The Last Prima Donnas - Lanfranco Rasponi | 1st Ed Knopf 1982 | Opera History

Lanfranco Rasponi

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1982

About this Item

A substantial and authoritative work of operatic history, The Last Prima Donnas brings together fifty-six extended interviews with the great female singers who defined opera from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth. Drawing on decades of personal conversations, Lanfranco Rasponi captures not only vocal technique and repertory, but also the lived experience of operatic careers shaped by war, shifting tastes, and the changing structures of the opera world.

Organized thematically - dramatic voices, coloraturas, Wagnerians, verismo interpreters, and late bloomers - the book offers an unusually broad portrait of the art form through first-person recollection. Figures such as Maria Callas, Kirsten Flagstad, Renata Tebaldi, Lotte Lehmann, Elisabeth Höngen, and many others speak candidly about training, collaborations with legendary conductors, and the emotional demands of performance at the highest level.

Illustrated throughout with striking black-and-white photographs, this first edition stands as both an important reference work and a deeply human record of a vanished operatic era, appealing equally to opera scholars, collectors, and serious enthusiasts.

Lanfranco Rasponi (1925-2007) was an Italian-born opera critic, journalist, and historian whose writing appeared in Opera News, The New York Times, and major international publications. Known for his rare personal access to singers and conductors, Rasponi specialized in preserving first-hand accounts of operatic life, making his works essential sources for twentieth-century opera history.

Seller Inventory # NF.RAS.1982.1

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Last Prima Donnas - Lanfranco Rasponi | 1st Ed Knopf 1982 | Opera History
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
• Publication Date: 1982
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Music
  • Non-Fiction