Publisher's Note Oh, joy. Oh, glee. They'll leave Paree Her health he'll soon restore. She starts to cough. The trip is off. She sinks unto the floor. -- from Bartalini's La Traviata This delightful volume combines the sharp wit and skilled artistry of Gualtiero Bartalini to present hilariously illustrated rhymed rewrites of twenty-seven opera librettos. The forty unforgettable watercolors de-pict operatic drama in all its glory, while Bartalini's satirical interpretations poke good-natured fun at the unlikely plots and dim-witted protagonists of those usually staid and proper musical extravaganzas.