Books by Roger Parker

With the MGF in production between 1995 and 2001, many of the cars have survived in a structurally and mechanically sound state, without the huge costs and complications of needing a complete body restoration that is so often the case with pre-1980 MGs. Suitable for the MGF owner, this is a guide to mechanical and body restoration of these cars.

London, 1820. The British capital is a metropolis that overwhelms dwellers and visitors alike with constant exposure to all kinds of sensory stimulation. Over the next two decades, the city's tumult will reach new heights: as population expansion places different classes in dangerous proximity and ideas of political and social reform linger in the air, London begins to undergo enormous infrastructure change that will alter it forever. It is the London of this period that editors Roger Parker and Susan Rutherford pinpoint in this book, which chooses one broad musical category--voice--and engages with it through essays on music of the streets, theaters, opera houses, and concert halls; on the raising of voices in religious and sociopolitical contexts; and on the perception of voice in literary works and scientific experiments with acoustics. Emphasizing human subjects, this focus on voice allows the authors to explore the multifaceted issues that shaped London, from the anxiety surrounding the city's importance in the musical world at large to the changing vocal imaginations that permeated the epoch. Capturing the breadth of sonic stimulations and cultures available--and sometimes unavoidable--to residents at the time, London Voices, 1820-1840 sheds new light on music in Britain and the richness of London culture during this period.

Opera performances are often radically inventive. Composers' revisions, singers' improvisations, and stage directors' re-imaginings continually challenge our visions of canonical works. But do they go far enough? This elegantly written, beautifully concise book, spanning almost the entire history of opera, reexamines attitudes toward some of our best-loved musical works. It looks at opera's history of multiple visions and revisions and asks a simple question: what exactly is opera? Remaking the Song, rich in imaginative answers, considers works by Handel, Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, and Berio in order to challenge what many regard as sacroscant: the opera's musical text. Scholarly tradition favors the idea of great operatic texts permanently inscribed in the canon. Roger Parker, considering examples ranging from Cecilia Bartoli's much-criticized insistence on using Mozart's alternative arias in the Marriage of Figaro to Luciano Berio's new ending to Puccini's unfinished Turandot, argues that opera is an inherently mutable form, and that all of us-performers, listeners, scholars-should celebrate operatic revisions as a way of opening works to contemporary needs and new pleasures.

Gives author's advice on maintaining and modifying MGB, GT and GTV8 cars, with some additional reference to the MGC and MG RV8 models. This book covers: regulations, insurance and market value for all models; routine maintenance; body and interior changes; and brakes, suspension and steering.