Opera: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (The New York Times Essential Library)
by Anthony Tommasini
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Book Summary Information
Author: Anthony TommasiniEdition: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2004-10-31
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 316
Book Reviews of Opera: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (The New York Times Essential Library)
Book Review: Elegantly Written and Unfailingly Interesting
Summary: 5 Stars
Books of opera synopses bore me to tears. And I wasn't expecting much here. But indeed Anthony Tommasini, the principal music critic of the New York Times, has not written that sort of book at all. He assumes that most readers will have some notion of what each opera is about and he writes of them from that perspective, focusing more on musical and dramatic aspects of the opera. He recommends his favorite CD recordings of the operas - and makes a comment that DVDs are new enough that there aren't DVDs of some of the operas he is writing about - and makes a case for each of them. He starts by giving some explanatory notes about such things as voice types, bel canto and recitative, and includes a little essay about why he chose the operas to include in his 'top 100.' He clearly is interested in proselytizing for some lesser-known and some modern operas (e.g., Copland's 'Tender Land,' Prokofiev's 'Betrothal in a Monastery,' Messiaen's 'Saint François d'Assise') that he feels have been ignored to some degree. Some choices are both surprising and exciting, such as Sondheim's 'Sweeney Todd.' He includes little-known facts that were new even to a grizzled opera-lover like this reviewer. And best of all he writes in a elegant and unfailingly interesting style. I found myself having trouble putting the book down. I tended to like the book at least partly because his enthusiasms mirror mine, but in those areas where we disagree he argued his points cogently. For instance, I am willing, after reading his essay about John Adams's 'Nixon in China,' to investigate it further. Tommasini writes for both the relative newcomer to opera and the operatic veteran. There is a dearth of technical terms, but when one is used it is gracefully and uncondescendingly defined. This is a book for the reader whose interest in opera is anything more than cursory.
Scott Morrison
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