Stories Of 100 Operas [The Listener's Music Library]

by Helen (Loeb) Kaufmann

Vintage hardcover

333 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit that I do feel rather conflicted regarding Stories of 100 Operas. Yes, the operas Helen Loeb Kaufmann has selected, they ALL and indeed richly deserve being included, being presented and that for every opera which is featured in Stories of 100 Operas, Kaufmann's synopses are indeed excellent, with just enough information to give a basic overview as well as naming the major songs, the major arias, choruses etc. (but not ever so in-depth that Stories of 100 Operas becomes so ridiculously full of spoilers that watching and listening to those operas live could then become tedious and disappointing). But just to say and to point out that I personally would also want Helen Loeb Kaufmann to showcase in Stories of 100 Operas Claudio Montrvedi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, Gioachino Rossini's Guilluame Tell, Jacques Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers, Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes as well as his Billy Budd, that for Offenbach and Rossini, Kaufmann just choosing Les Contes de Hoffmann and Il barbiere di Siviglia respectively (although they are absolute personal favourites) does kind of majorly frustrate and annoy me to no end, and while Kaufmann might have a reason for ignoring Benjamin Britten and most of British operatic output in Stories of 100 Operas except for John Gray's The Beggar's Opera, this does certainly bother me more than a trifle. Oh, and some accompanying pictures of opera performances would also be nice, but considering that I only paid something like two Canadian dollars for Stories of 100 Operas, this lack of visuals means pretty much, means absolutely nothing.

But even with my disappointment regarding the operas mentioned above not being included in Stories of 100 Operas, my rating would still be four stars if there were a table of contents (with page numbers). Because no table of contents really does make looking up a specific opera synopsis quickly pretty much impossible. And yes, I frankly regarding Stories of 100 Operas have major trouble even understanding why no table of contents is being provided by Helen Loeb Kaufmann and that its absence definitely makes Stories of 100 Operas pretty user unfriendly for me, since I am usually not ever wanting to read an opera synopsis book from cover to cover but to be picking and choosing certain specific operas, and that I cannot really do this since Stories of 100 Operas really has no way to achieve this with any kind of ease (and fast) with no table of contents and thus having to flip through the pages until reaching the opera in question, which is certainly tedious and majorly annoying (and that a title index for Stories of 100 Operas would also be appreciated and kind of necessary as well).