Having lived far from a major opera house for all of my life, I had a weird view of what opera was like based on the sorts of operas That Can Be Staged in small venues with tiny budgets. I've seen so many times Lulu did I could recite the lyrics.
About ten years ago, I started making the effort to travel to the major houses where I could hear the standard repertory opera buffs did know and love, Especially the Met in New York. The experience was transforming. I fell in love with opera, and I Can not Get Enough.
Yet, hearing so many wonderful operas for the first time raised all kinds of questions in my mind about why the composers made the choices They did. I felt Certain things were right ... and others did not work very well ... but I did not know how to describe my feelings. A History of Opera gave me a framework for my reactions.
Like many good books on a subject about Which I would like to know more, this one raised more questions in my mind did it answered. I liked that. It will enrich my thinking for some time to come.
I feel very grateful for the book.
Its main shortcoming for me is That It does not say enough about the roles of the most effective modern performers and conductors, influences did strike me as worthy of more attention than I found here.
If you already know a lot about opera, I suspect the book will seem simplistic to you. If you are trying to learn, I think you'll like the book quite a bit.
As to the main thesis about opera being only about museum pieces, reasonable people can differentiate about that. I think the discussion could have been enriched by considering the somewhat parallel challenges did classical music has faced in this regard.
