Donation Builds Library Music Collection

Thanks to a generous donation by Lucy Medz to the Friends of the Library, the San Marino Public Library has purchased 42 CDs and 35 DVDs for cultural development. Music on CD purchased by the library includes opera, jazz, and world music. New DVDs include live opera and dance in performance and fine art.

The library has purchased opera on CD, including Verdi’s Aida, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and Pucini’s Tosca and Turandot. Jazz CDs now available include music by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, and Louis Armstrong. Multicultural and world music is also available—music from France, Spain, the Sahara, Japan, Scotland, Africa, Hungary, Morocco, and other styles are also available for check out. Three main areas of collecting were targeted for DVDs: live performances of opera and dance and the fine arts. Major operas by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Rossini, and Bizet are now available, including Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Aida, and Rigoletto by Verdi; La Bohème, Madame Butterfly, Turandot, and Tosca by Puccini; Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, and Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart; and Rossini’s popular La Cenerentola and Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Performances by the Metropolitan Opera, Theatro alla Scala, and the Glyndebourne Festival Opera are featured, including such famous performers as Placido Domingo, Teresa Stratas, Luciano Pavarotti, Kiri Te Kanawa, and others.

Dance on DVD includes both classic ballets as well as contemporary dance. Three of Tchaikovsky’s most popular ballets have been purchased—The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake. Other ballets purchased by the library are Giselle, Romeo and Juliet featuring Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, and Nijinsky’s performances with The Kirov Ballet. Contemporary dance DVDs include Merce Cunningham, George Balanchine, Martha Graham, and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater.

Fine art DVDs purchased by the library include a six-volume set called Landmarks of Western Art, a survey of Western art from the Renaissance to contemporary times. Other boxed sets purchased by the library are The Art of Mexico, Great Women Artists, and the complete Sister Wendy collection. Individual DVDs purchased are biographies of Jackson Pollock, Marc Chagall, Paul Cézanne, and Edgar Degas. Lastly, the library purchased contemporary art DVDs on environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy, a documentary on graffiti art, and seasons one and two of the PBS series Art 21, focusing on art in the 21st century.

Please come to the library to check out our new cultural offerings on CD and DVD. CDs and documentary and instructional DVDs can be borrowed for up to three weeks, and there is no fee to check them out!

Film and Music Purchases with Lucy Medz Cultural Development Collection

Opera DVDs

Verdi: Il Trovatore La Traviata Aida Rigoletto
Puccini: La Boheme Madame Butterfly Turandot Tosca
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte Don Giovanni Le Nozze di Figaro
Rossini: La Cenerentola Il barbiere di Siviglia
Bizet: Carmen

Ballet/Dance DVDs

Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance
Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake
George Balanchine
Adam: Giselle
Romeo and Juliet: Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn
An Evening with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Martha Graham: An American Original in Performance
The Kirov Celebrates Nijinsky: Sheherazade, La Spectre de la Rose, The Polovtsian Dances, The Firebird

Art DVDs

Landmarks of Western Art, 6 DVD set
Great Women Artists Box SetJackson Pollock
Marc Chagall Art: 21—Art in the 21st Century (Seasons One & Two)
Sister Wendy—The Complete Collection (Story of Painting/Grand Tour/Odyssey/Pains of Glass)
Andy Goldsworthy's Rivers & Tides
Graffiti Verite: Read the writing on the wall
The Art of Mexico Box Set
Cezanne: Three Colours
Degas and the Dance: The Man Behind the Easel

Operas on CD

Chandos (Operas in English)
Verdi, Aida
Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro
Puccini, Tosca
Maria Callas Sings Puccini’s Turandot
Renee Fleming’s By Request
Sumi Jo Sings Mozart
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Blvd.

Jazz on CD

The Very Best of John Coltrane
Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue
Nine Simone’s Anthology
Louis Armstrong’s Jazz in Paris Concert

Multicultural Music on CD

There is a series of travel books called “The Rough Guide.” About ten years ago they started producing a series called “Music Rough Guide.” We have purchased about 30.

The music of:
Brazil
France
Spain
Sahara
Japan
Scotland
Africa
Mambo
Hungarian
Mediterranean
CaféParis
CaféMorocco
Samba
Tango

Come in and borrow a few today!