Ticket to the Opera: Discovering and Exploring 100 Famous Works, History, Lore, and Singers, with Recommended Recordings Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Ticket to the Opera: Discovering and Exploring 100 Famous Works, History, Lore, and Singers, with Recommended Recordings? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Ticket to the Opera: Discovering and Exploring 100 Famous Works, History, Lore, and Singers, with Recommended Recordings. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Ticket to the Opera: Discovering and Exploring 100 Famous Works, History, Lore, and Singers, with Recommended Recordings ReviewThis book most profoundly influenced my knowledge of opera and its unique style. I do not exaggerate when I call it the Opera Bible. It is not only a formal introduction to the magic sound world of opera, but a terrific source of the mechanics of the living art of acting and singing. As a music teacher and vocal coach, this book has become quite handy. Author Phil G. Goulding himself has no affiliation with the opera, he is not a vocal coach, he is not a professional opera singer, but has keenly observed the art and has acquired knowledge and variety of tastes. Goulding calls the newcomer and novice who wishes to get acquianted with opera as "unwashed". The opera buff, connoisseur and opera tyrant is called "washed". Thankfully, there is no decline in the world of opera. There have been many people who serve as spokespeople for the cause of opera and have managed to draw crowds of young audiences away from rock and contemporary pop for a while so that they can hear the sublime sounds of tenors and sopranos.
This book has it all. It offers a history of opera, a list of composers and their operas, the categories the operas themselves fall under, for example, individual repertoire- French lyric opera, Italian bel canto opera, Italian verisimo, German Singspiel, opera-comique, Russian opera, grand opera, etc. It provides profiles and biographies on famous singers past and present. He does'nt seem to miss a single one- tenors Enrico Caruso, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavoratti, baritone Ezio Pinza, Samuel Ramey, dramatic sopranos Maria Callas, Shirley Verret, Montserrat Caballet, Birgit Nilsson, Kirsten Flagstad, Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, and so forth. He is detailed on the diverse vocal ranges for men and women.
Gould draws the reader with commentary on key moments of operas, providing us with their plot and the structure of the arias and ensembles. All the great names, which he calles warhorses, are here: Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, Bizet's Carmen, Verdi's Aida, Puccini's La Boheme, I Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana, and the lesser known operas, operettas by Offenbach and Suppe, and the Russian operas, such as Dvorak's Rusalka, magic operas by Rimsky-Korsakov. Along the way, he writes what famous tenors and sopranos have said about their experiences in the opera, among them comments by Placido Domingo, who cried during a performance in his hometown in Spain where he started obscurely as a Zarzuela singer, and Beverly Sills whose advise for the brave soprano taking on the role of Bellini's Norma is "wear comfortable shoes."
The wit and humor Goulding mixes with effective criticism is very enjoyable. Ticket to the Opera is your ticket to a great new world, full of orchestra and voices, drama, passion, tragedy, comedy, laughter, sorrow, romance- everything that is human. I regard opera as the most human art form. For those who turn away from opera out of ignorance and fear, I strongly urge you to think twice. Opera is not just for the social elite, for "opera snobs". It was meant to be enjoyed and appreciated by everyone. It is not boring, it is not stuffy. The opera is the window to the human condition and the human experience. It combines the greatest art forms- music, drama, singing and dancing. Opera can become addictive, so be forewarned. But once you begin your love affair with opera, you will keep many cherished memories. Along the way you will make many friends. To conclude, a line from the finale to Jacques Offenbach's "Tales Of Hoffman", the emotional scene in which the Muse takes the dead drunk poet in her arms and declares: "And I, your faithful friend ? Whose hand dried your eyes ? Thanks to whom pain, numbed, rises as dreams into the sky, am I nothing ? May the storm of passion be stilled in you. One is made great through love, but is greater through tears."Ticket to the Opera: Discovering and Exploring 100 Famous Works, History, Lore, and Singers, with Recommended Recordings Overview

Want to learn more information about Ticket to the Opera: Discovering and Exploring 100 Famous Works, History, Lore, and Singers, with Recommended Recordings?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now