Book Description
The Black Dog Opera Library is one of the most popular, informative, and budget-friendly ways to enjoy all the great operas. Each book in the series includes a history of the opera, a synopsis of the story, a complete libretto in its original language as well as in English, and dozens of photographs and drawings depicting great scenes, singers, performances, and more. Each book also includes an excellent Angel/EMI recording of the entire opera on two CDs, as well as commentary from experts in the field who guide you through the music as you listen.
Customer Reviews:
AN A (AS IN "ARIA") FOR THIS SET OF WORDS AND MUSIC.......2006-01-03
The marriage between words and music has never been better produced. And more popularly priced. Each volume includes two compact discs with the complete opera, as well as a hardcover book containing the libretto in it original language and an English translation with annotated commentary and expert commentary. Stunning color photographs illustrate the history of the opera and the production's performers, including Grace Bumbry, Birgit Nilsson, Renata Scotto and Franco Corelli. The slipcased set includes Aida, Carmen, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, La Traviata and The Marriage of Figaro; each volume is also priced individually. Break out the bubbles ... that's "bubbles" as in Beverly Sills, the star of La Traviata.
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Puccini: His International Art
Michele Girardi
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Puccini: His Life and Works (Master Musicians Series)
ASIN: 0226297586 |
Book Description
Puccini's operas are among the most popular and widely performed in the world, yet few books have examined his body of work from an analytical perspective. This volume remedies that lack in lively prose accessible to scholars and opera enthusiasts alike.
Book Description
This guide presents a unique collection of critical, analytical, and documentary essays on Puccini’s most popular opera. There are new studies on the background to Parisian bohemianism (by Jerrold Seigel), on Puccini’s musical language (by William Drabkin), and on the opera’s stage history (by William Ashbrook). Following research in Italian archives, and a thorough study of the published sources (many of them previously unknown to modern scholarship), the editors have added further essays on the genesis of the opera, the structure of the libretto, and aspects of the work’s reception. The book also contains a brief study of Puccini’s working methods as seen through the autograph score, a full synopsis, discography, many illustrations, and an appendix of related documents (some published in English for the first time).
Book Description
Puccini is the most beloved composer of opera in the world: one quarter of all opera performances in the U.S. are of his operas, his music pervades movie soundtracks, and his plots have infiltrated our popular culture. But, although Puccini’s art still captivates audiences and the popularity of such works as Tosca, La Boh?me, and Madama Butterfly has never waned, he has long been a victim of critical snobbery and cultural marginalization.
In this witty and informative guide for beginners and fans alike, William Berger sets the record straight, reclaiming Puccini as a serious artist. Combining his trademark irreverent humor with passionate enthusiasm, Berger strikes just the right balance of introductory information and thought-provoking analysis. He includes a biography, discussions of each opera, a glossary, fun facts and anecdotes, and above all keen insight into Puccini’s enduring power. For anyone who loves Puccini and for anyone who just wonders what all the fuss is about, Puccini Without Excuses is funny, challenging, and always a pleasure to read.
INCLUDES:
_ Why Puccini’s art and its message of hope is crucial to our world today
_ How Anglo audiences often miss the mythic significance of his operas
_ The use of his music as shorthand in films, from A Room with a View to Fatal Attraction
_ A scene-by scene analysis of each opera
_ A guide to the wealth of available recordings, books, and videos
Customer Reviews:
The author understands that opera is the greatest art form........2007-09-06
I am doing research for a program to be given during a Great Operatic Moments by Puccini concert with the Heartland Chamber Chorale and this book not only helped in preparation of this program, it was fun to read and well organized. Having heard many operas, including three where the singer was mute and walked the role while the voice came from the orchestra pit, I am familiar with many performances of Puccini. This book will enhance my next time at La Boheme (Lyric Opera, Chicago). I believe this is the book which will help anyone hear Puccini for the first time and delight the experienced listener. Funny and informative.
A decent introduction.......2007-08-24
I would only recommend this book to someone beginning to explore Puccini who was desperate for a guidebook. With the exception of the useful biography in the beginning there is not much in here that one could not discover on their own by listening to recordings of the operas.
I found most of the commentary shallow.
Potential buyers should know that most of this book is a summary of Puccini's major operas (Edgar is not included).
Part Three, "The Puccini Code" is quite disappointing. I had hoped I would gain some deeper appreciation for Puccini but I came away unsure that there was anything I did not discover on my own.
Sometimes, Berger could not help taking unwarranted strikes at Wagner. This is strange for someone who wrote a book about Wagner and certainly knows better than to resort to clichés about his operas. At one point he even suggests that racial purity is a theme in Wagner's opera. If there are arguments to be made here, they should be made and not stuck in, unjustified, in a book on Puccini. He levels a similarly unjustified charge of racism on some of Puccini's critics. Mispronouncing "Turandot" . . . "slightly racist."
My advice, save your money and buy recordings or tickets. Puccini's brilliance is there. You do not need Berger to hold your hand through the process.
An amazing, long-overdue book!.......2006-07-10
Finally, someone has validated Puccini's worth as a composer! While other attempts have been made at this, they tend to take an approach that is very objective and scholarly. While this is one way to approach an analysis of music, this book's straightforward, at times downright blunt, approach is a refreshing antidote to the overly cerebral tone of many other books. Puccini knew all the 'rules' of composition and chose to ignore or modify many of them in order to get to the raw emotions of his characters and audiences alike. It has long been my feeling that anyone who claims not to enjoy Puccini's works is either too caught up in academic snobbery or too afraid of his/her emotions to feel the beauty of his works. This book is a vindication for not only Puccini and his operas but for his fans and those who perform his works.
Puccini with Many Excuses - Not That He Needs Them.......2006-02-13
William Berger has written a book for operatic neophytes (as he did in his previous books 'Wagner Without Fear' and 'Verdi with a Vengeance') who want to learn more about opera in general and about Puccini in particular, and yet who have little background with which to understand a full-length book about the life and works of a single composer. I am no operatic neophyte, but I learned much from this book and was completely engaged throughout, even when I was disagreeing with some of the author's points. Make no mistake, Berger has a charming, informal, chatty style that sweeps the reader up into Puccini's world. My only real complaint about the book is that Berger seems to protest too much about Puccini's worth. He takes up the cudgels against those pedantic critics and musicologists who cast aspersions on Puccini's artistic value. It strikes me that the neophyte is not all that interested in this battle in the first place and that this is a battle long since won anyhow. No matter, Berger gets in plenty of blows for Puccini, probably more than Puccini actually needs these days.
The book has several sections. After a somewhat tendentious introduction, we get a chatty yet informative life and times chapter which also includes a description of what was going on in the wider world of opera and classical music during Puccini's life. There are fascinating comments about, say, the relationship between Puccini and Toscanini in this section.
Then we get a chapter by chapter discussion of each of the mature operas, beginning with Manon Lescaut and ending with Turandot. Each opera's chapter has an exhaustive discussion of each scene of the stage action, followed by really quite wonderful ruminations on the musical and production issues of each scene. Berger's comments are generally witty and almost always spot on. He also manages to include some of the gossip extant about various productions, singers, stage directors and conductors.
Then comes a section called 'The Puccini Code' which focuses on the myth of Tosca (one of the weaker chapters in my opinion), 'what one might expect to see' in various productions, and a little coda called 'Puccinian Permutations' which comments on influences the various operas (and the Puccini style) have had on popular culture; think of 'Rent' and 'Moonstruck', for instance.
Finally, there is a section in which Berger discusses recordings of the major operas, with comments about various singers, conductors (and he pulls no punches here) as well as some mention of DVDs and videotapes. He ends this section with a listing and comments about important books on his subject. The book ends with a glossary of terms (helpful for the neophyte, certainly, but without a pronunciation guide, which he had earlier supplied for the names of the operas; that might have been helpful. Can you pronounce 'morbidezza' or 'Regietheater'?). The book contains a fairly full index. Editing and production values are quite good (although I suspect director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and baritone Simon Keenlyside might have preferred their names be spelled correctly). The paperback's cover features a blow-up of a photo of the young Puccini taken from a 'musical celebrities cigarette card series.' (!)
I would recommend this book not only to the newcomer to opera but also to grizzled opera veterans who think they already know everything there is to know about Puccini.
Scott Morrison
opera revealed.......2006-01-16
Rebeccasreads highly recommends PUCCINI WITHOUT EXCUSES as one of the more unusual books you'll read about the popular culture of the late 19th & early 20th centuries. It is neither heavy-handed nor trivial because William Berger has a delightful sense of humor & an engaging way of expressing his passion - opera!
If you're a movie buff, you'll have heard snatches of a Puccini aria or musical interlude from THE GODFATHER III to MOONSTRUCK, & if you listen to any of this genius' legacy: LA BOHEME, MADAME BUTTERFLY, TOSCA, & his other five operas, you'll find the music quite familiar.
You'll find out why William Berger thinks Puccini is relevant in today's world in his analyses of the eight operas, the last of which is the unfinished TURANDOT. & you'll also find that Puccini's life was itself worthy of... a soap opera.
Even as I was enjoying the read, I learnt a lot -- about the history of the times, music, collaborations & domestic drama. Bravo!
Amazon.com
Here is one of Puccini's greatest hits, in an affordable version for complete orchestra. This story of love, art and death in Rome during the Napoleonic wars is today considered a classic for such arias as "Vissi d'arte" (I lived for art; I lived for love), but at its premiere in 1900 it was denounced as "a shabby little shocker," for things like Baron Scarpia's lechery and Tosca's termination of him with extreme prejudice. Be aware that Dover's scores are reprints from other companies that are now out of copyright; that means that they're older versions, and lack such amenities as English translations.
Book Description
One of the most performed and recorded operas of all time, with an intense drama turning on lust, revenge and betrayal; sumptuous musical scoring; and two of opera’s most famous arias, "Vissi d’arte" and "E lucevan le stelle." Reprinted from the authoritative full-score edition printed shortly after the opera’s premiere in 1900.
Customer Reviews:
Love the entire Black Dog Opera Library Series.......2003-08-22
Complete music on 2 cds, unabridged libretto, history of composer, the specific opera, historical performances...What else could you ask for for under $$$! AND you end up getting so much more out of the performance when you know the story to the music. You spend less time reading the sub-title screen and more time enjoying the performance. (Not to mention you can be a "smarty pants" and share the operas history with other patrons.)
I wish they had more than 14 operas in this collection. Also great for the opera collection is "The Book of 101 Opera Librettos" also by Black Dog.
Black Dog? Are you reading this? I want more
If you like Tosca, you'll love this book.......2000-12-25
The score in this book is perfect, it's a copy of an Ricordi Edition, if you are a conductor you can use it, don't confuise with the comment of the hardcover edition, the hardcover dosn't have the full score of the opera only this book. it's a good edition, if you like this opera buy this book.
Awful.......2000-10-14
This is one of my favorite operas but unfortunately this recording stinks. Scarpia probably had a hand in the engineering. While the performance is of high quality the dynamics are very poor. Whoever mixed it was playing the magic flute or intoxicated with the elixir of love. The quiet passages are recorded at such low levels that I have to increase the volume to hear them, but only to find myself forced to rush over to lower the drastically over amplified loud passages. As I have a much better recording (Caballe-Carreras-Wixell on Phillips) I end up looking at this book and playing the other. This was most disappointing since I also have the companion La Boheme and Butterfly and those are excellent. Save your money on this one.....
The perfect melding of music and drama........1998-09-25
It was once said that Puccini's "La Boheme" was all music and no drama, while "Tosca" was all drama and no music. Yet, at least to modern listeners, "Tosca," with its resonating themes, its incredible orchestrations, and its compelling story line of love, lust, loyalty, and betrayal continues to fascinate. The full score will aid the discerning listener in enjoying the scope of Puccini's genius as music and drama come together in a breathtaking rush of melody, aria, and incredible pathos. One of opera's most detestable, yet evilly engaging, villains, Baron Scarpia, stalks with regal ominousness. Floria Tosca sings one of the most poignant arias, "Visa d'arte. Visa amore." And as the plot thickens, the listener is carried to new heights of musical drama as the lovers plan their escape. But Scarpia's evil hand reaches from beyond the veil of death to thwart their flight to love and freedom. Puccini's orchestrations, his soaring melodies, and his sense of place and time have thrilled audiences for generations. Enjoy it again with the full score, and your favorite recording!
Book Description
A comprehensive guide to Puccini's TURANDOT, featuring insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis, and a complete, newly translated Libretto with Italian/English side-by side.
Customer Reviews:
If this is all you want, this one will do as well as another .......2007-03-16
The previous reviewer makes a very strong case for this series. In fact, he is so impressed by this series that he sings the praises no less than twenty-eight of "The Opera Journeys Mini Guides" here in Amazon--and, as I write this, offers comment on nothing else, on no other publication ... nothing. He is so taken with these "Mini Guides" that each and every one of his twenty-eight five-star reviews begins, "The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is just wonderful; it's like a "Cliff Note" [sic] of the opera, and extremely informative and educational." And every one of his twenty-eight reviews ends with "My tip: acquire the entire collection because you will be in easy reach of superbly presented opera guides consisting of story analysis, principal characters in the opera, story narrative with music highlights, background, analysis, and commentary."
How fortunate the gentleman is to have found a subject on which he can lay such honest, heartfelt and unstinting praise. And so often, too.
As for myself, I am not quite so enthusiastic. This "Mini Guide" to Puccini's "Turandot," and others of the series that have fallen into my hands from time to time, delivers pretty much what it says it will do. If you are actually willing to be satisfied with sio small a thing as a CliffsNotes approach to opera, these `Mini Guides" will serve as well as any--although the asking price strikes me as a bit steep.
However, I wish to suggest alternatives. First, haul yourself away from your computer. Then, and go out to see the opera.
If you don't have an opera company nearby, call up your local college, university or conservatory and ask what the opera workshop is doing. (Here in Vancouver, the student productions at the University of British Columbia for the past few years have consistently been better sung and better produced than those of the Vancouver Opera--and available for a vastly lower ticket cost.)
If no live performances are available in your area, then go ahead and invest in a DVD or a CD. Older performances of operas which in many cases can only be described as superb can be found on CD right here at Amazon for about the price of this pamphlet. The DVDs will cost you about the same as a single ticket in the cheapest seats in a professional opera house.
Actual performances will give you pleasure and enrich your soul in a way that these or any other such arid distillations and simulations cannot.
Mini-sized guide laden with maxi-helpful information.......2000-09-07
The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is just wonderful; it's like a "Cliff Note" of the opera, and extremely informative and educational. I particularly like the size; these guides are not cumbersome and fit right into my shirt pocket. The ladies will find sufficient room in their pocketbooks.
The story narrative with the music examples is excellent. I prefer it to a libretto; indeed, it's a much easier way to follow the essence of the story. The essay is magnificent; very well written, not pedantic, and extremely insightful and comprehensible. I congratulate Burton Fisher for a job very well done and Amazon for making these handy, information-laden booklets available. The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is a wonderful contribution to opera education and opera appreciation.
My tip: acquire the entire collection because you will be in easy reach of superbly presented opera guides consisting of story analysis, principal characters in the opera, story narrative with music highlights, background, analysis, and commentary.
Heinz Dinter, Ph.D.
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The Puccini Problem: Opera, Nationalism, and Modernity (Cambridge Studies in Opera)
Alexandra Wilson
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0521856884 |
Book Description
The first detailed investigation of the reception and cultural contexts of Puccini’s music, this book offers a fresh view of this historically important but frequently overlooked composer. Wilson’s study explores the ways in which Puccini’s music and persona were held up as both the antidote to and the embodiment of the decadence widely felt to be afflicting late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Italy, a nation which although politically unified remained culturally divided. The book focuses upon two central, related questions which were debated throughout Puccini’s career: his status as a national or international composer, and his status as a traditionalist or modernist. In addition, Wilson examines how Puccini’s operas became caught up in a wide range of extra-musical controversies concerning such issues as gender and class. This book makes a major contribution to our understanding of both the history of opera and of the wider artistic and intellectual life of turn-of-the-century Italy.
Amazon.com
This is, unsurprisingly, one of the most-performed operas of all time, for its combination of story elements (boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, girl dies), beautiful melodies, and pure performability. The second act is only 19 minutes long, but it's amazingly complex--check it out in this full orchestral score, a reprint by Dover of an out-of-copyright publication. Bear in mind that there is no English translation, but most recordings will have a copy of the words in English anyway, so they're readily available.
Book Description
Authoritative Italian edition of one of the world's most beloved operas. Sturdy, attractive volume reprints every note of Puccini's masterpiece, based on Murger's novel, Scenes de la vie de Boheme. English translations of list of characters and instruments and the table of contents.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Score.......2002-02-06
Puccini's La Boheme is among his most perfored operas and this Dover addition full score is a great supplement to your enjoyment.
The print is large and easily readable. The score itself is durable and will lie flat on your desk or music stand with ease. The best part is that it is the most inexpensive copy of the score one can find.
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- "Women Bamboo"?
- Then and Now
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Puccini and The Girl: History and Reception of The Girl of the Golden West
Annie J. Randall , and
Rosalind Gray Davis
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0226703908 |
Book Description
Set in the American West during the California Gold Rush, La fanciulla del West marked a significant departure from Giacomo Puccini's previous and best- known works. Puccini and the Girl is the first book to explore this important but often misunderstood opera that became the earliest work by a major European composer to receive an American premiere when it opened at New York's Metropolitan Opera House in 1910.
Adapted from American playwright David Belasco's Broadway production, The Girl of the Golden West, Fanciulla was Puccini's most consciously modern work, and its Met debut received mixed reviews. Annie J. Randall and Rosalind Gray Davis base their account of its creation on previously unknown letters from Puccini to his main librettist, Carlo Zangarini. They mine musical materials, newspaper accounts, and rare photographs and illustrations to tell the full story of this controversial opera. Puccini and the Girl considers the production and reception of Puccini's "cowboy" opera in the light of contemporary criticism, providing both fascinating insight into its history and a look to the future as its centenary approaches.
“Engrossing. . . . An eminently readable, ideally direct and information-packed book.”—William Fregosi, Opera Today
Customer Reviews:
"Women Bamboo"?.......2005-10-28
Randall and Gray Davis between them have given us a book which will permanently change the way we view Puccini and his most controversial opera, the "American" GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST, a work commissioned by NYC's Metropolitan Opera on the heels of the success of MADAME BUTTERFLY. Their research shows us that using David Belasco's Broadway hit as the basis for a libretto was by no means a foregone conclusion, and that many years passed before Puccini committed himself to the saga of Minnie.
Indeed, part of the interest of the book is speculating what we missed out on when Puccini decided to do with Minnie instead of working up--the last days of Marie Antoinette! For a piece that he planned on calling, THE AUSTRIAN WOMAN. He also flirted with turning the HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME into an opera; as well as considering two plays by Oscar Wilde. Perhaps our greatest regret is that he did not pursue THE WOMAN AND THE PUPPET, the searing, sexual tale of obsessive love that Von Sternberh later filmed with Dietrich as THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN (and later remade by Luis Bunuel at the end of his career). As Randall and Gray Davis indicate, the scandalized reception of Strauss' recent SALOME made Puccini leery of a similarly decadent subject. However, in his private life Puccini was experiencing a coruscating scandal which tore him apart and exposed his marriage for a living hell to the whole world. His wife, Elvira, became madly jealous of her own maid, Doria Manfredi, driving her to her death. After Doria's death an autopsy revealed that she had never had sex with anyone, much less the blameless Puccini. Or was he blameless? It's easy to paint Elvira as a vicious, deluded shrew, but in my experience there's not much smoke without at least a little bit of fire. The authors hint that this trying and scandalous cloud affected the composition of LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST in numerous ways.
Gray Davis brings a lot to the project, especially the cache of Puccini letters she inherited from her late dad. These letters are the archive of Puccini's correspondence with Carlo Zangarini, his librettist. Zangarini's reputation, of course, went to hell long ago when his Fascist leanings won him honor in Mussolini's Italy and disdain everywhere else. The two authors here do their best to rehabilitate him, but in all honesty, it's uphill sledding for them and you can hear the tone of their monograph wobble when it comes to discussing Zangarini's politics.
And yet they have accomplished something new under the sun, a new reading of FANCIULLA as well as the definitive account of its writing and reception.
One minor quibble, I do not exactly see why they say that the archive of Puccini letters must have left the Zangarini hands after his death (in other words, in the postwar period). According to the evidence, why not consider it possible for Carlo to have sold them to the American autograph dealer himself, perhaps before the war? Did I miss something, why blame it on his mistress or nephew or whoever.
One further comment, publication of Puccini's notes to Zangarini reveals that Puccini ws quite a poet himself, his verses are the dark equivalent of those of Laura Riding or Edith Sitwell. They're spooky, they're so weird. "I'm passing dark days/ writing real torpedoes/ in kangaroo form/ for days not far in the future." What the hell? How about, "They are all English,/ German and French,/ Women with hips,/ Women bamboo."
Then and Now.......2005-04-30
Terrific tale of the maestro coming to New York with his new opera. Sure to provoke attention with 2010 in the near future when this work will be 100. The attention paid to the opening when New York burst with potency, bejewelled dames listening to world voices sort of put the Met on the map. Laughed out loud at the recreation of that scene of the opening. Now, we wonder what about that girl next door, Doria, who helped him recuperate from the auto accident, then with Elvira the Fricka-like wife screaming, having to deal with the tragedy of Doria's demise. This personal view of the master at home with his devils informs the interpretation of the opera and how it went over. The depiction of Belasco and early 20th century theater, the pre-Method method as it were, puts Puccini right in the middle of the mix that included but pre-dated the Stanislavski revolution, in fullest flower with Stanley's "Stella!" at the foot of the stairs. None of that here, actually, this a precise look at the work and its times, the publisher, the competiton, the writers, the abandon with which people went to opera then, the end of the Whitman era and the the beginning of end of that world, only a few years after 1910 when all hell broke lose. It's historical, yes, but also hysterical how much is made of so little. There are in fact no arias in this opera, just rich orchestration and seemingly improvised conversation, very modern that way, a view to Strauss then, Adams now. It's like a couple hundred years of opera crystalized into one book, both too specific, (pages of music printed in a text), and not specific enough: do the authors think Elvira was right? The movie that must be made of this book will deal with this question. In the meantime, opera lovers should thank these writers for perservering dauntlessly to give us a look through 29 epistles at what the man went through to get there then, landing us here and now when we wonder who was that girl of the golden west: the soprano who survives, does not die in the end, but rides off with her beloved, wow, a happy ending; or the girl left behind who poisons herself, a miserable death? It's edgy that way.
Book Description
Descended from four generations of distinguished composers and organists, Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) was driven by family tradition and an ambitious mother to pursue a career that brought him worldwide recognition as the greatest composer of Italian opera after Giuseppe Verdi. But behind the brilliant creator of such lasting works as La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, La Fanciulla del West, La Rondine, and Turandot, there was a person racked with indecision, self-doubt, bouts of depression, and private misfortunes.
In this beautifully written work, Mary Jane Phillips-Matz brings to life both the man and his circle. Setting Puccini's intriguing story within the worlds of his beloved Tuscany and the cutthroat opera business, the author follows the composer from boyhood in his ancestral Lucca, to his struggling student years at the Milan Conservatory, to his early successes and failures, to the artistic triumphs that earned him international celebrity and considerable wealth.
Filled with colorful details and anecdotes drawn from extensive primary sources as well as interviews with descendents, family friends, and colleagues, the book chronicles Puccini's personal sorrows and scandals, and recounts his stormy professional rivalries and associations in England, Europe, and the United States. Phillips-Matz also skillfully untangles the threads of the gifted artist's complex and contradictory character. She reveals a sophisticated composer who often drew upon exotic thematic material and an elegant cosmopolite who loved his several villas, expensive cars, boats, and fine clothes. Yet Puccini remained passionately wedded to the simple life of the Tuscan countryside of his youth.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing as a Biography.......2003-10-19
Puccini was reviewed as a wonderful account of Puccini's life and, while the author does tell us the events of his life, this account is less readable than most biographies I've read. She covers the facts of his life in a disjointed fashion. She will bring up a point and then say she will cover it in a later chapter, or she will say she covered it earlier. She arranges the chapters according to the operas he wrote, which is chronological, but the information she writes jumps around so much that it's distracting. The best biographies read as interestingly as the best fiction, and unfortunately this did not measure up. Puccini's life was certainly very interesting and this could have been a great book. Perhaps her editor should have done a better job.
Puccini: a restless visionist and revisionist.......2003-02-11
Having sung in "Tosca" and "Madama Butterfly", my interest was piqued when I first heard about Mary Jane Phillips-Matz's wonderful new biography about Giacomo Puccini. Using his operas as chapter divisions, the author gives a firm basis on which to look at Puccini's life as he struggled with his music, his collaborators, his family, his publisher, his singers, Arturo Toscanini and himself.
Restless and constantly on the move was Italy's greatest twentieth-century composer. The composer was not content to stay long in one place, she tells us. He had a house here, a house there; he didn't like this one, he longed to be at yet another one....this was no laboratory musician! Through the sharing of Puccini's letters (and he wrote unceasingly, it seems), Phillips-Matz offers us glimpses into the continual torment the composer faced, either from his own high standards and inabilities to finish projects to the endless revisions of present and past operas on which he was working. Puccini seemed to be under perpetual pressure. The author is careful not to be judgmental about her subect; in fact she includes a surprising number of revealing interviews that she, herself, conducted with singers who had performed Puccini operas and had worked with him in his later life.
Phillips-Matz's book is not so much a book about Puccini's music as it is about process. How did the composer go about choosing texts? What was he feeling when he composed? How did he envision the final outcomes of his operas? The relationships with those who were closest to him are perhaps the best aspects of this book, especially those with his wife and Toscanini. The author almost seems to be encouraging the reader by saying this: "here is what Puccini was like; now go hear his music and see what connections you can make."
Solid biography.......2002-12-16
Not as good--or as long--as her Verdi, Phillips-Matz's new bio of Puccini is solid and competent. She is at her best with scenery, at her weakest with the music. Though this biography will not soon replace Mosco Carner, it's worth the purchase price and the reader's time.
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