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A Night at the Opera: An Irreverent Guide to The Plots, The Singers, The Composers, The Recordings (Modern Library Paperbacks)
Customer Reviews:
Great, though irreverant, guide to opera
By dcreader - September 28, 2000Much more than just a collection of synopses of the great operas, A Night at the Opera provides a great starting point for learning about any major opera.First, you'll learn about how the opera came to be written and the story behind the story. Then, there's a full synopsis of the opera. Next is a musical description of the numbers, with a system of noting the highlights to watch out for. Finally, there's an essay by the author, Covent Garden's Denis Foreman and his rating.There's about five pages or so per opera, with longer ones getting much more (there's a whole introduction to The Ring). The style is breezy and colloquial. Foreman writes in a very tongue in cheek way that obviously some people don't get or like. Still, unless you despise dry English humor, it's a lot of fun. The synopses can get a little hard to follow with some of Foreman's jokes at times, however.Also, there's a large glossary in back with lengthy dissertations (again, very tongue in cheek), and... read more
Nutty, profound, and extremely enjoyable
By E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" - July 9, 2002Suppose you had an eccentric, British uncle who was absolutely nuts about opera. You're a tyro yourself, so whenever you go CD shopping or attend a live performance, he entertains you with a humorous summary of the libretto (not too hard to do with an opera if it's not "Wozzeck"), tells you which bits to really listen for, and provides a critique of singers. He's an expert---after all he was the deputy chairman of one of England's great opera houses---but he's not a snob. Listen to what he has to say about death in the mystic land of Oprania:"Death is extremely common and has an almost universal characteristic unknown in our world, namely a period of Imminence during which the doomed person suffers a compulsion to sing. There are few known cases in Oprania where death has occurred without an aria, or at least a cavatina, being delivered during Imminence. The period of Imminence for long deaths can last for up to a whole act. Not even decapitation can ensure an aria-free... read more
Unique
By Carvet "carvet" - June 29, 2004This guide is one of several books that I purchased to learn about opera (so, beginners, listen up - opera experts go elsewhere). This guide is unique, witty, and entertaining. The "irreverent" style of the synopses is fun at first, but if you read several in a row it can wear thin. Read the synopsis of Adriana Lecouvreur that Amazon furnishes online to see if you appreciate the style - it is fairly typical except that some of the others have more of a British accent. The British slang sometimes goes over my head which means that I miss the point that is being made so cleverly. However, the real plus of the irreverent style is that it helps to cast the story in more contemporary light (which makes suspension of disbelief easier). I like that there are real opinions about the works, not just descriptions. Some guides are so brief and sterile that you don't really get any flavor - not so here, there is flavor everywhere. What you may not be able to tell from the... read more
| AVAILABILITY | |||
| Merchant | Format | Price | |
| Amazon US | Paperback | $2.16 - $24.95 | |
| eBooks.com | Digital (PDF) | $12.99 | |
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