Review by Booklist Review
Vincent is an award-winning librettist and trained vocalist. In this sometimes irreverent, often illuminating look at what Franco Zeffirelli called "a planet where the muses work together, join hands and celebrate all the arts," she raises the curtain on an art form fraught with issues, from casting challenges to economic pressure to concerns about cultural appropriation. Opening with a brief historical overview, Vincent goes on to discuss opera's text (libretto), music, stages, and the canon, universally recognized eighteenth- and nineteenth-century masterpieces. Running through the book are themes and insights from her interviews with 29 opera professionals, including singers René Barbera and Denyce Graves, composers Jonathan Dove and Missy Mazzoli, conductor Lidya Yankovskaya, and librettist Mark Campbell. In sharp, clear-eyed observations, Vincent addresses the contentious issues that threaten opera's very existence. This will appeal to diehard opera fans, those who have ventured into an opera house for the first time, and those who are just curious about this distinctive world. A thoughtful consideration of an art form with a rich history and, it is hoped, a flourishing future.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This lively debut from librettist and former opera singer Vincent takes stock of the current state of opera and the challenges facing it. She unpacks debates like whether directors should revise classic opera scores (which traditionalists often treat as "carefully preserved antiquit" but are closer to the product of "centuries-long game of Telephone," according to Vincent) and production companies' reluctance to take risks on less popular operas. Sharp insights are also offered about directors' attempts to breathe new life into classics--on the one hand, fresh stagings can be less impactful for audiences unfamiliar with the original, but traditional stagings raise questions of their own (an extreme example being the continued use of blackface and yellowface in some corners of the opera world). Drawing on personal experience and a wealth of interviews, Vincent paints a clear-eyed picture of an art form constrained by massive costs, shrinking audiences, and bygone traditions, while also giving due to its beauty and resilience. Longtime opera lovers and newcomers alike will be edified. (Jan.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A behind-the-scenes look at the state of opera today, by an industry insider. Currently an opera librettist and lyricist, Vincent spent a decade as a professional singer; during five of those years, she founded and ran a small opera company in Baltimore, so she's well equipped to explain the nuts and bolts of an art form frequently seen as mysterious by outsiders. Her determination not to intimidate sometimes makes her prose a little chirpy, and frequent operagoers will be familiar with much of the material, but this is a solid introduction for readers intrigued by but unfamiliar with the genre. The author takes readers by the hand through the process of creating, performing, and (not incidentally) selling an opera; her chapters are helpfully subtitled to flag subjects of debate--or, as Vincent prefers to call them, "battlegrounds" between opera traditionalists and those trying to coax it into the 21st century. In "The Score,or, That Should Be in a Museum!" she dissents from the view that a score is an unchangeable expression of the composer's intent, reminding us that many operas have come down through history in multiple versions. In "The Stage,or, (Yellow) Facing the Music," she describes with amusement far-out productions such asLa bohème set in outer space, but it reminds those insisting that operas should be staged as they always have been that the traditions they defend include white singers in blackface playingOtello or taping their eyes and coyly flourishing fans inMadama Butterfly, while African American and Asian singers were denied employment. In "The Singers,or, She's Got the Look," she discusses the pressure on singers, women in particular, to keep their weight down, exacerbated by the fact that many opera performances are now broadcast. Frequent quotes from Vincent's interviews with other opera professionals add weight to her arguments, while interpolations about her personal experiences give the book a human touch. A bit basic for longtime fans, but great for opera newbies. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
