Ticket to the Opera: Discovering and Exploring 100 Famous Works, History, Lore, and Singers, With Recommended Recordings

by Phil G. Goulding

Long cherished by music connoisseurs and high society, opera is in fact a wonderfully entertaining art form--a thrilling combination of magnificent music, high drama, gorgeous spectacle, and sheer theatrical magic. In Ticket to the Opera, Phil G. Goulding, the author of Classical Music: The 50 Greatest Composers and Their 1000 Greatest Works, finally makes the magic and mystique of opera accessible to all.
Ticket to the Opera offers a complete operatic education, including history, definitions of key musical terms, opera lore and gossip, portraits of famous singers and the roles they immortalized, as well as pithy introductions to the greatest operas of Europe and America and their composers. The book's centerpiece is what Phil Goulding terms "the collection"--85 classics, among them Aida, The Marriage of Figaro, Carmen, and Madama Butterfly, that have been packing the world's opera houses for years. This meticulously researched book also includes a fascinating chapter on American opera from George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess to Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach and a discussion of the gems of twentieth century opera featuring works like Leos Jan cek's The Cunning Little Vixen, Alban Berg's Lulu, and Serge Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges.
Witty and opinionated, Ticket to the Opera is an inspiring guide to the most sublime musical entertainment on earth. Whether you're a curious neophyte, a music lover interested in branching out, or an aficionado eager to compare notes with a brilliant fellow opera buff, you'll prize Ticket to the Opera as an essential volume in your music library.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History

689 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Meen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ma Madame at the Mississippi University for Women introduced me to the joys of opera via a film (Le Maitre de Musique, 1988). This book enabled me to explore it more intelligently, without having to resort to a "For Dummies" reference. :)

I was listening to a Pavarotti's Opera Made Easy cd this afternoon driving back from voting, having been through a pretty depressing few days, and I realized after all this time what it is that I like about opera--it's BIG! I have no idea what they are saying, but when they say (sing) it, they say it in a HUGE way, and somehow that allows me a bit of release. Funny how insights just happen randomly...

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the first 100 pages or so, which was a good intro to opera history and genres.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Ticket to the Opera" by Phil Goulding. I enjoyed Goulding's book on Classical music more. This had explanations/definitions of Opera terms that I was unable to internalize, but I now have for a reference. After a certain point I couldn’t read any more paragraphs about dead mezzo soprano opera singers.

[rhiannonrising]

Opera for the Unwashed.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books about opera, bar none.