What was it like at the opening night of Mozart's "Don Giovanni or "Wagner's "Das Rheingold? "This glittering introduction to the world of opera takes us behind the scenes during premiere performances of five extraordinary operas.

"A rare and wonderful cultural history."-- Philip Kennicot[...]

This book explores the provenance of the so-called Berkeley Herm of Plato, a sculptural portrait that Stephen G. Miller first encountered over thirty years ago in a university storage basement. The head, languishing since its arrival in 1902, had become detached from the body, or herm, and had been [...]