewhere. Thus, Hitler, far from eliminating the cosmopolitan culture he so abhorred, helped spread it throughout the world.