Diva: Great Sopranos and Mezzos Discuss Their Art - Hardcover

Matheopoulos, Helena

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1555531326 ISBN 13: 9781555531324

Publisher: Northeastern, 1992

Synopsis

The past eight years have seen the renaissance of the Diva, with the rise to prominence of a number of female singers who are capable of drawing mass audiences as well as delivering performances to rival those of the stars of the past. The divas analyze their roles, both vocally and dramatically, discuss choices in repertoire and reflect on their lives and careers. Matheopoulos interweaves her narrative with insightful and critical commentary, and peppers her profiles with remarks from conductors, directors, voice teachers, coaches and, on occasion, famous colleagues from the past. She also highlights changes in the opera scene, including the appearance in recent years of many talented Russian singers and the prominence of American-born divas during the last decade.

Interviews include 14 sopranos, including Barbara Bonney, Renee Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu, Galina Gorchakova, Catherine Malfitano and Carol Vaness, and seven mezzos, including Cecilia Bartoli, Olga Borodina and Jennifer Larmore.

About this title

Reviews

Opera lovers will luxuriate in the company here of 26 divas, and no matter that Matheopoulos ( Divo ) proves to be a pedestrian interviewer who fails to elicit information from her subjects that hasn't already been written about endlessly. Still, readers will be disarmed to be reminded that for performers, as for those sitting in the opera house, singing is a transporting experience, a mystical act that, as Montserrat Caballe explains, fuses her with the music. And fans are likely to be bemused to learn that divas are as devoted to their voices as are opera lovers: "I'm mad about my voice," exclaims Leontyne Price, while Grace Bumbry is so overcome by her beautiful sound that she wonders, "How is it possible for that to come out of this throat?" Among the divas interviewed are "La Stupenda," Joan Sutherland, who recently retired after a 38-year career; Gwyneth Jones, who made her Covent Garden debut in 1963; Christa Ludwig, who has been performing for 45 years; as well as Hildegard Behrens, Renata Scotto, Kiri Te Kanawa and Agnes Baltsa. Photos. Performing Arts Book Club main selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Misleadingly described as "interviews with the world's leading female opera singers," this book is actually a collection of journalistic "feature articles" on 18 sopranos and eight mezzo-sopranos of varying magnitude in the operatic firmament. One could see these generally well-written articles offering informative and enjoyable reading for opera fans, but only in their presumed original context (a newspaper or magazine). As a collection, they don't really work. They are pervaded by the sort of relentless hyperbole normally generated by professional publicists. In large doses, this quickly becomes tiresome. Readers expecting substantial interviews will be disappointed. Performing Arts Book Club main selection.
- E. Gaub, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Northeastern
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1555531326
• ISBN 13: 9781555531324
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352