Timing is Everything: A Life Backstage at the Opera

by Moffatt Oxenbould

Moffatt Oxenbould has lived and breathed opera for more than forty years. And from the first, his career has been linked with what would eventually become Australia's national opera company. From stage manager to artistic director, Oxenbould's career has been an outstanding one, growing in tandem with the Opera as it developed into the prestigious and renowned company it is today. Genial, deeply knowledgeable and thoroughly entertaining, Moffat Oxenbould's memoirs are filled with riveting backstage stories of divas and disasters, outback tours and stunning triumphs, of all the international and local stars and productions for which the Opera is justly renowned, as well as the significant struggles for survival that the company has faced in the last five decades. Having worked with everyone from Pavarotti to Sutherland, Luhrmann to Kosky, David Hobson to Simone Young, Oxenbould's story is fascinating both in its retelling of a life spent backstage and as the story of the life of an opera company. timing Is Everything is essential reading for anyone with a drop of greasepaint in their blood and a song in their heart.

464 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Cassandra Kay Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

The picture the author paints behind the scences at the opera is like a myrid of set changes where characters become indistiguishable and plays dance in and out of the readers view. Let me save you the trouble of reading this one. Cast memebers come and go, some are primadonnas and some are humble and long lasting. There are problems with the set, the crew, fincancial difficulties, actors and in the end the show carries on. Its a whilrwind that doesn't really find time for enjoyment. I would have enjoyed some languid descriptions of some of the actors or what it really was like backstage. Instead you get hurried from director to play from actor to scene. Its all very good historical information about the Australian Opera and I admit it makes me long to see the Sydney Opera house but I would rather watch any Opera than read this book again.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book heavy going, in spite of that, it was filled with a tremendous amount of detail of the work that goes into running an organisation as large and complex as the Australian Opera. I was a regular subscriber to the opera during the time that Moffat was the supremo, and I enjoyed many of the productions especially Madame Butterfly with the incomparable Cheryl Barker. Not a book for the time poor readers, but well worth a look if the reader is interested in music especially opera.