<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Wickedly funny, dishy autobiography
Review: Frances Alda is rather undeservedly remembered more for her marriage to the Met GM, Guilio Gatti-Casazza, than her own career. She was in fact a singer with a hauntingly beautiful voice, well-trained by the famed Marchesi. In person she was apparently bossy and prickly, and she feuded with Melba, Farrar, Ponselle, and other GoldenAge songstresses. But her great redeeming quality was that she was FUNNY. Her wicked sense of humor permeates almost every page of this book. She, unlike many other prima donnas, can even make fun of herself. She calls herself 'substantial', and is quite frank (and funny) about her struggles to maitain an expensive lifestyle in the Great Depression. I won't quote any lines of the book, because it really needs to be read in context, but suffice to say that Alda often sounds like she'd be a great writer for sitcoms like Seinfeld. The same sarcastic, slightly self-absorbed humor.Besides the passages which are just plain funny, there's also an unusually frank account of her marriage to the Met GM. She tells amusing 'backstage' tales of her colleagues like Caruso, Farrar and Destinn. There are nice pictures (one of Alda's most endearing qualities is that she includes not just glamorous, 'trimmed' publicity shots but regular photos which are sometimes not very flattering). Her mother is a knockout beauty. I highly recommend this book for everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: A glamorous career, well told
Review: I've only heard Frances Alda on poor recordings. But she certainly had a fun and glamorous life and wrote very well about it. The name dropping is relatively discreet, but it's also fun to read some of the animosity toward Geraldine Farrar (in her own autobiography, Farrar refers to Alda as a prima donna of secondary importance without naming her), and the ups and downs of her marriage to the manager of the Met. Artistic and entertaining at the same time, probably much like her performances. It's also a link to an old performing tradition, since her teacher also taught Nellie Melba and studied with the great vocal instructors of the 19th century, and some of that comes through in the description of her vocal exercises and lessons. In the end, there's a tiny bit of self-indulgence, but a model of information and good writing compared to biographies (hagiographies) of more recent singers.
Rating:
Summary: A glamorous career, well told
Review: I've only heard Frances Alda on poor recordings. But she certainly had a fun and glamorous life and wrote very well about it. The name dropping is relatively discreet, but it's also fun to read some of the animosity toward Geraldine Farrar (in her own autobiography, Farrar refers to Alda as a prima donna of secondary importance without naming her), and the ups and downs of her marriage to the manager of the Met. Artistic and entertaining at the same time, probably much like her performances. It's also a link to an old performing tradition, since her teacher also taught Nellie Melba and studied with the great vocal instructors of the 19th century, and some of that comes through in the description of her vocal exercises and lessons. In the end, there's a tiny bit of self-indulgence, but a model of information and good writing compared to biographies (hagiographies) of more recent singers.
<< 1 >>
| 
