Opera: A Listener's Guide

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful as far as it goes
Review: Actually the title of Jack Sacher's <Opera: a Listener's Guide> (Schirmer Books, 1997) is misleading. It should read "A Listener's Guide to 11 Operas," because that is the scope of this otherwise excellent 511-page volume.

The works covered are "Giulio Cesare in Egitto," "Iphegenie in Tauride," "Don Giovanni," "Fidelio," "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," "Rigoletto," "Die Walkure," "Carmen," "Salome," "Porgy and Bess," and "Peter Grimes." As you can see, Dr. Sacher has chosen to represent different ages as well as different countries; and while we might quibble with his specific choices, we cannot fault his treatment of those he has chosen.

The first part devotes about 60 pages to the history, views, and tools of Opera as an art form. The next 40 or so pages deal with such abstractions as "the Human Condition" and how opera relates to conscience, spirituality, a sense of good and evil, introspection, and so on. Like most works devoted to such lofty matters, there is less "information" and more poetic speculation in this section. Still, these are terms in which many people define aspects of our culture; and, at least, this author uses concrete examples from the operas to make his point, however abstract it might be.

The bulk of the book is concerned with the 11 operas and here is where the value of the work is most evident. Each of the operas is treated with more or less the same format. Background information is provided about the opera, its times and its style. A specific element is then discussed, such as the ambiguity of Zerlina's reactions during the duet "La ci darem la mano" or the Fate motif in "Carmen." Several music examples are given for present and future references.

Then each opera is explained, scene by scene, with plot in Roman type and musical details in Italics. This is followed by an analysis of the characters (which seems to belong before the summaries) and a bibliography.

Believe me, if you read about each scene and then play it immediately afterwards, you will learn things that you have missed no matter how many times you have played these works in the past.

A remarkable book and I can only hope for additional volumes devoted to the hundred or so great operas not treated here.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful as far as it goes
Review: Actually the title of Jack Sacher's (Schirmer Books, 1997) is misleading. It should read "A Listener's Guide to 11 Operas," because that is the scope of this otherwise excellent 511-page volume.

The works covered are "Giulio Cesare in Egitto," "Iphegenie in Tauride," "Don Giovanni," "Fidelio," "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," "Rigoletto," "Die Walkure," "Carmen," "Salome," "Porgy and Bess," and "Peter Grimes." As you can see, Dr. Sacher has chosen to represent different ages as well as different countries; and while we might quibble with his specific choices, we cannot fault his treatment of those he has chosen.

The first part devotes about 60 pages to the history, views, and tools of Opera as an art form. The next 40 or so pages deal with such abstractions as "the Human Condition" and how opera relates to conscience, spirituality, a sense of good and evil, introspection, and so on. Like most works devoted to such lofty matters, there is less "information" and more poetic speculation in this section. Still, these are terms in which many people define aspects of our culture; and, at least, this author uses concrete examples from the operas to make his point, however abstract it might be.

The bulk of the book is concerned with the 11 operas and here is where the value of the work is most evident. Each of the operas is treated with more or less the same format. Background information is provided about the opera, its times and its style. A specific element is then discussed, such as the ambiguity of Zerlina's reactions during the duet "La ci darem la mano" or the Fate motif in "Carmen." Several music examples are given for present and future references.

Then each opera is explained, scene by scene, with plot in Roman type and musical details in Italics. This is followed by an analysis of the characters (which seems to belong before the summaries) and a bibliography.

Believe me, if you read about each scene and then play it immediately afterwards, you will learn things that you have missed no matter how many times you have played these works in the past.

A remarkable book and I can only hope for additional volumes devoted to the hundred or so great operas not treated here.