Surveying the recent spate of books about classical music:
Those opera lovers reluctant to spring for the four-volume “New Grove Dictionary of Opera” (which retails at $715 until March 31) may wish to acquire instead one or both of these single-volume references: The La Scala Encyclopedia of the Opera, by Giorgio Bagnoli (Simon & Schuster, $50), and The Viking Opera Guide, edited by Amanda Holden, with Nicholas Kenyon and Stephen Walsh (Viking, $65).
The Scala encyclopedia, lavishly illustrated in both color and black-and-white, is both a handsome gift book and a browser’s delight, spanning four centuries of opera, its composers and performers. More than 450 works are included and even the most obscure operas are deemed worthy of a paragraph or two. The work’s Italian bias is evident, but American opera gets disappointingly short shrift, with no entries allotted to composers John Adams, Dominick Argento, John Eaton, Robert Ward or Hugo Weisgall.
The 1,305-page Viking Guide goes even further: There are more than 1,500 operas, operettas and musical comedies between its covers, and some 800 composers, representing the work of more than 100 contributors, including Philip Gossett on Rossini, David Brown on Tchaikovsky, Erik Smith on Mozart and David Cairns on Berlioz and Beethoven. CD and video versions of many operas are rated, helpfully so. The oddball entries are nothing if not intriguing: If you’ve always hungered to know the plot of Frederick Norton’s “Chu Chin Chow,” you’ve come to the right place.
The Grand Tradition: Seventy Years of Singing on Record, 1900-1970, by J.B. Steane (Amadeus Press, $49.95). Here is the long-awaited second edition of Steane’s critical survey of the history of vocal recording, including a new preface and expanded bibliography, along with extensive corrections and emendations. Steane writes with a specialist’s knowledge and understanding, an enthusiast’s affection and passion. In short, a classic volume that will not be superseded, until Steane gets around to a third edition.
The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera, edited by Paul Gruber (Norton, $35). For the collector of opera recordings, this will be an indispensable reference. Packed into its 782 pages are evaluations of nearly every commercial recording ever made of 150 operas, including many long-out-of-print sets of musical and/or historical worth. Among the 20 American and British contributors are such reliable critics as Conrad L. Osborne, David Hamilton and Peter G. Davis. The odd idiosyncratic judgment-Kenneth Furie complains of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s “little pufflets of sound” in her 1954 recording of Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte”-only adds to the fun.
The Penguin Guide to Opera on Compact Discs, by Edward Greenfield, Ivan March and Robert Layton (Penguin, paperback, $17.50). Beyond its price advantage, this latest entry in the Penguin Guides series, from editors of the British Gramophone magazine, should appeal to a general readership that wants to have plot outlines as well as solid recommendations as to which CD opera sets make best buys. Musical theater works are included, as are opera sets that have been deleted in recent years from the British, if not invariably the American, catalogs.
The Record of Singing, volumes 1 (to 1914) and 2 (1914 to 1925), edited by Michael Scott (Northeastern University Press, $50). Scott’s invaluable survey of the art and history of singing through the pre-electrical era of recording originally was included with the first two volumes of EMI-Angel’s exhaustive LP anthology titled “The Record of Singing.” Now it is available in separate softcover volumes, with photographs from the Stuart-Liff Collection. Scott pulls no punches when evaluating singers, and even some golden-age legends take their lumps. But his judgments are grounded in sober analysis of the recorded evidence. In sum, a book certain to fascinate all who care about the great, and even the not-so-great, singers of the past.
Remembering Horowitz, compiled and edited by David Dubal (Schirmer, $35). Pianist-author Dubal follows up his book “Evenings with Horowitz” with this compilation of 125 essays by as many pianists, who recount their experience and impressions of the late Vladimir Horowitz. Some remarkable, even surprising, insights surface amid the predictable encomiums: Several colleagues are not so awed by his instrumental prowess that they fail to acknowledge the chinks in his artistic armor. A valuable bonus is a compact disc of Horowitz sharing his views on music with the author.
Adelina Patti: Queen of Hearts, by John Frederick Cone (Amadeus, $39.95). This is the first full-length biography of the singer to appear since 1920; it makes a welcome appearance to coincide with Patti’s 150th birthday anniversary. The leading prima donna of 19th Century opera, admired by composers from Rossini to Verdi, the Spanish-born soprano died in 1919, after a career that spanned 63 years. Author Cone takes us through her glamorous life and career in exhaustively researched, sharply observant detail. Includes a discography and a chronology of appearances.
The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality and the Mystery of Desire, by Wayne Koestenbaum (Vintage, $12). The author examines the ways in which opera, its singers and mystique intersect with the gay sensibility. Koestenbaum writes with wit, poetry and the self-aggrandizement of the opera divas whose mystique permeates these pages; for him, opera is the ultimate metaphor for the gay life. First published in 1993, this volume of reflections is available in softcover.
Benjamin Britten: A Biography, by Humphrey Carpenter (Scribner’s, $30). One of the 20th Century’s most honored composers, Benjamin Britten was not so honorable as a man. Even those who won a place in his inner circle found him insecure, dishonest, prickly, often cruel. In the first full-scale biography of Britten, Carpenter portrays this complex personality with disarming candor, particularly with regard to his homosexuality. The author has researched his subject painstakingly and organized his facts into a compelling narrative, venturing very little musical analysis. Perhaps that is just as well, for his attempts to relate all of Britten’s music to his gayness smack of pop psychology.
The New American Dictionary of Music, by Philip D. Morehead (Dutton, $24.95). The author, music administrator for Lyric Opera, has filled this volume with more than 10,000 entries, covering every type of music from classical to popular to jazz, as well as major composers, performers, musical forms, instruments and so forth. There is also a glossary of musical terms, in four languages. A handy, easy-to-use source of quick reference.
