The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Rating:
Summary: A perfect companion guide to the world of opera
Review: "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera" definitely needs to be back in print. Compiled by Harold Rosenthal and John Warrack, there are over 3,000 entries covering pretty much exactly what you would want to find in such a volume: composers, singers, conductors, librettists, synopses, details of first performances, characters in operas, the first lines of famous arias, technical terms, and the history of opera in countries around the globe. You will also find a bibliography, a list of abbreviations and a key to vocal compasses. This is a comprehensive little book and its compact size makes it perfect to keep near your opera CDs for handy reference to look up everything from Aachen, a town in northwestern Germany with a small opera house with a high reputation as the cradle of many distinguished artists, to Zurich's Stadttheater, first opened in 1833. Rosnethal had been the official archivist at Covent Garden and an editor of "Opera" magazine, while Warrack worked in various opera companies as an orchestral player and was the music critic of the "Sunday Telegraph" for a decade. I have been using this book for over twenty years and the best thing I can say about it is that even when working at the computer, I turn to this reference guide before I search the internet for anything having to do with opera.

Rating:
Summary: A perfect companion guide to the world of opera
Review: "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera" definitely needs to be back in print. Compiled by Harold Rosenthal and John Warrack, there are over 3,000 entries covering pretty much exactly what you would want to find in such a volume: composers, singers, conductors, librettists, synopses, details of first performances, characters in operas, the first lines of famous arias, technical terms, and the history of opera in countries around the globe. You will also find a bibliography, a list of abbreviations and a key to vocal compasses. This is a comprehensive little book and its compact size makes it perfect to keep near your opera CDs for handy reference to look up everything from Aachen, a town in northwestern Germany with a small opera house with a high reputation as the cradle of many distinguished artists, to Zurich's Stadttheater, first opened in 1833. Rosnethal had been the official archivist at Covent Garden and an editor of "Opera" magazine, while Warrack worked in various opera companies as an orchestral player and was the music critic of the "Sunday Telegraph" for a decade. I have been using this book for over twenty years and the best thing I can say about it is that even when working at the computer, I turn to this reference guide before I search the internet for anything having to do with opera.

Rating:
Summary: Would you trust it?
Review: Would this give you confidence?

On the first reading I had close to 147 objections by the end of letter C and most of these were factual errors. I wrote to OUP and received what I perceived as smug replies.

Eight basses (De Vries p190, Krivchenya p386, Piragov p557, Reysen p597, Rossi-Lemeni p612, Shalyapin p655, Gustav Siehr p658 and David Ward p758) are credited with Mozart's Don Basilio in their repertoires while the lyric tenor Lemeshev is credited with "Mozart's Count Almaviva".

The entry "chorus" states "Verdi's Nabucco (1842) where the opposing factions of Egypt and Israel" Wrong country, wrong continent.

Check the musical ranges under "soprano", "mezzo-soprano", "contralto" , "tenor", "baritone" and "bass" against the score and you will find it a laborious chore. It is possible that Messrs Warrack and West found similarly because the ranges given are not always correct. In a profession where the difference of a semitone can make a role possible or impossible, we read that Dandini and the Count in Capriccio range from c to a flat', when Dandini is actually G to f', a fourth out at the bottom and a minor third at the top. The Count in Capriccio is from A flat on page 159 of the score to g' on page 120.

Jupiter in Orphee aux Enfers is credited with the bass range from the Amateur Operatic Society Version of the score instead of the baritone range in the professional. Perhaps the authors could go to Offenbach's various professional versions and correct me here.

On pages 12, 16, and 230 we read about "vocal chords" instead of "vocal cords", a common mistake, a chord being two notes sounded together and vocal cords being the vibrating strips of flesh which produce speech and song.
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Under "Balzac" a list of obscure operas is provided but there is no entry for Oscar Wilde.

According to ODO the action of The Fiery Angel starts in Cologne and goes to Cologne.

Page 1 "Abigaille. Nabucco's daughter". The plot hinges on the fact she isn't.

Page2 "Abul Hassan ...(bar), the eponymous Barber of Bagdad" He's a heavy bass , just llok at his opening phrase in the score.

Page 4. "Nixon's visit to China in 1972, the first by a Western leader" Australia's Gough Whitlam beat him there.

Page 5 "Addio fiorito asil. Pinkerton's (ten) aria in Act II of Puccini's Madama Butterfly" It's in Act III in my score.

"Adelaide. City in South Australia. The first opera staged was La Muette de Portici in 1840" No, Rob Roy. "followed by an Italina season in 1865" Sorry 1856. There are several errors following in this entry.

Nevertheless, the book makes an excellent doorstopper.