Having relocated to Perth, cancer surgeon Aresh Mehta is preparing to settle down in life. Travelling with him is an unsigned painting that he came across – and kept – more than a decade earlier. Haunted by the violent scene it depicts, Aresh decides that the time has come for him to find out who painted it and if it has any value. Local art experts cannot pinpoint the artist and choose instead to focus on a distinctive work of art, painted in miniature, and shown hanging on the wall of the plush suburban study in which the violence has been set. The search into the origins of this small painting uncovers deep familial connections stretching from London to Melbourne and on to Sydney. And, as the investigation into the crime portrayed in Aresh’s painting advances, people determined to prevent the shocking truth from emerging are alerted, holding nothing back to avoid being exposed. The Masked Ball is a story about the abiding strength of our attachment to the paintings we possess and to the stories that lie beneath their making.

A comprehensive guide to Verdi's A MASKED BALL, featuring insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis, a complete, newly translated Libretto, with Italian/English side-by side, and over 30 music highlight examples.

A newly translated Libretto featuring foreign language/English side-by-side, and music examples interspersed throughout the text.

Princess Giselle de Marginy of Taurus is unhappy about one of the kingdom’s old laws. According to the law, if a woman of royalty wishes to become keeper of Merrisand, she must be married, but Giselle doesn’t want to marry just for a title… One day she attends a masked ball where she meets a man with mysterious blue eyes. Giselle feels a magnetic attraction to the man, but he leaves without revealing his identity. However, she will soon meet him again in a most unexpected way…

The best-selling author of The Abundance Book Based on intensive research, bestselling author John Randolph Price reveals how we create our own experiences by the masks we choose to wear - masks such as the Victim, Tyrant, Manipulator, Fanatic, Worrier, and Deceiver. We put on these absurd false faces - sometimes unconsciously - to get our way, or to defend ourselves against the external forces that seem to be preying on us. The challenges of life seem to be magnified because the universe always reflects back the disguises we are wearing, replaying all of our misconceptions and vulnerabilities in the physical world.