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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
As a nuts-and-bolts operagoer's guide, Denis Forman's book is richly incisive. It's equally satisfying as a tart, effervescent take on the solemn world of opera.
As a nuts-and-bolts operagoer's guide, Denis Forman's book is richly incisive. It's equally satisfying as a tart, effervescent take on the solemn world of opera.
The author--a British television executive and former deputy chairman of the Royal Opera House--covers most of the likely offerings of your local repertory company, with a few questionable omissions (Peter Grimes) and inclusions (The Threepenny Opera). For each he provides a synopsis, musical highlights, critical remarks, and historical information (the premiere of Il Trovatore: "stupendous"; that of Norma: "a flop"). Another section offers comments on everything from the craze for authenticity to the practice of booing.
Forman's opinions sometimes run athwart of convention. Falstaff "has no sex appeal and no heart, and opera demands both these qualities"; Tristan und Isolde is the creation of "the Wagner that liked to spend time stroking velvet." His tone, especially in the synopses, is often evocative of Anna Russell's opera parodies: "It really is too bad of you Tristan to die on me like this. She passes out."
The prose can be cute, but that fits Forman's approach of puncturing the inflated atmosphere of opera while glorying in it. Though he is most entertaining when he's daring to shout in church, his enthusiasms are as illuminating as his barbs. "Traviata is the first grown-up opera about contemporary life," he says, adroitly locating that work in operatic history. In Don Giovanni, "Mozart brought terror to the opera stage for the first time." It's the book's greatest pleasure that Forman's passion is matched by his knowledge. --David Olivenbaum
From Booklist
The author, a former deputy chairman of the Royal Opera House, may well become the Anna Russell of print with this irreverent guide to plots, singers, composers, and recordings of more than 80 operas.
Forman's criteria for selection is that of recorded popularity--the opera must have had three or more versions listed in the Gramophone CD catalog of December 1992. Operas are alphabetically arranged from the backstage tragedy Adriana Lecouvreur to the psychiatric tragedy, Wozzeck. All are described in degrees of irreverence and are also rated--from alpha-plus to gamma. Also included is a description of the cast, running time, and a unique commentary on the major arias, described as "Look Out For," with the maximum of a three-star rating awarded "at the whim of the author." The arias are listed in "minutes from start." Notes, news and gossip, and a comment section complete the entries. The book concludes with a dictionary of opera terms; brief biographies of composers, conductors, and singers; and an index.
Although there is much in this volume that might be considered sacrilegious by the serious opera aficionado, Forman's style is humorous, entertaining, and insightful--Hansel and Gretel is said to be loved in Munich because of its "Grimm Teutonic nature." Originally published in Britain in 1994 as the Good Opera Guide, A Night at the Opera belongs in all music reference collections. It will balance the serious, weighty tomes and perhaps spark an interest in opera for those who think it dull and boring.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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