David Ewen (1) (1907–1985)

Thought it's not a recent work, I'm finding this book very handy because it lists performers and general music terms as well as information on the operas themselves. Last night I went between La Traviata and Il Trovatore (I can never keep them straight) to looking up the different types of voices to Toscanini (right below Tosca) to La Scala.

A guide to more than 300 productions of the american musical theatre from the black crook (1866) to the present, with plot, production history, stars, songs, composers, librettists, and lyricists.

This book is really my go-to classical music volume. It is a great resource, providing a brief biography of a number of classical composers, as well as their major works, and the themes in those works/how they came to write them. I could wish for an updated version, although I am woefully ignorant of how classical music may have progressed since its publication.

a 1970 published thoughtful and well-researched wander through the life of george gershwin and the lives of composers, performers and others he touched during that short life and long after he passed away.