This landmark publication collects arias and role excerpts from operas by John Adams, Benjamin Britten, Carlisle Floyd, Richard Strauss, and many other composers published by Boosey & Hawkes. Includes extensive plot notes and translations.

J. Adams: I must have been hysterical (The Death of Kinghoffer) - J. Adams: Am I in your light? (Doctor Atomic) - J. Adams: Past fierce and tossing skies (Doctor Atomic) - J. Adams: La anunciación (El Niño) - D. Argento: On the stroke of midnight! (The Aspern Papers) - D. Argento: Bellino's Aria (Casanova's Homecoming) - D. Argento: Madame d'Urfe's Aria (Casanova's Homecoming) - D. Argento: Was it truly destiny (The Dream of Valentino) - D. Argento: Nazimova's Aria (The Dream of Valentino) - D. Argento: Estella's Aria (Miss Havisham's Fire) - D. Argento: A Foreign Singer's Aria (Postcard from Morocco) - L. Bernstein: Thank You (Mass) - L. Bernstein: There is a garden (Trouble in Tahiti) - L. Bernstein: What a movie! (Trouble in Tahiti) - B. Britten: Doctor Jessop's midwife (Albert Herring) - B. Britten: What would Missus Herring say? (Albert Herring) - B. Britten: Lysander, Help me Lysander (A Midsummer Night's Dream) - B. Britten: She sleeps as a rose upon the night (The Rape of Lucretia) - B. Britten: Give him this orchid (The Rape of Lucretia) - B. Britten: Is it all? (The Rape of Lucretia) - A. Copland: Ma's Song (The Tender Land) - C. Floyd: Take off that frown (Wuthering Heights) - J. Gay (realised by B. Britten): Thus when a good housewife sees a rat... How cruel are the traytors (The Beggar's Opera) - H. Purcell (realised by B. Britten and I. Holst): Ah! Belinda, I am prest with torment (Dido and Aeneas) - H. Purcell (realised by B. Britten and I. Holst): When I am laid in earth (Dido and Aeneas) - N. Rorem: Wind around me like Satan's snake (Miss Julie) - R. Strauss: Sein wir wieder gut (Ariadne auf Naxos) - R. Strauss: Wie Du warst! (Der Rosenkavalier) - I. Stravinsky: The Mother's Aria (Mavra) - I. Stravinsky: Nonn' erubeskite, reges (Oedipus Rex) - I. Stravinsky: As I was saying... Scorned! Abused! (The Rake's Progress) - I. Stravinsky: Sold! Annoyed! (The Rake's Progress)