The Standard Operaglass

Abu Hassan is down to bread and water—and his wife Fatima’s only fault, we’re told, is that she sings better than she cooks. So he invents a scheme involving a very convincing death and the Calif’s purse.

Charles Annesley’s early-twentieth-century guide opens with Weber’s one-act comedy, then ranges across 151 celebrated operas, offering their plots alongside remarks on their music and character. Here, in the Baghdad of the Calif, Abu Hassan has spent beyond his means, and creditors are at the door. His plan depends on Fatima persuading the Calif’s wife that he is dead; but with money, a suspicious creditor and a household full of secrets in play, keeping the story straight may be harder than inventing it. How long can the pair keep their little deception alive?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.