Bravo!: A Guide to Opera for the Perplexed - Softcover

Barrymore Laurence Scherer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452277183 ISBN 13: 9780452277182

Publisher: Plume, 1997

Synopsis

A guide to opera written to allow readers to get a quick overview of a particular theme or work in the opera repertoire includes a glossary of operatic terminology, a look at the different voice categories, opera etiquette, and other features

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Opera is the fastest-growing performance art in the country, enjoying a 35% increase in its audience in the past decade, according to the New York Times. But freelance music critic Scherer provides only a pallid explanation for this popularity, suggesting that opera's "emotional high" is the audience-grabber. Disappointingly, his handbook to this enormous subject provides the neophyte with only a suggestion of that high, via dollops of information that on occasion are very basic, such as his clarification of the different voices (coloratura soprano and lyric soprano, for example). Scherer is at his most instructive when he gives his opinions free rein, as when he likens composer Meyerbeer (1791-1864) to Andrew Lloyd Webber. He shows how opera evolved in 16th-century Italy, then spread to France, Germany and Russia as various styles, baroque, opera seria, romanticism, etc., developed. Scherer's analysis of Russian opera is interesting for his explication of the friction between the Slavophile camp of Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and Mussorgsky and Westernizers such as Tchaikovsky, a friction that marks Russian literature as well. Readers will be struck by the paucity of American opera, which is only now finding its voice thanks to the likes of Menotti and Glass. If this introduction to opera is a bit sketchy, Scherer is nonetheless such a consummate opera lover that his enthusiasm ultimately carries the day.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Scherer, music critic for the Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio and a contributor on opera and classical music for several magazines, has written an informative little handbook on an art form that is perplexing to many. However, if those who are baffled will pull Scherer's book off the shelf, they soon will see the form clearly through the eyes of an ardent fan. The book is chock full of opera facts, history, and lore. Scherer's discussions of the various styles of opera (Italian, German, French, Russian, English, and American) are concise yet well connected to the overall picture. Operetta is not excluded, nor is opera etiquette or even famous foods named after opera singers (ever hear of Peach Melba?). There is not a dearth of opera appreciation books [See John W. Freeman's The Metropolitan Opera Stories of Great Operas, Volume 2, Phil Goulding's Ticket to the Opera, and Alexander Waugh's Opera: A New Way of Listening, reviewed above.?Ed.], but considering how inexpensive this amiable introduction is, most collections should add it.?Kathleen Sparkman, Baylor Univ. Lib., Waco, Tex.--, but considering how inexpensive this amiable introduction is, most collections should add it.?Kathleen Sparkman, Baylor Univ. Lib., Waco, Tex.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Plume
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0452277183
• ISBN 13: 9780452277182
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304