Living Opera
- Author: Jampol, Joshua
highly recommended
Living Opera
- Author: Jampol, Joshua
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highly recommended
About
Selected as one of the Best Music Books of 2010 by The Independent, here is a wonderful collection of 20 wide-ranging interviews with the preeminent opera singers, conductors, and directors working on and behind the stage today. Joshua Jampol invites opera-lovers to listen in as performers speak in frank terms about their strengths and weaknesses, conductors discuss the state of contemporary opera, and directors talk through the complexities involved in staging a successful production. Jampol has unprecedented access and the table of contents reads like a "who's who" of the global opera world, featuring Fleming, Domingo, Ramey, Villazon, Dessay, Conlon, Salonen, Nagano, Boulez, Carsen, Chéreau, and more. Each interview highlights a distinctive voice speaking about his or her career path, first break, colleagues, major influences, audiences, critics, and all the diverse professions making up the emotional and extravagant world of the lyric arts. Jampol brings immense knowledge and a wonderful flair to these conversations, allowing his subjects to follow their thoughts wherever they lead, and revealing in the process a more intimate, reflective side of this constellation of operatic stars.
Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Pierre Boulez, or The Incorruptible
- Robert Carsen, or building the bridge between head and heart
- Patrice Chereau, or truth, opera and the director: in Wagner's footsteps
- William Christie, or going for baroque
- James Conlon, or surrendering your soul
- Natalie Dessay, or healing the sick voice
- Joyce DiDonato, or the wider connection
- Placido Domingo, or Olympics for the voice
- Renee Fleming, or balancing on the high wire
- Ferruccio Furlanetto, or functioning as a filter
- Kasper Bech Holten, or the emotional fitness center
- Simon Keenlyside, or a workingman talks about traffic control
- Waltraud Meier, or the sweatshirt must fit
- Heidi Grant Murphy, or sopranoed - with children
- Kent Nagano, or remaining relevant
- Seiji Ozawa, or the art of managing the orchestra
- Samuel Ramey, or the lion at twilight
- Esa-Pekka Salonen, or new opera and festival opera
- Jose Van Dam, or humility, the elite and the caddies
- Rolando Villazon, or the paradox of the performer
- Index
Awards and reviews
highly recommended
