Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera: Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew

by Anne Siberell, Frederica von Stade (Introduction)

A delightful introduction to opera, Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera teaches elementary school children what opera is by showing how it is made. "Who writes the words?", "Who makes an opera happen? "Who is backstage?"--these questions and more are answered with easy-to-understand explanations and are illustrated with whimsical watercolors by the author. From composer, choreographer, and costume designers to the conductor, lighting and special effects crew, and, of course, the singers, the excitement builds as Anne Siberell explains each person's role in producing an opera. Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera reveals details of the most famous operas' plots and characters along the way and includes synopses of 27 popular operas, a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and an index.

Genres: Music, Picture Books, Childrens

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

With her 2001 picture book Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera: Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew (and at sixty-four pages pretty lengthy text-wise) author/illustrator Anne Siberell provides an engaging and also educational introduction to all things opera related, obviously primarily conceptualised for readers from about the age of eight or so onwards (although if Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera: Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew is read aloud also more than suitable for children not yet reading independently and especially if there is an interest in opera and musical theatre present). But in my opinion and truth be told, Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera: Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew would probably work quite nicely as a general introduction for anyone (both young and old) wanting something extensive but at the same time basic (and that yes, I really do appreciate that Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera: Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew opens with a few words from American mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade about her own first night at the opera as a teenager, with her family in Salzburg, Austria, and then gives some personal remembrances of her own first performance at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, where from the description von Stade obviously was playing one of Tamino's three angelic guides in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, in The Magic Flute).

Now in the main textual body of Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera: Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew, Anne Siberell with light-hearted and breezy words answers (extensively, but not ever all that intensively and also free from jargon and musical analysis) a plethora of diverse questions regarding opera and with Siberell in fact and delightfully so writing about everyone and everything (from the earliest opera composers to current operas and opera singers) and indeed describing with Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera: Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew not only who is on the stage but also who is under it, beside it, and behind it, and thus focusing not just on operatic composers, librettists and performers but also on costumers, set designers and so on and so on (and also filling margins and sidebars of Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera: Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew with historical tidbits and fun opera related trivia facts, like for instance how peach melba and melba toast are named after New Zealand opera diva Dame Nelly Melba). With Siberell's lively, full of motion, gorgeously colourful pictures, timelines, maps of opera story locations and detailed diagrams of the kinds of stages, the many curtains and all the instruments of the orchestra providing a wonderful and successful visual mirror to and for her fun and informative text, and with the glossary, index, opera synopses and suggestions for further reading being an appreciated added bonus, yes indeed, I do highly recommend Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera: Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew (although I do leave as a small caveat that the opera synopses are a bit informationally lacking and that Johann Strauss Junior, that the composer of Die Fledermaus was Austrian and not German).

[Jennifer]

Interesting book about the basics (like, what is a libretto) of opera with cute illustrations. Also includes synopses of some well-known operas.

Reading about how many hundreds of people are necessary for producing an opera as well as how many hundreds and hundreds of hours of work are involved in building costumes and the wigs alone - it really helps one understand why tickets are so expensive.

One of the random facts in the margins was about how Jean-Baptiste Lully met his (slightly undignified) end. Sad, but my daughter and I found it interesting considering she just played one of his pieces a few months ago.

[Amber Hooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose to read this for a class assignment. The illustrations are really wonderful, and fit surprisingly well with the subject matter. It has a basic overview of each area of opera, including its history, but doesn't go into too much detail about any one thing. Throughout, it defines in very simple terms any jargon kids might not know, and it includes both an index and a glossary of terms in the back of the book. I would recommend this to students in upper elementary school and older who are interested in learning a little about opera/theater.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating look at the history and production of the opera. My favorite piece was the woven illustration of opera through the ages. Being a fan of opera, I have never considered that piece of not only cultural changes, but timeline as well.

On that note, if it is true that this book is $18.99 for an ebook version of this book, either the author or publisher is smoking crack. It isn't worth it. Get it from the library.

[PottWab Regional Library]

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