“Are we all lit?”
La Cieca was thinking that what with all the reading ye cher public are doing at the beach (or, more likely, bars and steam rooms and museums or wherever you hole up) it might be an interesting experiment to convene a virtual (i.e., online) book discussion. Except, instead of Oprah’s Book Club, this will be Opera’s Book Club — get it?
UPDATE: So, it seems like there is sufficient interest in Mawrdew Czgowchwz to nominate this book as the maiden voyage of Opera’s Book Club. If you don’t already have a copy of this seminal tome, first, shame on you! and second, you can purchase a copy from amazon.com
Since some of you will have to wait a few days start the Mawrdolatry, how about we schedule the first chat for a week from tomorrow, Friday the 23rd? In the meantime, please continue your suggestions for further reading in the comments section below.
EARLIER: So, the idea would be that those inclined to discuss would need to come into possession of the book in question, read the thing, and then La Cieca would put up an “anchor” posting as a location for the comments.
Your doyenne has an idea for the first selection, but she is of course, as always, open to nominations.
Does this sound like something you’d be interested in doing?
Maybe Ulysses for after the James McCourt?
There’s an Anthony Burgess castroto book, ISTR, but I read it about 200 years ago and cannot remember the name.
I am reading a book as long as any Dickens, MacCulloch’s “A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years”. It’s non-fiction, but I wonder if a creature from outer space would think so. I must say that after reading there a lot about Alexandria in the fourth century, I find “Thaïs” makes a bit more sense.
La V:
Just got my requested copy from the Brooklyn Public Library…it is a fabulously written read… and a good weapon , if thrown at someone bothering you on the subway, as well…..LOL…!!
brooklynpunk,
I agree it is a fascinating book terribly well written. As to a weapon, mine is different. I got it in iBooks, downloading it to my iPad. Thus mine is the eBook, lighter than the paper version as it has no weight, but the iPad that contains it has chips, glass and metal. A good defense weapon indeed!
There is a fascinating new biography of Somerset Maugham, I’m reading that next. Now, let me see, what Maugham’s relation to opera…? I can’t remember. It’s been at least a decade since I read last about him. Did Galli-Curci visit Cap Ferrat? Well, I’m almost sure Cecil Beaton must have been there at one time or another.
This is embarrassing. My rant at 30.1.1.3 is @Hippolyte. Four-tier responses, LOLs. Peace!
Well, reading it, I assumed your post was an answer to Hippolyte’s post rather than mine. But once the posts are at that level, you can’t conrtol where it will be placed, other than assuming it will fall under the most recent 4th level post.
A lot of interesting suggestions, the Mapp and Lucia one, in particular, looks like fun.
My devoted gratitude to m. croche for suggesting ‘The Song of the Lark’, the bible of my youth. Now own my sixth copy of same. As well, deeply grateful to the one who explained that the first chapter of M.C. Was published separately. I, too, have had trouble slogging past that point and have mostly surfed my way in a haphazard fashion through the rest. Do enjoy the Gaelic Liebestod sequence a great deal, though.
Might I add these tardy suggestions, all by one Honore de Balzac?
1. Gambara — a tale of a composer’s woe,
2. Sarrasine — a tale of castrati “Orgies ruin the voice”,
3. Massimiliano Doni — a tale of do-acuto- itis,
AND
4. Seraphita — a tale like no other. Beyond the beyond.
James McCourt did indeed love Victoria de los Angeles above the others. Let us not forget that M.C. Are the initials of a famed “oltrano” in the pop fieldn none the less than the ‘glitter’ gal Herself, Mariah Carey.
Camille – you are going to LOVE the dramatic soprano
who turns up in Mapp & Lucia — she’s delicious; in my
own sequels, I have written that she is American, born
in Maine. In later years Mr Georgie went as pianist
accompanist to America of all places, on tour with the
soprano and many many adventures ensued in the
bath houses of New York and — well on and on. Mr
McCourt would blush with envy. I just don’t know
why no publisher has picked them up! Oh well…..
It’s Lillian Nordica, no?
Now I am getting intrigued.
What’s Christine Brewer up to next, Mr. Myster — do you happen to know? Merci.
Camille: Mme Nordica does come to mind now and then. But Fred Benson’s
diva is mainly oh-so-Briddish, just a bit more continental and sophisticated.
Mme Brewer? Well, gosh, she’s here all summer singing Lady Billows with
a superb cast — the probable hit of the summer. And didn’t I read she
will open the NYCO season with “An Evening With Christine Brewer?” After
that, all I know about is lots of orchestral engagements and recitals. More
opera, I am not sure. But I’ll keep my ear to the grapevine. (You do know
Camille, that sometimes I am a little tongue-in-cheek in my writing, ok?)
cheerio
MrM.
not to forget that the Lucia novels are also deeply concerned with the very operatic issue of who really does know Italian and who does not. . . but, on the whole, the books are perhaps more musically concerned with piano than opera, as for instance in the case of “celestial Mozartino” . . .
Most of the musical satire and caricaturing in Benson’s
The figure of Mr Georgie is
Lucia novels center around Lucia herself — really, about
99% — her pretenses to being able to perform, her arch
and phony spiritual attachment to Mozart and Beethoven,
and of course her attempts to disport herself as fluent
in Italian — any Italian not just operatic. It is quintessential
English literary satire of the period — Oscar Wilde in the
background, always!
For anyone who has not read these novels, ‘Lucia in London,’
Vol. I, is a relatively quiet beginning and an easy way in.
It does help to read them consecutively, and by the time
you get to Vol III — you have hit Lucia big time. She
moves from Broadway to Rye (Tilling), and encounters
Miss Elizabeth Mapp, the town social queen, and sets out
to topple her — and the struggle for social supremacy and
the resulting commentary on the British class system and
the posturing and foolishness and pretentiousness that
ensues, is the engine that drives this highly comedic and
skilled writing. You have to be in the mood for it, and
a new reader may have to work a bit at getting into that
mood, because it is far far away from our time. But once
you have reached Vol III, if you have not become a
Luciaphile, I’ll be surprised
such a tasteful and pastel portrait of a proper gay
gentlemen, with much of the comedy centering on him
has at times had me laughing out loud. I have visited the
Henry James/Fred Benson residence in Rye three times
and attended the annual meeting of the Tilling Society
twice, and I will say when you walk in Fred Benson’s
old garden you can just sense the era of Lucia and Mapp;
and one little touch is a tombstone for “Tosca,” Benson’s
beloved dog buried way in the back edge of the
garden. Always a touch of opera! Henry James lived
there for maybe a decade, up to about 1916, then Fred Benson
took it over until his death around 1940. It’s in the National
Trust now and a splendid place to visit.
How I do ramble!
Mrmyster, I defer to you as the greater Luciaphile (I have only been a corresponding member of the Tilling Society and have never traveled to Rye), and I’m embarrassed to seem like a pedant about Lucia of all things, but I think “Lucia in London” is actually Volume 2, and that if one wanted to start at the beginning one would begin with “Queen Lucia”; or am I confused about this?
Yes, Queen Lucia is Vol. 1 (and it contains the most complete portrait of the soprano-of-all-works, Olga Bracely. To continue the pedantry, Tosca was actually Henry James’s dog!
My, gentlemen, what a light you have shined on this unknown (at least to me) gem of a fictional series! I look forward to a delightful read, for which I thank you all.