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"Amazing Peace and Other Poems" by Maya Angelou Length: 29 min. ISBN: New York Times Best Seller Listen to an excerpt with:     Windows Media Player     Real Player

Listen to Grammy Award-winning poet Maya Angelou read her newest work, “Amazing Peace”, as well as some of her best-loved poems in this unique and inspiring audio collection.

“Amazing Peace” is a beautiful and deeply moving poem from Maya Angelou. Here she inspires us to embrace the peace and promise of Christmas, so that hope and love can once again light up our holidays and the world. “Angels and Mortals, Believers and Nonbelievers, look heavenward,” she writes, “and speak the word aloud. Peace.”

“Amazing Peace” is Maya Angelou’s radiant affirmation of the goodness of life and is a touching celebration of the “Glad Season” that will resonate with people of all faiths.

Also included in this program is her Grammy Award-winning reading of “On the Pulse of Morning”, the poem that she created for the inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton in January 1993. Nearly 13 years later this poem remains just as profound a listening experience.

Additionally, the program includes the four poems that make up Phenomenal Woman. The poems are among the most acclaimed of Maya Angelou’s body of work. They celebrate women with a majesty that has inspired and touched the hearts of millions. Together with “Amazing Peace” and “On the Pulse of Morning”, this is a beautiful and unique collection of Maya Angelou’s writing read aloud in her distinctive and sonorous voice.

Maya Angelou, poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director, was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then moved to San Francisco. In addition to her best-selling biographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she has also written a memoir with recipes, Hallelujah! The Welcome Table; five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?; and many other celebrated poems.

Tags: amazing peace and other poems, maya angelou, arts & entertainment, audibleoriginals, poetry & drama, students, on the pulse of morning, christmas tree lighting, phenomenal woman, glad season, poem, poetry

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"Seven Classic Plays" by William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, Alexandre Dumas, and more Length: 11 hours and 32 min. ISBN: 0-7861-2291-9 Listen to an excerpt with:     Windows Media Player     Real Player

Now, for the first time in audio, Blackstone presents seven great plays in one volume: Euripides’ Medea, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid, Dumas’ Camille, Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, Shaw’s Arms and the Man, and Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. These productions illustrate the development of European drama from ancient times to the threshold of the modern theater. A superb repertory company has been assembled for these recordings, all under the direction of veteran producer Yuri Rasovsky, who has won both the Audie Award for book production and the George Foster Peabody Award for broadcasting.

These are not mere readings. Rather, they are full performances using all the resources of audio to full advantage. Just as stage plays are “opened up” when adapted to film, so these selections create greater intimacy. “Staginess” is avoided, lively theatrics enhanced, while the substance of the works remains intact. For instance, in Arms and the Man, audio makes possible the judicious integration of the author’s witty scene settings, written for the published version of the play, with the play itself. This is the play that established Shaw’s reputation as one of the greatest wits of the London drama scene.

Music accounts for another noteworthy aspect of these productions. The Imaginary Invalid employs the score that Marc-Antoine Charpentier composed for Moliere’s own premiere. It is conducted by Steven Ovitsky, artistic director of the Milwaukee Symphony.

The Tempest, composed by Shakespeare as a multi-sensory theater experience, features music on Elizabethan instruments still extant from Shakespeare’s own production, resulting in lyrical textual passages, overflowing with exotic images, tantalizing sounds, and a palpable lushness.

Tags: seven classic plays, william shakespeare, henrik ibsen, anton chekhov, alexandre dumas, and more, classics, education, k-12 educators, parents & family, poetry & drama, students, euripides, medea, william shakespeare, the tempest, moliere, the imaginary invalid, alexandre dumas, camille, henrik ibsen, an enemy of the people, george bernard shaw, arms and the man, anton chekhov, uncle vanya

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"Hedda Gabler" by Henrik Ibsen Length: 2 hours and 8 min. ISBN: 9-62634-265-X Listen to an excerpt with:     Windows Media Player     Real Player

Hedda Gabler, the daughter of a deceased General, marries dull George Tesman and foresees a life of middle class tedium stretching ahead when they return from their honeymoon. Increasingly, she is drawn into the clutches of her admirer, Judge Brack, who seeks to establish a ménage a trois. Then the brilliant but dissolute Eilert Lovborg, a former flame, arrives to rival her husband for an academic post.

This new audio production, with Juliet Stevenson giving an unforgettable performance as the passionate Hedda, brings this classic drama to life.

Tags: hedda gabler, henrik ibsen, classics, education, fiction, parents & family, poetry & drama, students,