“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?
BTW… and again, sorry for the shift….
there’s a very fascinating live broadcast on FranceMusique RIGHT NOW OF..
Nino Rota’s “Napoli Milionaria”
I don’t have the foggiest idea of what is going on…BUT… I can not stop listening…!!
I tried to tune that in, but all I got was some miscellaneous whatsit stuff. So if anyone is recording it and gets a good copy, I’d be interested.
Betsy:
NOW it seems to be harpsicord dreck.. i was hoping this is just the intermission ….
BTW…it started again……..
I’m hoping that when I dig into it, it’ll be somewhat close to “The Italian Straw Hat.”
seconding Terry Pratchett’s MASKARADE. . ..Phantom of the opera and a cat that keeps becoming a big, dumb hunky naked man at inopportune times . . .who could ask for anything more. . .
If it can be found Jack Vance’s SPACE OPERA is fun. . .an opera entrepeneur takes operas to various alien cultures with very mixed results. . .
Operacat:
That Vance title sounds like a hoot…!
..on my way to the Library, as a matter of fact…….!
thanks!
“A cat that keeps becoming a big, dumb hunky naked man at inopportune times”? Some ideas are just genius!
that book certainly influences what I was looking for in a man for a while.
influenced
MASKERADE is utterly hilarious. The cat (and the witches) are ongoing characters in Sir Pterry’s Discworld series, and he gets the operatic side of things just right.
Thomas Mann, “The Blood of the Walsungs”
Somerset Maugham, “The Voice of the Turtle”
Don Freeman, “Pet of the Met”
Maybe it’s just me, but the latent (?) anti-Semitism of “Walsungenblut” makes my skin crawl.
I’d love a discussion of Mardu CZ. Never been able to get through it on my own. And ANYTHING by Terry Pratchett is great. Never did well with Jack Vance, but wouldn’t mind a second try with him, either.
Or perhaps Edith Wharton’s scathing and hilarious short story “Xingu?” Easily extended to topics operatic and artistic. In fact, threads on parterre occasionally take on similar characteristics as can be found in Wharton’s observations; I am sure many of us will recognize ourselves at times.
The story can be found online and read easily in a half an hour or less.
http://www.classicreader.com/book/1964/1/
Opening paragraph to whet the appetite:
“…Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though it were dangerous to meet alone. To this end she had founded the Lunch Club, an association composed of herself and several other indomitable huntresses of erudition. The Lunch Club, after three or four winters of lunching and debate, had acquired such local distinction that the entertainment of distinguished strangers became one of its accepted functions…”
“I am sure many of us will recognize ourselves at times.” Each other, possibly; ourselves, I doubt it. The last time I recognized myself in a work of fiction was when I read “Beowulf.”
Sounds like fun! It will be nice to read something that is neither a score nor by Richard Miller- much as I love scores and Richard Miller…. I am in!!
The very best opera-related book I’ve ever read is Brigitte Hamann’s Winifred Wagner: A Life at the Heart of Hitler’s Bayreuth. No, it’s not light & fluffy, but it’s fascinatingly compelling!
The recent set of interview copiled in Joshua Jampol’s Living Opera is interesting.
Thanks for the Purdy suggestion.
If you can find a copy, I heartily recommend “On Wings of Song” by Thomas Disch – a picaresque sci-fi novel, whose hero spends some time as as a castrato’s kept boy. Not as operatic as our doyenne’s choice, but well worth a read.
mention of a castrato reminds me of the Tito Amato mysteries – with a castrato as the detective…there are several…written by Beverle Graves Myers.
Bryan Magee “The Tristan Chord” is very good.
How about “Cry to Heaven” by Anne Rice?
Yes! Yes! YESSS!!!!
Oh yes!
Yes, badly-written, historically-suspect castrato porn is just the thing!
But it’s a lot of fun. I didn’t take it as serious history.
I am sorry you thought that. As for me this work has opened up my ears for early pre-bel canto vocal music, which had until then seemed bland, repetitive, instrumental and plain tired for me. The details of the 18th century vocal training, a duet-duel, and performance practices of the time were accurate enough that I don’t think it was badly researched at all.
I may seem like a fawning queen, but if you took up an Anne Rice you would’ve known her style, you would’ve known her penchant for convoluted phrasings and eroticism (at least from a prior review). But I think this is just window dressing, and like window dressings they’re just perused over and exclaimed “Oh how tacky!” “But they don’t have balls!” etc etc.
And porn has no plot, period. Cry to Heaven has enough for a franchise.
On the contrary, porn has the classic Aristotelian Beginning, Middle, and End.