# Opera books



## undsoweiter (Sep 20, 2007)

Hi everyone,

I've looked through the titles of the threads on this board and there seems to be no article about books that people find useful to learn about operas. 

I have been to a few performances, e.g. La Boheme, Turandot, Tosca, Carmen, Rigoletto, Nabucco, and got a collection of CDs. I think it was the theatrical part of an opera that first got me into it as I am a very keen theatregoer. I later on develop a more serious interest (maybe not quite 'passion' compared to those of you on the board) in the art form and would really like to broaden my knowledge about it. So I wonder, apart from going to performances and listening to CDs, are there books you would recommend for learning about operas? I am personally very interested in the history of opera, opera singers' development and production of a performance. Any advice will be very much appreciated! 

ps. English is not my first language, so please excuse any strange use of word.  

Thank you!


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## Morigan (Oct 16, 2006)

I've never wanted to admit it but he I go.

Two years ago, when my interest for opera became bigger, I bought a shameful book : Opera For Dummies.

YES! I DID! Actually, the "for dummies" collection is very fun provides a surprisingly good introduction to many subjects. I learned a lot about Classical music by reading the book and I would recommend it to anyone who's getting into it.

Opera for Dummies on Amazon

Classical Music for Dummies on Amazon


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

I grew up on "Milton Cross- Stories of the Great Operas." You can still find it, even though it's more than half-a-century old.

Most reasonably well-stocked libraries in Anglo-America have the "Kobbe Book of Opera." 

I am a little concerned that those books might be somewhat too basic for your quest. If I can put in a word for expansion of your topic matter, perhaps you'd be willing to consider works that deal with specific composers (e.g.: Puccini, apparently your leading opera interest, based on the works you mentioned). I have to believe that a reasonably authoritative Puccini text would have relevant comment about performance, staging, and career development. Unfortunately, I can make no specific recommendation for Puccini (or Verdi, for the matter of that). Now, if you want to talk about Wagner, then I'll be able to cite "chapter-and-verse," so to speak.


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## barkingbartok (Oct 28, 2007)

There are a set of book by Black Dog Opera Library that comes with CD recordings, librettos with translations, history of the composer, operas, and the singers... and pictures. They're amazing books. I've used them to learn about operas myself, and have also used them with high school students to study operas.


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## Guarnerius (Oct 15, 2007)

Dear Undsoweiter,

Just test a book named: "Opera: Composers, Works, Performers",
András Batta (publ. Könemann, Cologne) ISBN: 3833118830

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/B...rchurl=an=Andras+Batta&ph=2&sortby=3&tn=Opera

The same work goes also for a physical exercise, it is soo heavy (over 900 pages).
Handy, You don't need to go for a gym at all... 

Wish You Enjoyable Reading and Listening Moments!


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## wirorg (Feb 17, 2016)

I'm not a native English speaker. Therefore, in order to study the terminology, I currently read "Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera" by Fred Plotkin and Placido Domingo.
It's quite interesting for those who wish to know the opera history. I'd rather say, it is for students of singing, for amateurs would find it a bit overloaded, imho.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Stanley Sadie (2009) _The Grove Book of Operas_ available new and used in paperback and hardback on Amazon (where you can preview inside the book as well)

_"First published in 1996 to great critical and popular acclaim, the Grove Book of Operas, is a collection of synopses and descriptions of over 250 operas. Each succinct yet insightful entry is written by a leading authority on the opera and includes a full synopsis of the plot, a cast list, a note on the singers in the original production, and information on the origins of the work and its literary and social background. Contributions conclude with a brief comment on the particular work's place in operatic history. A glossary offers brief and accessible definitions of terms that may be unfamiliar to the reader. And indices of role names and of arias and ensembles allow the reader to find operas containing their favorite aria or a well-known character."_


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## Loge (Oct 30, 2014)

The Ring: Anatomy of an Opera (1985) - Stephen Fay

Only available second hand, but it documents the somewhat disasterous 1983 Bayreuth Ring Cycle. Known as the English Ring, George Solti was conductor and with Peter Hall as director. The book covers the problems of putting on a production of the four operas, covering technical, political and cultural difficulties. The book also includes superb photographs of the production. And judging by the photographs it looks like a production I would have loved to have seen.


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## Classical Performances (Mar 8, 2016)

*Ticket to the Opera*

When I first started attending Opera I bought the book "Ticket to the Opera". It was very useful and fun to read. It lists 100 operas. It describes the composer, plot and highlights for each opera. It can be found on Amazon.

Classicalperformances.com


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Books on operas try:

Mozart's Women by Jane Glover

The Sorcerer of Bayreuth by Barry Millington

But the most useful general opera guide I have found is The Rough Guide to Opera
Now out of print but copies can be obtained second hand very cheap

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Guide-Guides-Reference-Titles/dp/1858287499


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

A History of Opera by Abbate and Parker.
Kobbes Opera Book


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

David Cairns: Mozart and His Operas
This succinct volume gives a loving appreciation of all of Mozart's mature operas (starting with Idomeneo) and makes a fine case for the more neglected or criticized among them. It also weighs in on many of the same issues that have been discussed in regards to Cosi fan tutte recently on this board.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

Spike Hughes, a generation old now, but wonderfully insightful. He wrote little volumes on operas of Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Strauss.
For example it was Hughes (Famous Mozart Operas) who showed me that in Mozart the plebeians sing in very short notes, whereas the aristocrats have long legato lines, which gives us a subconscious class consciousness. He gives many musical examples, but is entirely straightforward and easy if you don't read music too. 
Charles Osborne did a similar series to Hughes. Slightly more formal but excellent. 
Kobbe has been mentioned. Ditto David Cairns. 
George Martin (not the fifth Beatle) gave an excellent introduction to the genre, periods, singing styles etc in The Opera Companion. 
Actually, I have a reasonably large opera library, and can't go through them all. I should mention that I enjoy Rupert Christiansen's The Grand Obsession. Ditto Peter Conrad Wagner and Verdi, Geck on Wagner, and my latest, Christian Thielemann, My Life With Wagner.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

OK!

Kobbe, of course.
Paul Henry Lang: The Experience of Opera 
Donald Jay Grout: A Short History of Opera
Wallace Brockway: The World of Opera (?)

Phil G Goulding's Ticket to the Opera (mentioned above)

Denis Forman's Good Opera Guide (although he's snooty about French opera )

Felix Clement's Dictionnaire des operas - essentially available here: http://artlyriquefr.fr/

Peter Conrad's Opera: A Song of Love and Death veers between being insightful and (as the title suggests) pretentious; he reads opera against his Nietzschean theoretical model. His 2013 book on Wagner vs Verdi is interesting.

Richard Osborne on Rossini. The definitive English language book on the composer.

Charles Osborne's books on Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Strauss and Wagner. He's insightful, a Verdi lover at a time when many of his operas were unpopular, but he can also be pompous.

William Berger on Puccini, Verdi and Wagner - engaging and accessible

Julian Budden's three volume study of Verdi.

William Ashbrook : Donizetti and His Operas - the first English language book to treat Donizetti seriously; the definitive guide

Vincent Giroud 's French Opera : A Short History

Anselm Gerhard: The Urbanization of Opera - discussion of various French operas, including Huguenots, Prophete, Guillaume Tell, Muette de Portici, Vepres siciliennes

Meyerbeer. Right! Robert Letellier's three books - Meyerbeer Studies, The Operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer, and An Introduction to the Dramatic Works of Giacomo Meyerbeer. His Meyerbeer Reader is a fascinating sourcebook. In French, Blaze de Bury's Meyerbeer et son temps (1865) and Sergio Segalini's Meyerbeer: Diable ou prophete?

Auber - Letellier again.

Diana Hallman's is the only book on Halevy; its discussion of the music is limited, but she's strong on the reception of the books. Gossett (?) is better in, I think, the Cambridge book of Romantic music (?!).

Berlioz - David Cairns; Jacques Barzun.

James Harding on Massenet, Bizet and Gounod.
Demar Irvine on Massenet. Louis Schneider's 1908 book.

Wagner - Owen M Lee's Wagner's Ring: Turning the Sky Round. Brian Magee's Wagner and Philosophy. Paul Lawrence Rose's Wagner: Race and Revolution.

Then there are books by composers themselves - Wagner's impresive array of articles; Berlioz's Memoires; Berlioz on Gluck; Massenet's Souvenirs; Saint-Saens's writings.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

That's an impressive list, Simon T! Speaking of Letellier, I would add his book written in collaboration with Richard Arsenty: 'Giacomo Meyerbeer: A Discography of Vintage Recordings 1889 - 1955'. I know it's not strictly focused on the compositions themselves, but for me that's where Meyerbeer's music (more than that of any other composer) is to be found, in the grooves of those old recordings.


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## cheftimmyr (Oct 28, 2015)

Chi_townPhilly said:


> I grew up on "Milton Cross- Stories of the Great Operas." You can still find it, even though it's more than half-a-century old.
> 
> Most reasonably well-stocked libraries in Anglo-America have the "Kobbe Book of Opera."
> 
> I am a little concerned that those books might be somewhat too basic for your quest. If I can put in a word for expansion of your topic matter, perhaps you'd be willing to consider works that deal with specific composers (e.g.: Puccini, apparently your leading opera interest, based on the works you mentioned). I have to believe that a reasonably authoritative Puccini text would have relevant comment about performance, staging, and career development. Unfortunately, I can make no specific recommendation for Puccini (or Verdi, for the matter of that). *Now, if you want to talk about Wagner, then I'll be able to cite "chapter-and-verse," so to speak*.


Curious to hear your Wagner recommendations... Thx!


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

My very best opera book purchase has been the three volume history of the MET by Paul Jackson, large format with incredible photos, detailed descriptions of performances and history of opera singers, a wealth of opera information very cheap if purchased used at Amazon......
























For basic info about individual operas with history of composing and performances, detailed plot summary and other misc info just use the free WIKI online, great opera resource always at your fingertips.......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Giuseppe_Verdi


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## Scopitone (Nov 22, 2015)

This thread is interesting not just for the great info being provided but also for what it points out about our changing access to info. In 2007 when the thread started, these two things were in their infancy:

1. Easy access to e-Book purchases. 
2. Wikipedia. (I _think_ it was around in 2007)

Those two things, along with youtube, have vastly changed the way we can learn about opera and anything else.

BTW, I have the SATURDAY AFTERNOONS AT THE MET on order - it should arrive any day now. And yes, a used copy was super-inexpensive.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Scopitone said:


> This thread is interesting not just for the great info being provided but also for what it points out about our changing access to info. In 2007 when the thread started, these two things were in their infancy:
> 
> 1. Easy access to e-Book purchases.
> 2. Wikipedia. (I _think_ it was around in 2007)
> ...


In my town we have a bookshop who sells overstock, they have very good music books from time to time.


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## Scopitone (Nov 22, 2015)

Anybody read this one?

A. Huffington's Maria Callas: The Woman behind the Legend
https://www.amazon.com/Maria-Callas.../ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

The reviews on amazon are solid, and it's tough to beat the price of $4 (after shipping) for a used hardcover.


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## Scopitone (Nov 22, 2015)

Pugg said:


> In my town we have a bookshop who sells overstock, they have very good music books from time to time.


You know, I don't ever spend time in the Bargain books section at my local Barnes & Noble. I'll bet there are some music books there from time to time.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Scopitone said:


> You know, I don't ever spend time in the Bargain books section at my local Barnes & Noble. I'll bet there are some music books there from time to time.


So, you see one thing leads to another, get your credit card ready.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

If you love 19th century Italian opera, from Rossini to Verdi, you will love this book.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

schigolch said:


> If you love 19th century Italian opera, from Rossini to Verdi, you will love this book.


What's the opera on the cover? Pacini's Ultimo giorno di Pompei?


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Yes, it's the set design devised by Alessandro Sanquirico for Pacini's opera, as staged at La Scala, back in 1827.


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