The Grove Book of Opera Singers
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Covering over 1500 singers from the birth of opera to the present day, this marvelous volume will be an essential resource for all serious opera lovers and an indispensable companion to the enormously successful Grove Book of Operas. The most comprehensive guide to opera singers ever produced, this volume offers an alphabetically arranged collection of authoritative biographies that range from Marion Anderson (the first African American to perform at the Met) to Benedict Zak (the classical tenor and close friend and colleague of Mozart). Readers will find fascinating articles on such opera stars as Maria Callas and Enrico Caruso, Ezio Pinza and Fyodor Chaliapin, Lotte Lehmann and Jenny Lind, Lily Pons and Luciano Pavarotti. The profiles offer basic information such as birth date, vocal style, first debut, most memorable roles, and much more. But these articles often go well beyond basic biographical information to offer colorful portraits of the singer's personality and vocal style, plus astute evaluations of their place in operatic history and many other intriguing observations. Many entries also include suggestions for further reading, so that anyone interested in a particular performer can explore their life and career in more depth. In addition, there are indexes of singers by voice type and by opera role premiers. The articles are mostly drawn from the acclaimed Grove Music Online and have been fully revised, and the book is further supplemented by more than 40 specially commissioned articles on contemporary singers. A superb new guide from the first name in opera reference, The Grove Book of Opera Singers is a lively and authoritative work, beautifully illustrated with color and black-and-white pictures. It is an essential volume—and the perfect gift—for opera lovers everywhere. Sarah Sutton - Library Journal Grove Music editor in chief and active music scholar Macy has brought together a reference work dedicated to opera performers from the 15th century to the present. Biographies of over 1500 opera singers, some of which are new but many of which "are based on" articles appearing in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera(1992) or The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians(2d ed., 2001). Indexes of roles, voices, and operas allow the reader to trace the network of relationships among singers, operas, and performances, making the work a useful and comprehensive tool for novice and experienced opera researchers alike. Mostly drawn from the Oxford Music Online database, the articles are arranged alphabetically by singer and vary in length from a few sentences to several pages. Many are accompanied by illustrations and portraits, and almost all contain references to further readings. Articles are authored by a variety of experts on opera, and many have been updated for this new publication (although the reader will have to refer to the preface to understand the exact relationships between original authors and updating authors and the extent to which an article has been updated). Oxford describes this work as the "most comprehensive guide to opera singers ever produced," and indeed it appears to be just that, including biographic articles on contemporary opera singers such as Luciano Pavarotti and Beverly Sills as well as early performers such as Jenny Lind (19th century), Farinelli (18th century), and Jacopo Peri (17th century).
