Apollo's Angels
A History of Ballet
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $22.35
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kirsten Potter
-
By:
-
Jennifer Homans
About this listen
For more than 400 years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. A ballerina dancing The Sleeping Beauty today is a link in a long chain of dancers stretching back to 16th-century Italy and France: Her graceful movements recall a lost world of courts, kings, and aristocracy, but her steps and gestures are also marked by the dramatic changes in dance and culture that followed. Ballet has been shaped by the Renaissance and Classicism, the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Bolshevism, Modernism, and the Cold War.
Apollo's Angels is a groundbreaking work---the first cultural history of ballet ever written, beautifully told. Ballet is unique: It has no written texts or standardized notation. It is a storytelling art passed on from teacher to student. The steps are never just the steps---they are a living, breathing document of a culture and a tradition. And while ballet's language is shared by dancers everywhere, its artists have developed distinct national styles. French, Italian, Danish, Russian, English, and American traditions each have their own expression, often formed in response to political and societal upheavals.
From ballet's origins in the Renaissance and the codification of its basic steps and positions under France's Louis XIV (himself an avid dancer), the art form wound its way through the courts of Europe, from Paris and Milan to Vienna and St. Petersburg. It was in Russia that dance developed into the form most familiar to American audiences: The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker originated at the Imperial court.
©2010 Jennifer Homans (P)2011 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
Serenade
- A Balanchine Story
- By: Toni Bentley
- Narrated by: Leslie Howard, Toni Bentley
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At age seventeen, Toni Bentley was chosen by Balanchine, then in his final years, to join the New York City Ballet. From both backstage and onstage, she carries us through the serendipitous history and physical intricacies and demands of Serenade: its dazzling opening, with seventeen women in a double-diamond pattern; its radical, even jazzy, use of the highly refined language that is ballet; its place in the choreographer’s own dramatic story of his immigration to the United States from Soviet Russia.
-
-
What a beautiful book!
- By Ning on 05-04-22
By: Toni Bentley
-
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
- By: Thomas Piketty, Arthur Goldhammer - translator
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 24 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories.
-
-
The Financial Times' Critique Doesn't Detract
- By Madeleine on 05-22-14
By: Thomas Piketty, and others
-
Mr. B
- George Balanchine's 20th Century
- By: Jennifer Homans
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 29 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arguably the greatest choreographer who ever lived, George Balanchine was one of the cultural titans of the twentieth century—the New York Times called him "the Shakespeare of dancing." His radical approach to choreography—and life—reinvented the art of ballet and made him a legend. Written with enormous style and artistry, and based on more than one hundred interviews and research in archives across Russia, Europe, and the Americas, Mr. B carries us through Balanchine's tumultuous and high-pitched life story and into the making of his extraordinary dances.
-
-
Interesting.
- By An Old Crow on 10-15-23
By: Jennifer Homans
-
Celestial Bodies: How to Look at Ballet
- By: Laura Jacobs
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A distinguished dance critic offers an enchanting introduction to the art of ballet. As much as we may enjoy Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, for many of us ballet is a foreign language. It communicates through movement, not words, and its history lies almost entirely abroad - in Russia, Italy, and France. In Celestial Bodies, dance critic Laura Jacobs makes the foreign familiar, providing a lively, poetic, and uniquely accessible introduction to the world of classical dance.
-
-
Ballet Love
- By Sara Cobb on 08-06-18
By: Laura Jacobs
-
Turning Pointe
- How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself
- By: Chloe Angyal
- Narrated by: Casey Holloway
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day, in dance studios all across America, legions of little children line up at the barre to take ballet class. This time in the studio shapes their lives, instilling lessons about gender, power, bodies, and their place in the world both in and outside of dance. In Turning Pointe, journalist Chloe Angyal captures the intense love for ballet that so many dancers feel, while also grappling with its devastating shortcomings....
-
-
Interesting but idealistic
- By Daryl James on 11-28-21
By: Chloe Angyal
-
Swan Dive
- The Making of a Rogue Ballerina
- By: Georgina Pazcoguin
- Narrated by: Georgina Pazcoguin
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this love letter to the art of dance and the sport that has been her livelihood, NYCB’s first Asian American female soloist Georgina Pazcoguin lays bare her unfiltered story of leaving small-town Pennsylvania for New York City and training amid the unique demands of being a hybrid professional athlete/artist, all before finishing high school. She pitches us into the fascinating, whirling shoes of dancers in one of the most revered ballet companies in the world with an unapologetic sense of humor about the cutthroat, survival-of-the-fittest mentality at NYCB.
-
-
Pure joy!
- By Amazon Customer on 07-31-21
-
Serenade
- A Balanchine Story
- By: Toni Bentley
- Narrated by: Leslie Howard, Toni Bentley
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At age seventeen, Toni Bentley was chosen by Balanchine, then in his final years, to join the New York City Ballet. From both backstage and onstage, she carries us through the serendipitous history and physical intricacies and demands of Serenade: its dazzling opening, with seventeen women in a double-diamond pattern; its radical, even jazzy, use of the highly refined language that is ballet; its place in the choreographer’s own dramatic story of his immigration to the United States from Soviet Russia.
-
-
What a beautiful book!
- By Ning on 05-04-22
By: Toni Bentley
-
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
- By: Thomas Piketty, Arthur Goldhammer - translator
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 24 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories.
-
-
The Financial Times' Critique Doesn't Detract
- By Madeleine on 05-22-14
By: Thomas Piketty, and others
-
Mr. B
- George Balanchine's 20th Century
- By: Jennifer Homans
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 29 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arguably the greatest choreographer who ever lived, George Balanchine was one of the cultural titans of the twentieth century—the New York Times called him "the Shakespeare of dancing." His radical approach to choreography—and life—reinvented the art of ballet and made him a legend. Written with enormous style and artistry, and based on more than one hundred interviews and research in archives across Russia, Europe, and the Americas, Mr. B carries us through Balanchine's tumultuous and high-pitched life story and into the making of his extraordinary dances.
-
-
Interesting.
- By An Old Crow on 10-15-23
By: Jennifer Homans
-
Celestial Bodies: How to Look at Ballet
- By: Laura Jacobs
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A distinguished dance critic offers an enchanting introduction to the art of ballet. As much as we may enjoy Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, for many of us ballet is a foreign language. It communicates through movement, not words, and its history lies almost entirely abroad - in Russia, Italy, and France. In Celestial Bodies, dance critic Laura Jacobs makes the foreign familiar, providing a lively, poetic, and uniquely accessible introduction to the world of classical dance.
-
-
Ballet Love
- By Sara Cobb on 08-06-18
By: Laura Jacobs
-
Turning Pointe
- How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself
- By: Chloe Angyal
- Narrated by: Casey Holloway
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day, in dance studios all across America, legions of little children line up at the barre to take ballet class. This time in the studio shapes their lives, instilling lessons about gender, power, bodies, and their place in the world both in and outside of dance. In Turning Pointe, journalist Chloe Angyal captures the intense love for ballet that so many dancers feel, while also grappling with its devastating shortcomings....
-
-
Interesting but idealistic
- By Daryl James on 11-28-21
By: Chloe Angyal
-
Swan Dive
- The Making of a Rogue Ballerina
- By: Georgina Pazcoguin
- Narrated by: Georgina Pazcoguin
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this love letter to the art of dance and the sport that has been her livelihood, NYCB’s first Asian American female soloist Georgina Pazcoguin lays bare her unfiltered story of leaving small-town Pennsylvania for New York City and training amid the unique demands of being a hybrid professional athlete/artist, all before finishing high school. She pitches us into the fascinating, whirling shoes of dancers in one of the most revered ballet companies in the world with an unapologetic sense of humor about the cutthroat, survival-of-the-fittest mentality at NYCB.
-
-
Pure joy!
- By Amazon Customer on 07-31-21
-
Transformer
- The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Richard Trinder
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades, biology has been dominated by the study of genetic information. Information is important, but it is only part of what makes us alive. Our inheritance also includes our living metabolic network, a flame passed from generation to generation, right back to the origin of life. In Transformer, biochemist Nick Lane reveals a scientific renaissance that is hiding in plain sight-how the same simple chemistry gives rise to life and causes our demise.
-
-
You need lot of chemistry to get it
- By 11104 on 09-05-22
By: Nick Lane
-
Democracy's Data
- The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them
- By: Dan Bouk
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dan Bouk examines the 1940 U.S. census, uncovering what those numbers both condense and cleverly abstract: a universe of meaning and uncertainty, of cultural negotiation and political struggle. He takes us into the makeshift halls of the Census Bureau, where hundreds of civil servants, not to mention machines, labored with pencil and paper to divide and conquer the nation's data. And he uses these little points to paint bigger pictures, such as of the ruling hand of white supremacy, the place of queer people in straight systems, and the struggle of ordinary people.
-
-
A good book for a genealogist’s reading list
- By Candice on 10-28-22
By: Dan Bouk
-
The Ballerina Mindset
- How to Protect Your Mental Health While Striving for Excellence
- By: Megan Fairchild
- Narrated by: Megan Fairchild
- Length: 3 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Learn how to thrive in intense, competitive environments with these secrets from one of America's premiere ballerinas - and get a sneak peek behind the curtain into what her life is really like.
-
-
Grateful for Megan
- By Mariana P on 12-30-21
By: Megan Fairchild
-
The Hemingses of Monticello
- An American Family
- By: Annette Gordon-Reed
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 30 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This epic work tells the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically expunged from American history until very recently. Now, historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed traces the Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family's dispersal after Jefferson's death in 1826. It brings to life not only Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson but also their children and Hemings's siblings, who shared a father with Jefferson's wife, Martha.
-
-
Worried at first
- By Phillip Goodson on 12-13-08
-
Diaghilev's Empire
- How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World
- By: Rupert Christiansen
- Narrated by: Rich Miller
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Serge Diaghilev, the Russian impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, is often said to have invented modern ballet. An art critic and connoisseur, Diaghilev had no training in dance or choreography, but he had a dream of bringing Russian art, music, design, and expression to the West and a mission to drive a cultural and artistic revolution.
-
-
Great
- By Amazon Customer on 01-15-23
-
Raising the Barre
- Big Dreams, False Starts, and My Midlife Quest to Dance the Nutcracker
- By: Lauren Kessler
- Narrated by: Hollis McCarthy
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Lauren Kessler was 12, her ballet instructor crushed not just her dreams of being a ballerina but also her youthful self-assurance. Now, many decades and three children later, Kessler embarks on a journey to join a professional company to perform in The Nutcracker. Raising the Barre is more than just one woman's story; it is a story about shaking things up, taking risks, and ignoring good sense and forgetting how old you are and how you're "supposed" to act.
-
-
Smug
- By Claudette on 02-07-20
By: Lauren Kessler
-
The Rest Is Noise
- Listening to the 20th Century
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 23 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Rest Is Noise takes the listener inside the labyrinth of modern music, from turn-of-the-century Vienna to downtown New York in the '60s and '70s. We meet the maverick personalities and follow the rise of mass culture on this sweeping tour of 20th-century history through its music.
-
-
Learned so much!
- By Paula on 02-18-08
By: Alex Ross
-
The Professor and the Madman
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part history, part true-crime, and entirely entertaining, listen to the story of how the behemoth Oxford English Dictionary was made. You'll hang on every word as you discover that the dictionary's greatest contributor was also an insane murderer working from the confines of an asylum.
-
-
Perfect example of a quality audible book.
- By Jerry on 07-07-03
By: Simon Winchester
-
Quicksilver
- Book One of The Baroque Cycle
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Neal Stephenson (introduction), Kevin Pariseau, Simon Prebble
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In which Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and courageous Puritan, pursues knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe -- in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.
-
-
Be aware of what you're getting into
- By David on 12-16-11
By: Neal Stephenson
-
George Washington's Secret Six
- The Spy Ring That Saved America
- By: Brian Kilmeade, Don Yaeger
- Narrated by: Brian Kilmeade
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the cohost of Fox & Friends, the true story of the anonymous spies who helped win the Revolutionary War. Among the pantheon of heroes of the American Revolution, six names are missing. First and foremost, Robert Townsend, an unassuming and respected businessman from Long Island, who spearheaded the spy ring that covertly brought down the British
-
-
Pretty good
- By Thomas on 09-24-15
By: Brian Kilmeade, and others
-
The Adventure of English
- The Biography of a Language
- By: Melvyn Bragg
- Narrated by: Robert Powell
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the remarkable story of the English language; from its beginnings as a minor guttural Germanic dialect to its position today as a truly established global language. The Adventure of English is not only an enthralling story of power, religion, and trade, but also the story of people, and how their lives continue to change the extraordinary language that is English.
-
-
Many Of Course monments
- By Leigh A on 10-21-05
By: Melvyn Bragg
-
Washington's Spies
- The Story of America's First Spy Ring
- By: Alexander Rose
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on remarkable new research, acclaimed historian Alexander Rose brings to life the true story of the spy ring that helped America win the Revolutionary War. For the first time, Rose takes us beyond the battlefront and deep into the shadowy underworld of double agents and triple crosses, covert operations and code breaking, and unmasks the courageous, flawed men who inhabited this wilderness of mirrors—including the spymaster at the heart of it all.
-
-
Kinda boring
- By Randall on 07-10-19
By: Alexander Rose
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
Natasha's Dance
- A Cultural History of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 29 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 18th century with the building of St. Petersburg - a 'window on the West' - and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself - its character, spiritual essence and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works - by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall - with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.
-
-
A Kaleidescopic panorama of an enigmatic culture.
- By Tarquin on 02-13-19
By: Orlando Figes
-
The Rest Is Noise
- Listening to the 20th Century
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 23 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Rest Is Noise takes the listener inside the labyrinth of modern music, from turn-of-the-century Vienna to downtown New York in the '60s and '70s. We meet the maverick personalities and follow the rise of mass culture on this sweeping tour of 20th-century history through its music.
-
-
Learned so much!
- By Paula on 02-18-08
By: Alex Ross
-
Mademoiselle
- Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History
- By: Rhonda Garelick
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Little black dresses. Fake pearls. Jersey knit. Blazers. Ballet flats. Today - and for nearly the last hundred years - we all see some version of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel every time we pass a woman on the street. But few among us realize that Chanel’s role in the events of the twentieth century was as pervasive as her influence on fashion, or how deeply she absorbed and then brilliantly reimagined the historical currents around her.
-
-
An Unlikable Portrait
- By Sara on 09-25-16
By: Rhonda Garelick
-
Incarnations
- India in Fifty Lives
- By: Sunil Khilnani
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For all of India's myths, its sea of stories and moral epics, Indian history remains a curiously unpeopled place. In Incarnations, Sunil Khilnani fills that space, recapturing the human dimension of how the world's largest democracy came to be. His trenchant portraits of emperors, warriors, philosophers, film stars, and corporate titans - some famous, some unjustly forgotten - bring feeling, wry humor, and uncommon insight to dilemmas that extend from ancient times to our own.
-
-
Great listen, the author is biased
- By Anonymous User on 02-15-19
By: Sunil Khilnani
-
When Paris Sizzled
- The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Their Friends
- By: Mary McAuliffe
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Paris Sizzled vividly portrays the City of Light during the fabulous 1920s, les Annees folles, when Parisians emerged from the horrors of war to find that a new world greeted them - one that reverberated with the hard metallic clang of the assembly line, the roar of automobiles, and the beat of jazz. Mary McAuliffe traces a decade that saw seismic change on almost every front, from art and architecture to music, literature, fashion, entertainment, transportation, and, most notably, behavior.
-
-
Informative, but no sizzle
- By OzEnigma on 06-01-17
By: Mary McAuliffe
-
The Man Who Invented Fiction
- How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 17th century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a novel. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from studying too many novels of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That story, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human history.
-
-
Very Interesting and Informative, but Poorly Read
- By LCorSMT on 06-21-23
By: William Egginton
-
Natasha's Dance
- A Cultural History of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 29 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 18th century with the building of St. Petersburg - a 'window on the West' - and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself - its character, spiritual essence and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works - by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall - with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.
-
-
A Kaleidescopic panorama of an enigmatic culture.
- By Tarquin on 02-13-19
By: Orlando Figes
-
The Rest Is Noise
- Listening to the 20th Century
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 23 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Rest Is Noise takes the listener inside the labyrinth of modern music, from turn-of-the-century Vienna to downtown New York in the '60s and '70s. We meet the maverick personalities and follow the rise of mass culture on this sweeping tour of 20th-century history through its music.
-
-
Learned so much!
- By Paula on 02-18-08
By: Alex Ross
-
Mademoiselle
- Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History
- By: Rhonda Garelick
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Little black dresses. Fake pearls. Jersey knit. Blazers. Ballet flats. Today - and for nearly the last hundred years - we all see some version of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel every time we pass a woman on the street. But few among us realize that Chanel’s role in the events of the twentieth century was as pervasive as her influence on fashion, or how deeply she absorbed and then brilliantly reimagined the historical currents around her.
-
-
An Unlikable Portrait
- By Sara on 09-25-16
By: Rhonda Garelick
-
Incarnations
- India in Fifty Lives
- By: Sunil Khilnani
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For all of India's myths, its sea of stories and moral epics, Indian history remains a curiously unpeopled place. In Incarnations, Sunil Khilnani fills that space, recapturing the human dimension of how the world's largest democracy came to be. His trenchant portraits of emperors, warriors, philosophers, film stars, and corporate titans - some famous, some unjustly forgotten - bring feeling, wry humor, and uncommon insight to dilemmas that extend from ancient times to our own.
-
-
Great listen, the author is biased
- By Anonymous User on 02-15-19
By: Sunil Khilnani
-
When Paris Sizzled
- The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Their Friends
- By: Mary McAuliffe
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Paris Sizzled vividly portrays the City of Light during the fabulous 1920s, les Annees folles, when Parisians emerged from the horrors of war to find that a new world greeted them - one that reverberated with the hard metallic clang of the assembly line, the roar of automobiles, and the beat of jazz. Mary McAuliffe traces a decade that saw seismic change on almost every front, from art and architecture to music, literature, fashion, entertainment, transportation, and, most notably, behavior.
-
-
Informative, but no sizzle
- By OzEnigma on 06-01-17
By: Mary McAuliffe
-
The Man Who Invented Fiction
- How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 17th century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a novel. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from studying too many novels of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That story, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human history.
-
-
Very Interesting and Informative, but Poorly Read
- By LCorSMT on 06-21-23
By: William Egginton
-
The Art of Rivalry
- Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art
- By: Sebastian Smee
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rivalry is at the heart of some of the most famous and fruitful relationships in history. The Art of Rivalry follows eight celebrated artists, each linked to a counterpart by friendship, admiration, envy, and ambition. All eight are household names today. But to achieve what they did, each needed the influence of a contemporary - one who was equally ambitious but who possessed sharply contrasting strengths and weaknesses.
-
-
Death by bob souer
- By SKWAD on 01-18-18
By: Sebastian Smee
-
Proust's Duchess
- How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siecle Paris
- By: Caroline Weber
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 29 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geneviève Halévy Bizet Straus; Laure de Sade, Comtesse de Adhéaume de Chevigné; and Élisabeth de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay, the Comtesse Greffulhe--these were the three superstars of fin-de-siècle Parisian high society who, as Caroline Weber says, "transformed themselves, and were transformed by those around them, into living legends: paragons of elegance, nobility, and style."
-
-
Enthralling, entertaining and brilliant
- By Uli Baer on 01-14-19
By: Caroline Weber
-
Tom and Jack
- The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock
- By: Henry Adams
- Narrated by: Wayne Thompson
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, trailblazing Abstract Expressionist, appear to be the polar opposite of Thomas Hart Benton's highly figurative Americana. Yet the two men had a close and highly charged relationship dating from Pollock's days as a student under Benton. Pollock's first and only formal training came from Benton, and the older man soon became a surrogate father to Pollock.
-
-
I suggest you READ, not listen...
- By Grace O'Malley on 07-01-16
By: Henry Adams
-
The Secret Life of the American Musical
- How Broadway Shows Are Built
- By: Jack Viertel
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in actors and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical?
-
-
Great review lacked music
- By joseph f mcgovern on 10-14-18
By: Jack Viertel
-
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
- 1599
- By: James Shapiro
- Narrated by: James Shapiro
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.
-
-
Note!--Abridged version
- By Scott on 01-05-16
By: James Shapiro
-
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea
- Why the Greeks Matter
- By: Thomas Cahill
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best selling history writer Thomas Cahill continues his series on the roots of Western civilization with this volume about the contributions of ancient Greece to the development of contemporary culture. Tracing the origin of Greek culture in the migrations of armed Indo-European horsemen into Attica and the Peloponnesian peninsula, he follows their progress into the creation of the Greek city-states, the refinement of their machinery of war, and the flowering of intellectual and artistic culture.
-
-
Super super
- By Richard on 12-28-03
By: Thomas Cahill
-
Rites of Spring
- The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age
- By: Modris Eksteins
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dazzling in its originality, Rites of Spring probes the origins, impact, and aftermath of World War I from the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet "The Rite of Spring" in 1913 to the death of Hitler in 1945. "The Great War", as Modris Eksteins writes, "was the psychological turning point...for modernism as a whole. The urge to create and the urge to destroy had changed places."
-
-
Fantastic
- By Anonymous User on 11-17-17
By: Modris Eksteins
-
Looking for Lorraine
- The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry
- By: Imani Perry
- Narrated by: LisaGay Hamilton
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lorraine Hansberry, who died at thirty-four, was by all accounts a force of nature. Although best-known for her work A Raisin in the Sun, her short life was full of extraordinary experiences and achievements, and she had an unflinching commitment to social justice, which brought her under FBI surveillance when she was barely in her twenties. While her close friends and contemporaries, like James Baldwin and Nina Simone, have been rightly celebrated, her story has been diminished and relegated to one work—until now.
-
-
Radiant
- By Rose Brookins on 03-20-19
By: Imani Perry
-
What Are You Looking At?
- The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern Art
- By: Will Gompertz
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is modern art? Who started it? Why do we either love it or loathe it? And why is it such big money? Join BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz on a dazzling tour that will change the way you look at modern art forever. From Monet's water lilies to Van Gogh's sunflowers, from Warhol's soup cans to Hirst's pickled shark, hear the stories behind the masterpieces, meet the artists as they really were, and discover the real point of modern art.
-
-
A simply wonderful book with a serious flaw
- By 11104 on 05-02-21
By: Will Gompertz
-
Wagnerism
- Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Alex Ross
- Length: 28 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alex Ross, renowned New Yorker music critic and author of the international best seller and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Rest Is Noise, reveals how Richard Wagner became the proving ground for modern art and politics - an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled with its capacity for beauty and violence.
-
-
Not Just for Wagner Experts!
- By Rupert Pupkin on 09-26-20
By: Alex Ross
-
Fryderyk Chopin
- A Life and Times
- By: Dr. Alan Walker
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 23 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on 10 years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C., Alan Walker's monumental Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times is the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English in more than a century. Walker's work is a corrective biography, intended to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin.
-
-
This book is a masterpiece
- By Carpe Diem on 02-09-19
By: Dr. Alan Walker
-
The Ugly Renaissance
- Sex, Greed, Violence and Depravity in an Age of Beauty
- By: Alexander Lee
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renowned as a period of cultural rebirth and artistic innovation, the Renaissance is cloaked in a unique aura of beauty and brilliance. Its very name conjures up awe-inspiring images of an age of lofty ideals in which life imitated the fantastic artworks for which it has become famous. But behind the vast explosion of new art and culture lurked a seamy, vicious world of power politics, perversity, and corruption that has more in common with the present day than anyone dares to admit.
-
-
Author falls into the pit he digs for others
- By Sean on 01-23-16
By: Alexander Lee
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Mr. B
- George Balanchine's 20th Century
- By: Jennifer Homans
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 29 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arguably the greatest choreographer who ever lived, George Balanchine was one of the cultural titans of the twentieth century—the New York Times called him "the Shakespeare of dancing." His radical approach to choreography—and life—reinvented the art of ballet and made him a legend. Written with enormous style and artistry, and based on more than one hundred interviews and research in archives across Russia, Europe, and the Americas, Mr. B carries us through Balanchine's tumultuous and high-pitched life story and into the making of his extraordinary dances.
-
-
Interesting.
- By An Old Crow on 10-15-23
By: Jennifer Homans
-
Life in Motion
- An Unlikely Ballerina
- By: Misty Copeland
- Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the only African-American soloist dancing with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has made history. But when she first placed her hands on the barre at an after-school community center, no one expected the undersized, anxious 13-year-old to become a groundbreaking ballerina. Life in Motion is a story of passion and grace for anyone who has dared to dream of a different life.
-
-
Has Copeland heard this narration? Has Audible?
- By Debbie on 08-02-15
By: Misty Copeland
-
Celestial Bodies: How to Look at Ballet
- By: Laura Jacobs
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A distinguished dance critic offers an enchanting introduction to the art of ballet. As much as we may enjoy Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, for many of us ballet is a foreign language. It communicates through movement, not words, and its history lies almost entirely abroad - in Russia, Italy, and France. In Celestial Bodies, dance critic Laura Jacobs makes the foreign familiar, providing a lively, poetic, and uniquely accessible introduction to the world of classical dance.
-
-
Ballet Love
- By Sara Cobb on 08-06-18
By: Laura Jacobs
-
Turning Pointe
- How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself
- By: Chloe Angyal
- Narrated by: Casey Holloway
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day, in dance studios all across America, legions of little children line up at the barre to take ballet class. This time in the studio shapes their lives, instilling lessons about gender, power, bodies, and their place in the world both in and outside of dance. In Turning Pointe, journalist Chloe Angyal captures the intense love for ballet that so many dancers feel, while also grappling with its devastating shortcomings....
-
-
Interesting but idealistic
- By Daryl James on 11-28-21
By: Chloe Angyal
-
Diaghilev's Empire
- How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World
- By: Rupert Christiansen
- Narrated by: Rich Miller
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Serge Diaghilev, the Russian impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, is often said to have invented modern ballet. An art critic and connoisseur, Diaghilev had no training in dance or choreography, but he had a dream of bringing Russian art, music, design, and expression to the West and a mission to drive a cultural and artistic revolution.
-
-
Great
- By Amazon Customer on 01-15-23
-
Don't Think, Dear
- On Loving and Leaving Ballet
- By: Alice Robb
- Narrated by: Alice Robb
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up, Alice Robb dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer. But by age fifteen, she had to face the reality that she would never meet the impossibly high standards of the hyper-competitive ballet world. After she quit, she tried to avoid ballet—only to realize, years later, that she was still haunted by the lessons she had absorbed in the mirror-lined studios of Lincoln Center, and that they had served her well in the wider world. The traits ballet takes to an extreme—stoicism, silence, submission—are valued in girls and women everywhere.
-
-
That vocal fry
- By melissa f goodwin on 03-03-23
By: Alice Robb
-
Mr. B
- George Balanchine's 20th Century
- By: Jennifer Homans
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 29 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arguably the greatest choreographer who ever lived, George Balanchine was one of the cultural titans of the twentieth century—the New York Times called him "the Shakespeare of dancing." His radical approach to choreography—and life—reinvented the art of ballet and made him a legend. Written with enormous style and artistry, and based on more than one hundred interviews and research in archives across Russia, Europe, and the Americas, Mr. B carries us through Balanchine's tumultuous and high-pitched life story and into the making of his extraordinary dances.
-
-
Interesting.
- By An Old Crow on 10-15-23
By: Jennifer Homans
-
Life in Motion
- An Unlikely Ballerina
- By: Misty Copeland
- Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the only African-American soloist dancing with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has made history. But when she first placed her hands on the barre at an after-school community center, no one expected the undersized, anxious 13-year-old to become a groundbreaking ballerina. Life in Motion is a story of passion and grace for anyone who has dared to dream of a different life.
-
-
Has Copeland heard this narration? Has Audible?
- By Debbie on 08-02-15
By: Misty Copeland
-
Celestial Bodies: How to Look at Ballet
- By: Laura Jacobs
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A distinguished dance critic offers an enchanting introduction to the art of ballet. As much as we may enjoy Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, for many of us ballet is a foreign language. It communicates through movement, not words, and its history lies almost entirely abroad - in Russia, Italy, and France. In Celestial Bodies, dance critic Laura Jacobs makes the foreign familiar, providing a lively, poetic, and uniquely accessible introduction to the world of classical dance.
-
-
Ballet Love
- By Sara Cobb on 08-06-18
By: Laura Jacobs
-
Turning Pointe
- How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself
- By: Chloe Angyal
- Narrated by: Casey Holloway
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day, in dance studios all across America, legions of little children line up at the barre to take ballet class. This time in the studio shapes their lives, instilling lessons about gender, power, bodies, and their place in the world both in and outside of dance. In Turning Pointe, journalist Chloe Angyal captures the intense love for ballet that so many dancers feel, while also grappling with its devastating shortcomings....
-
-
Interesting but idealistic
- By Daryl James on 11-28-21
By: Chloe Angyal
-
Diaghilev's Empire
- How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World
- By: Rupert Christiansen
- Narrated by: Rich Miller
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Serge Diaghilev, the Russian impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, is often said to have invented modern ballet. An art critic and connoisseur, Diaghilev had no training in dance or choreography, but he had a dream of bringing Russian art, music, design, and expression to the West and a mission to drive a cultural and artistic revolution.
-
-
Great
- By Amazon Customer on 01-15-23
-
Don't Think, Dear
- On Loving and Leaving Ballet
- By: Alice Robb
- Narrated by: Alice Robb
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up, Alice Robb dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer. But by age fifteen, she had to face the reality that she would never meet the impossibly high standards of the hyper-competitive ballet world. After she quit, she tried to avoid ballet—only to realize, years later, that she was still haunted by the lessons she had absorbed in the mirror-lined studios of Lincoln Center, and that they had served her well in the wider world. The traits ballet takes to an extreme—stoicism, silence, submission—are valued in girls and women everywhere.
-
-
That vocal fry
- By melissa f goodwin on 03-03-23
By: Alice Robb
What listeners say about Apollo's Angels
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 06-12-23
This book inspired me to get back into Ballet
The author has a way of describing what ballet is and it’s rich history. They highlight specific dancers, choreographers, eras and styles of ballet. As someone who did ballet as a child and is now getting back into it it’s so fascinating to learn about the history of this magical and athletic art form. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves dance and or history.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Quahog
- 09-21-11
Great - except
The book is fascinating and well-written. The narrator reads well, except for her inability to pronounce proper names and foreign phrases. Her many errors are jarring.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul
- 12-05-11
Was sad when it ended
I thought this was one of the best non-fiction books I've ever listened to. I don't know what book some of the other reviewers listened to who gave mediocre reviews but I don't think they really listened all the way through. Although a little slow in the beginning, I began to get the rhythm of the read about 1/4 of the way through and then was captivated. I'll go back and re-listen to the first 1/4 since I didn't really appreciate it then. What an amazing feat, Ms. Homans has accomplished. I have to admit complete ignorance about ballet but she changed my mind by pure education. Before I listened to the book, I had no idea that an art form that was the pure fabrication of the ultimate decadent aristocracy of the French became the standard cultural icon of the totalitarian Stalinist State. How could this happen? Ms. Homans makes the transition so understandable and rational that when I finished that section, I had to stop, take a deep breath and think about what the author had done and then she did it again with the United States. The book made me go to youtube and find every ballet clip that I could click on. Plus, the reader was great.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elizabeth Klett
- 05-14-15
A good history of ballet
Would you listen to another book narrated by Kirsten Potter?
Possibly; I know she's very prolific. I have to say, though, that although her voice is pleasing and her pacing good, I was very surprised at the amount of mis-pronounced words in her narration of this book. Clearly no one did any research to prepare for the constant stream of words and names in French, Russian, Italian, and other languages that appear throughout this book. It was very distracting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeanette L. Bare
- 02-01-18
Tortured, ephemeral, fascinating
A rigorous scholarly work which also manages to capture the unique ethos and pathos of ballet. It tells the story of an art form which constantly struggled to define itself, reaching a few moments of shining transcendence, more often caught awkwardly between eras and philosophies. Born in the courts of King Louis XIV, ballet is at heart noble, courtly, and idealistic, yet it was often reformed for new generations amidst a political and artistic mileu that was anything but. The author perfectly illustrates the singular beauty of ballet, its history, and its artists for her audience- tortured, ephemeral, fascinating.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Emily
- 09-09-15
Dry and historical
I was hoping for background as to how the various schools of ballet were developed and how their styles differ. This book was a long drawn out list of ballets. Still interesting but dry.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nabou
- 11-18-21
Deserved a better narrator
This excellent book is butchered by a reader who can’t properly pronounce words or names in French, Russian, German, Italian or even English.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mary ELDREDGE
- 08-22-12
Better than you think!
Would you listen to Apollo's Angels again? Why?
Yes. The history of Europe told in this book was a surprise. I'd like to review it all!! And recently we had the privilege of hearing and seeing the author tell her story in person. She made the book come alive in her demonstration of steps and reasons why and how they progressed with time.
What did you like best about this story?
This story was not about just ballet. It was a surprise saga of the progress and influence made on theatrical performance starting at square one! I found the social impact of "The Dance" in early European times fascinating, learning about royal and male dominance and social implication of dance in the early periods, how marriages between the French and Italian monarchy influenced theater, opera and dance. It was more or less personal stories of the players involved. MUCH more interesting than I ever imagined!
What about Kirsten Potter’s performance did you like?
She sounded like she had written the book herself.
Any additional comments?
This book was on a list of books to be read for a Writer's Conference we attended and I put off reading it, thinking I wasn't interested. Then, when I finally downloaded and listened to the book, I was totally fascinated, as was my husband! There is much more to this saga than you'd think!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Simone
- 12-10-13
Not For Novices
Beware the mood you are in when you download books to read later! What on EARTH was I thinking!!!! Why did I think this would interest me? I amaze myself sometimes.
I have to admit that parts of it were interesting but I will never retain any of the information and overall I was pretty indifferent. I ploughed through because I am cheap and rather waste my time than my money.
I can see how to someone who is more knowledgeable about dance and ballet than me would really like it, it’s very thorough and does provides a lot of detail so it still rated 3 stars in my opinion - but it’s certainly not for novices nor people with just a passing interest.
I agree with what others have said about the narration: a narrator should be able to pronounce foreign words and names correctly!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Debbie Collins
- 09-04-19
Well researched history of ballet
I loved listening to this book the first time and am really enjoying the second time around, in the hope that I might remember more of it. I enjoyed the tone of the writing although I fundamentally disagree with Homans’ conclusion in the final chapter, and that is ok since it’s written as opinion worth discussing. Very well worth listening to. A good introduction to the history of ballet, intelligently written. A great preparation for more in-depth study.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful