Notes from a Low Singer

Michael Langdon, the internationally known bass, grew up as a singer during the great post-war period at Covent Garden, under the direction of Sir David Webster, with conductors such as Beecham, Kubelik, Giulini and Solti. Notes from a Low Singer not only chronicles a career, but also gives a real feeling for the life of a singer, with its hard work, rewards, and disappointments. Few people realize how lonely and disruptive it can be to travel the world singing in unfamiliar opera houses with unfamiliar colleagues; it is a life which does indeed have its glamorous side, but it also has its much less well-known and far from glamorous aspects, which Michael Langdon puts into realistic and often wildly humorous perspective. He is expecially interesting on the long, slow, meticulous study he undertook before performing his most famous role, Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, and of how that first assumption changed over the years. From front flap of dust jacket.