Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre [Hardcover]

Robertson Davies (Author), Brenda Davies (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1998

This autobiographical collection of pieces draws on Robertson Davies' life-long passion for the theatre, opera and music. It encompasses speeches and prologues to plays, a libretto for a children's opera, a suggestion for a film scenario and fragments from Davies' own diary.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The following passage reveals Robertson Davies's great love of the theater, and it shows that these collected pieces, numbering 33, transcend mere criticism: "For as long as I can remember, playgoing has stood first among all pleasures with me, and although to most people it is simply a pastime, I think that I have brought qualities to it which raised it above that.... I sincerely believe that I have been a good playgoer, and that is something better, perhaps, than having been a well-known critic."

One's admiration for this literary master doubles when remembering that drama was Davies's academic field, and it constituted one of his three successful careers (he acted with the Old Vic in England). By 1962, Davies had begun to craft his playgoing notes into the Theatre Diary--snippets of which appear in this posthumously published collection. Each of these 33 pieces, introduced by the author and followed by a diary entry or two, demonstrates Davies's enormous and diverse erudition. Included are speeches, prologues to plays, articles about the theatre and opera, a discussion of folksong, a children's opera, a story set to music, and a preliminary sketch of a film script. Several personal essays shed light on his own ambitions as a playwright.

Many of these pieces were lectures, and they enjoy the immediacy and cadence of the spoken word. A spacious tone ensues; that is, complex ideas are delivered clearly, because they are intended for a listening audience. Surprisingly, this enhances the pleasure of reading them. Happy Alchemy may not appeal to the reader whose interest in theater and opera is only occasional but certainly will to any ardent Robertson Davies fan who delights in the turnings of a learned and sophisticated mind. --Hollis Giammatteo

From Publishers Weekly

Last year, Davies's widow, Brenda, and their daughter, Jennifer Surridge, worked to compile The Merry Heart, a collection of Davies's speeches and writings on reading, writing and books. Davies had consented to the plans for that book in the last months of his life. This, however, seems to be purely a production of his estate and is, truth to tell, uneven. There are some wonderful pieces: His speech on "The Noble Greeks" wanders convincingly from Greek religion and culture to Jim Jones and David Koresh to troubles with translation; while "Lewis Carroll in the Theatre" is a fine work on Carroll generally, but one that puts him into the context of 19th-century theater. But for someone who was an actor and playwright married to a former stage manager, many of the theatrical pieces are slight?introductions to his plays; an encomium on the event of Stratford's 40th; a perfectly nice, but not notable book review of Michael Holroyd's third volume on Shaw. Two well-executed pastiches stand in distinction to Davis's libretto for an "Operetta for Young People" ("O love, you hang on Fillpail's horns/And swell her splendid udder!/Triumph, O Fillpail, win today,/The alternative makes me shudder!"). Midway, a piece in defense of the emotional immediacy of melodrama leads neatly into several very good works: on how weak or badly bowdlerized literature gives way to great opera; on the operatic juxtaposition of tragedy and comedy; and on the possible uses (exploited and un-) of Celtic folklore in opera. In these pieces Davies warms to themes of myth and archetype and wonder. In these pieces one hears the voice of the old mage.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670880191
• ISBN-13: 978-0670880195
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,045,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book by a great author., July 7, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Oakland, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre (Hardcover)

This is a delightful collection of Davies's thoughts on the theater in all its myriad forms, including opera, melodrama, tragedy, and comedy. Davies has a perfect mix of wit, erudition, and curmudgeonly attitude, and in addition to being a terrific writer, he is an ardent devotee of the stage.

This comes forth in all the pieces, and is further emphasized by excerpts from his "Theater Diary," provided by the editors, his wife and daughter. While some of the pieces are there just for amusement (e.g., a libretto Davies wrote for a children's opera), others are very thought-provoking (such as his "Opera and Humour" talk), and still others are a melding of the two extremese (for instance, his talk on "Lewis Carroll and the Theater").

Some of the pieces repeat themselves, as they are based on talks he gave and pieces he wrote throughout his life, and obviously certain comments which are redundant to the reader would no doubt have been fresh to the audience.

All in all, I recommend this book very highly, for anyone with an interest in theater, or a love of Davies. I would have liked more of his thoughts about theater and less of things like his libretto (though I did find that amusing), as it felt more like that was included to meet some page count demanded by the publisher. However, this may not have been possible given the material at hand.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting for a Davies' fan, March 8, 2001

By 

David Graham (Shell, Ecuador) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre (Mass Market Paperback)

Although I'm not a big theatre fan, I do enjoy reading Robertson Davies. He is one of two writers whose work I will read even when the subject is not up my alley; so when C.S. Lewis writes about Medieval English Literature or Robertson Davies writes about the theatre, I still read them. It brings me great pleasure to experience their writers' craftsmanship and I know I will learn something. (I also know I'm going to enjoy their humor.) Happy Alchemy's subtitle reads, "On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre", and this work present 33 Davies pieces, including "Lewis Carroll in the Theatre", "Opera for the Man Who Reads Hamlet", "Dickens and Music", "How I Write a Book", and the humorously self-depreciating "My Musical Career." Happy Alchemy shares many fine insights about humanity while also providing many historical and literary lessons for the reader. To read Davies (or Lewis) is to expand one's view of the world.