Publisher Desc.  For well over twenty years, M. Owen Lee has been offering intermission talks during the Saturday afternoon Texaco Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, which now reach countries on six continents. In this book, Father Lee covers various operas of Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and Richard Strauss, as well as a selection of French operas, including Faust, Carmen and Les Contes d'Hoffman. In all, his repertory contains 23 operatic masterworks, to all of which he brings insight, learning and the most infectious enthusiasm. One just cannot get enough of [Father Lee's] brilliant, stimulating, thought-provoking insights...I feel there is no one more knowledgeable or qualified in the entire field of opera commentary. No one. - The Opera Quarterly