Customer Reviews

Rosa Ponselle: American Diva

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This book was very informative as to Rosa Ponselle's extraordinary musical career; but lacking was more of a story about her rise to fame,relationships with others, and a more personal look at Ponselle.

I found this book to be the most boring I have ever read about any "Opera Singer." There are many of the "I had another great success" or "I'm better than Ms. X, Y and Z because..." I would have even preferred another of those. I was thoroughly surprised because of the respect I have for the author, but one wants to know about the Singer! I know nothing more about "The Great Rosa Ponselle" than I did before and just wondered what all the fuss was about. There was more detail about her and sister Carmela's days in vaudeville. The first third of this book deals with the various sections of Italy, why the people live in those areas, what they do there, the type of soil one finds, the similarity (or not) to Sicily or Naples. This would make more sense if she had been born in Italy and/or spent much time there.

In the middle section, I learned more than I wanted to know of how much money Ms. Ponselle made - to the penny;
how much she spent, on whom and/or what - again to the very penny. Also, how much she invested and in which stocks, how well they did until the Great Crash of 1929. I learned almost nothing about her friendship with Caruso or any other of her colleagues. The author glosses over the the singers who came to the Met later and "took her Opera roles" - Jeritza, Rethberg, Muzio, among others, without going into much detail. The final chapters in which her work with well-known students was discussed was interesting, though too short. No specifics regarding feelings, interactions or comments on progress were mentioned. It was the most one-dimensional biography I have read in years.