We analyze the ground-state properties and the excitation spectrum of
Bose-Einstein condensates of trapped dipolar particles. First, we consider the
case of a single-component polarized dipolar gas. For this case we discuss the
influence of the trapping geometry on the stability of the condensate as well
as the effects of the dipole-dipole interaction on the excitation spectrum. We
discuss also the ground state and excitations of a gas composed of two
antiparallel dipolar components.Comment: 12 pages, 9 eps figures, final versio