Tenor To Unravel Mystery Of Opera

Bored by opera? Can't understand the words? Placido Domingo wants to change your mind.

The celebrated tenor is working on a book for non-opera fans, "The Joy of Opera," to be published in 2009 by W.W. Norton.

"Opera for so many people remains a mystery, a curious and strange art form when it really should be much more part of our everyday lives," Domingo said in a statement issued Monday by his publisher.

According to W.W. Norton, Domingo will "draw upon his extensive repertoire to reveal how opera works on both sides of the curtain, how it is best experienced and savored, and why it is ultimately transcendent.

"The book will delve into great masterpieces by composers as diverse as Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and Richard Strauss along with insights into why they are the best-loved works, and will discuss how performers create a role; the art of listening; the community formed by audience and artists; and what it takes to make an opera singer great."