Start-Up at the New Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1966-1976 [Hardcover]

Paul Jackson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2006

When the first two books of Jackson's groundbreaking chronicle were published, critics hailed them as "historical gold" (Denver Post), "a thorough and thoroughly entertaining history" (Boston Globe), and "an opera-lover's dream" (Opera News). In this new work, Paul Jackson expands his survey of the broadcasts by examining the decade that saw the move from the old house uptown to the technological marvel at Lincoln Center. There Rudolf Bing's final six years give way to four seasons of management turmoil until 1976, when James Levine was named music director and took hold of the Met's artistic future. 140 performances, beginning with the controversial opening night premiere of Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, are vividly recaptured by Jackson, a musicologist with an ability to combine narrative history with musical analysis and criticism. The legendary creations of Tebaldi and Corelli, Sutherland and Tucker, of Caballe, Crespin, Price, Bergonzi, Gedda and others are explored in depth. Conductor luminaries like Bernstein, Bohm, Krips and Karajan spell the efforts of more mortal colleagues. And Domingo and Pavarotti enter upon the scene that they will dominate for decades to come. Featuring 100 photos (the majority courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera Archives), this book will delight both seasoned devotees of the broadcasts and new listeners alike.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: Amadeus Press; First Edition edition (December 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574671472
• ISBN-13: 978-1574671476
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,445,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fitting Conclusion to a Superb Series, February 13, 2007

By 

Colin Harrison (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Start-Up at the New Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1966-1976 (Hardcover)

"Start-Up at the New Met," Vol. III is apparently the final installment in Paul Jackson's epic traversal of the history of the Met broadcasts. The book is fully worthy of the first two volumes.

I have heard many of the broadcasts Jackson covers - indeed, I remember hearing many of them when they happened - and for the most part I find his assessments astute and on point, even when our opinions diverge. Unlike most critics, Jackson has the luxury of writing as much, and in as much detail, about a singer's performance as he wants to. As a result, as in the previous volumes, we often get a blow-by-blow account of a singer's entire performance, both the big numbers and the smaller felicities along the way. I wonder how many people realize what an achievement is Jackson's to write page after page about singers, operas and voices - often the same singers, operas and voices many times - and yet manage (for the most part) to avoid monotony or a sense of repetitiveness or redundancy. Mr. Jackson has a rare imagination and command of vocabulary, and his writing is one of the treats of this series.

I also appreciate Jackson's lack of meanness and cattiness in reviewing these performances, even when dealing with singers that he obviously does not care for. His judgments are balanced and manage to be objective without concealing the obvious passions that motivate the author. One never has the feeling of an old geezer sitting on the porch wishing for Ze Oldt Days and bewailing the decline of vocal standards. Rather, Jackson obviously appreciates great singing wherever and whenever it happens, and while knowledge of the past informs his judgments, it does not cramp them. One gets the impression that he looks for as much to enjoy in a performance or a singer as he can. After the mean, shallow bitchiness that so often afflicts operatic discourse, particularly on-line, Jackson is like a breath of fresh air.

Another plus of Jackson's books is that they always give one a sense of the historical context of a performance. His chapter on the first season at Lincoln Center, and the travails of the new house, make for fascinating reading. It helps that Jackson apparently has had free access to the Met archives.

Photos are numerous and gorgeous. I haven't done a direct comparison, but it seems to me that there are more photos per page than in past books, and this is all to the good, for my taste.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. With this and the previous two volumes, Jackson has written one of the most monumental studies ever of singing and operatic performance. His books belong in any opera lover's collection. In my library, I regard them as indispensable and they have been, and will continue to be, a source of hours of pleasure and education. Thank you, Mr. Jackson.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Tribute to Ten Years of Performances, February 14, 2007

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Start-Up at the New Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1966-1976 (Hardcover)

To me, the astounding part of Mr. Jackson's writing is how much more he sees in every performance than I do. He seems to understand every nuance of every singer to see the very subtle differences between two great performers. Not only that, but he is able to put words together that explain these differences that even I can understand. Unlike many other writers, it is very rare that I get the feeling that somehow we didn't go see the same show.

In this book he covers ten years of performances of the New Met at Lincoln Center. That's a lot of performances, and his descriptions seem always to be right on the mark without being repetitive. I'm afraid that I would absolutely run out of things to say --I guess that's why he is the master and I the student.

For the publication he has also selected a lot of photographs photographs. Most of these come from the archives of the met and serve to illustrate the points he is making.

This book is a splendid tribute to the performances.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PROFESSOR JACKSON SCORES AGAIN, February 23, 2007

By 

Joseph Randolph Stewart - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Start-Up at the New Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1966-1976 (Hardcover)

This long-awaited volume is, apparently (and unhappily), the last in Paul Jackson's survey of the Metropolitan Opera broadcast series. It seems he doesn't intend to carry on the narrative past the end of the 1975-76 season, breaking off at the point when James Levine is named the Met's Music Director. As someone who didn't begin listening to the Met broadcasts in earnest until the '72-'73 season, I would love to read Jackson's reactions to some of the performances from the late 1970s and beyond. But, we'll have to take what he gives us. And once again, what he gives us here is a pithy, marvelously descriptive appreciation of numerous Met broadcasts, starting with the new Met's opening night (Barber's "Antony and Cleopatra") in 1966 and ending (chronologically, anyway) with the "Meistersinger" of April 17, 1976, though the last broadcast actually discussed in the text is the "Aida" of March 6 '76. I have noticed evidence of less-than-scrupulous editing, with a few more typos than in Jackson's first two books. Some examples: the photo of baritone Donald McIntyre on p.381 is mis-identified as "JOHN" McIntyre; the "Ballo in Maschera" performance of Jan.30, 1971 on p.145 notes in the text that Molinari-Pradelli was replaced by Cleva as conductor, but the cast list in the margin lists Molinari-Pradelli. But these are minor blemishes at best. The one thing that disappoints me is that the Index seems markedly less useful this time around. Some things are unaccountably left out altogether: looking for performances of Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier?" You won't even FIND this work listed in the index! (If you're curious, Jackson discusses the 1973 broadcast starting on p.350; 1974 on p.354; and 1976 on page 517). However, as someone on the Opera-L discussion list pointed out, there actually IS a "page reference to broadcast performances of operas critiqued in the text," complete with dates... it just isn't in the Index! It starts FOLLOWING the index on page 630. Still making my way through this large volume... but given Jackson's evocative writing style (think J.B. Steane with even more discussion of vocal technique), browsing is part of the fun.