"Lois Alba is a master teacher, ...I have never seen a vocal instructor who got such remarkable results in such a short time." - Irene Dalis, General Director, Opera San Jose Achieving a successful singing career, especially in opera, can seem almost impossible to many singers because of fear of high notes, lack of projection, and confusion on how to express the music unhampered by technical preoccupation. Master Teacher and accomplished opera singer Lois Alba is aware of these pitfalls. She knows the best teaching involves an acute sense of the art form based on sound, intuition and imagery. The focus comes from the mind. It is interpreted through the ear and the body. When the body and mind come together harmoniously the result is beautiful sound. In this clear and legible guide, Lois Alba shares her formidable experience, voice training insight, and philosophical wisdom about the creative nature of singing. She works to de-program the singer as to the many myths about singing û recurring themes that flood vocal studios and ultimately damage voices. Vocal Rescue is an amalgamation of many precepts from a large library of rare treatises and the concepts outlined come from the fine art of vocal mastery known as bel canto. The text provides a seven step system that demystifies the secrets to beautiful singing, and promises to take all singers to a new level of technical proficiency and expression. Recorded illustrations on CD/DVD demonstrate the vocal principles with lessons and vocalises for singers in all voice ranges to follow. The author's website can be found at www.loisalba.com

Cinema and opera have become intertwined in a variety of powerful and unusual ways. Vocal Apparitions tells the story of this fascinating intersection, interprets how it occurred, and explores what happens when opera is projected onto the medium of film. Michal Grover-Friedlander finds striking affinities between film and opera--from Lon Chaney's classic silent film, The Phantom of the Opera, to the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera to Fellini's E la nave va. One of the guiding questions of this book is what occurs when what is aesthetically essential about one medium is transposed into the aesthetic field of the other. For example, Grover-Friedlander's comparison of an opera by Poulenc and a Rossellini film, both based on Cocteau's play The Human Voice, shows the relation of the vocal and the visual to be surprisingly affected by the choice of the medium. Her analysis of the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera demonstrates how, as a response to opera's infatuation with death, cinema comically acts out a correction of opera's fate. Grover-Friedlander argues that filmed operas such as Zeffirelli's Otello and Friedrich's Falstaff show the impossibility of a direct transformation of the operatic into the cinematic. Paradoxically, cinema at times can be more operatic than opera itself, thus capturing something essential that escapes opera's self-understanding. A remarkable look at how cinema has been haunted--and transformed--by opera, Vocal Apparitions reveals something original and important about each medium.

Exercises for Voice Therapy, Third Edition contains 84 exercises contributed from 55 clinicians to assist speech-language pathologists in developing treatment plans and session materials for children and adults with all types of voice disorders. The exercises provide step-by-step instruction of varied difficulty levels. Some are suitable for novice voice clinicians, whereas others require a greater depth of experience to be used most effectively. Similarly, voice clients will find some exercises more challenging than others. Each chapter focuses on a particular topic or parameter of the voice production system that may need to be addressed. The exercises can be used in a variety of ways, depending on the personal approach of each clinician and the needs of the individual client. Some of the exercises offer a basic framework for building an entire session, whereas others may fulfill a more specific need within a broader framework. Each exercise is presented in a consistent format for easy integration into speech-language pathologists’ therapy sessions. New to the Third Edition: *17 new exercises with 8 new contributors (for a total of 84 exercises from 55 contributors). *A new chapter on Counseling in Voice Therapy, containing four new exercises from three new contributors who are experts in the field of counseling. *A new chapter on Adherence and Generalization, addressing two significant and common problems in voice therapy, including three new exercises and a new contributor. *An enhanced chapter on Pediatric Voice Therapy, including three new exercises and two new contributors. *A reorganized chapter on Optimizing Speech Breathing, divided into exercises that focus only on breathing and those that incorporate voice production, to help the clinician select the most appropriate exercises for a given client. *An expanded and reorganized chapter on Special Cases, with chapter sections specifically targeting transgender clients, paradoxical vocal fold motion, client voice problems arising from motor speech disorders, as well as other special populations. Disclaimer: Please note that ancillary content (such as documents, audio, and video, etc.) may not be included as published in the original print version of this book.

“In this authoritative, unsparing history of the biggest rock group of the 1970s, Spitz delivers inside details and analysis with his well-known gift for storytelling.” —PEOPLE From the author of the iconic, bestselling history of The Beatles, the definitive account of arguable the greatest rock band of all time. Rock star. Whatever that term means to you, chances are it owes a debt to Led Zeppelin. No one before or since has lived the dream quite like Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. In Led Zeppelin, Bob Spitz takes their full measure, separating myth from reality with his trademark connoisseurship and storytelling flair. From the opening notes of their first album, the band announced itself as something different, a collision of grand artistic ambition and brute primal force, of English folk music and African American blues. Spitz’s account of their artistic journey, amid the fascinating ecosystem of popular music, is irresistible. But the music is only part of the legend: Led Zeppelin is also the story of how the sixties became the seventies, of how innocence became decadence, of how rock took over. Led Zeppelin wasn’t the first band to let loose on the road, but as with everything else, they took it to an entirely new level. Not all the legends are true, but in Spitz’s careful accounting, what is true is astonishing and sometimes disturbing. Led Zeppelin gave no quarter, and neither has Bob Spitz. Led Zeppelin is the long-awaited full reckoning the band richly deserves.

Singing Utopia is an original study of voice in musical theatre. Rather than focusing on how actors sing or analysing voices using established approaches found in opera studies, this book offers readers ways to understand musical theatre voices from a cultural perspective. It argues that musical theatre singing allows listeners and audiences to escape their everyday lives; and that voices can 'be' utopian. It then considers what this means and uncovers some paradoxes and difficulties in this idea. Introducing a new set of terms, it provides a way to listen to, think about, and even perform, voice in popular musical theatre.

Using a communicological perspective, Recovering the Voice in our Techno-Social World: On the Phone identifies voice (phone in Greek) as the essential medium for a re-enchantment of human communication in our highly impersonal techno-social environment. This book is a response to the growing concern by social critics that we are becoming a de-voiced society because of our preferences for hyper-textual, image-based forms of electronic connectivity. Ironically, while we are increasingly “on the phone,” we are sacrificing our vocality within immediate ear-to-ear relations. Framed by the trope of enchantment, Deborah Eicher-Catt argues that the immediacy of the sounding voice calls us and enchants us to make possible productive moments of resonance in which we might cultivate an interpersonal resilience in today’s fast-paced, media-saturated environment. Scholars of media studies, communication, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.

Animals in Disasters is a comprehensive book on animal rescue written by Dr. Dick Green who shares his experiences, best practices and lessons learned from well over 125 domestic and international disasters. It provides a step-by-step process for communities and states to more effectively address animal issues and enhance their animal response capabilities. Sections include an overview of the history of animal rescue, where we are today, and the steps needed to better prepare for tomorrow. This how-to book for emergency managers who want to develop programs, craft policy, and build response capability/capacity is an ideal companion to their work. - Clearly identifies the components of building a resilient community - Introduces the Community Preparedness Checklist - Helps readers develop and deliver effective animal response training