When Divas Confess: Master Opera Singers in Their Leading Roles

What really is opera? Why are we so captivated by opera's stars? What are the protean forces and human archetypes that give rise to great opera? And how does an opera singer internalize these elements, mold them, and then emerge from behind the curtain as a fully developed character? These are the questions that enticed Marcia Lieberman to take her camera to the world's great opera houses to compile this remarkable collection of images and vignettes.

Granted access to the dressing rooms of some of the world's most revered opera performers, including Plácido Domingo, Marilyn Horne, and Renée Fleming, Lieberman seeks images that shed light on the mystique--and on the process of transformation--of an operatic performer. Drawing on the great recurring archetypes--among them the Tyrant, the Magician, the Hero, and the Deceiver--Lieberman invites each opera star to expound on the notions of character and transformation, posing for her camera in full costume and makeup, during stolen moments between acts or just before the curtain goes up at actual performances. Accompanying Lieberman's compelling photographs are insightful and engaging texts by renowned music historian Paul Griffiths, who explores the origins of these operatic characters and the different types of musical sensibilities that inform them.

Marcia Lieberman is a San Francisco-based photographer who is known for her images of people. She has a deep conviction and interest in people and enjoys reading and researching her subjects. Her work about people in positions of power dates to her first assignment to follow Geraldine Ferraro in the campaign of 1984, demonstrating how women politick. Her next project on Tehuana women included field study with an anthropologist and was exhibited with a commentary by Isabel Allende. In addition to her freelance work she is a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley.

Paul Griffiths was born in Bridgend, Wales, in 1947. He studied biochemistry at Oxford and was chief music critic of The Times of London from 1982 to 1992. Since that time, he has written for the New Yorker and the New York Times. His first book, A Concise History of Modern Music, was published in 1978, and has been followed by several other musical studies. Among his fictional works are three novels--Myself and Marco Polo, The Lay of Sir Tristram, and a pale hope I--and several librettos, including The Jewel Box (for Mozart), Marco Polo (for Tan Dun), and What Next? (for Elliot Carter).

Perry Lorenzo is the director of education for Seattle Opera. He teaches at Seattle University and lectures frequently on opera in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany.