Grand Opera: The Story of the Met Hardcover – Illustrated, September 22, 2014

This is a brilliant book, an extraordinary achievement. The authors are obviously passionate about their subject: they also have the intellects to compress the event-packed story of the Met into eleven chapters, a compression that nevertheless lets the vastness of the book's topic breathe and come to life. It is impossible to read this book without being impressed with the sweep of the book's scope and depth. The book covers the story of the Met from 1883 to 2013, 130 years of the opera company from its extraordinary beginnings to its current status as one of the crowning cultural achievements of western culture. Every opera in the Met's repertoire is dealt with and the authors' passion for their subject matter is evident on every page. The first night's production of Gounod's Faust on October 22, 1883 is so vividly rendered one feels transported, as if one could view the arrival of the carriages, the scalpers peddling of their price-inflated tickets, celebrity and money well represented in the raucous audience (The Vanderbilts, the Lord Chief Justice of England) not to mention of course the five hours of the opera itself. From that historic first night to the present (2013) this book covers an immense amount of history and music: bel canto, French opera, Puccini, Wagner, Verdi, American opera, twentieth-century opera, Baroque and Slavic opera are all represented with care, reverence and a most infectious brio. Oscar Hammerstein's response to the question "How's business?" is part of operatic lore. "Opera's no business" he quipped. "It's a disease!" This most readable, informative, scholarly yet fun book makes it clear that the "disease" is alive and well and looking forward to its most assured robust and healthy future.

This history of New York's Metropolitan Opera provides a highly detailed account of the institution's progress since it opened its doors in 1998 up to the present day. "Progress" is an interesting word in this context: it is striking how often developments at the Met repeated past patterns, and how often the institution swung from proud self confidence to financial crisis. Devotees of the Met will delight in this book: it covers every season, every manager, and most of the major singers. Those (like me) who enjoy opera but don't conflate the Met and the art form may find this book a bit much. But there is no harm in a little too much information, and this is an enjoyable read for any opera buff.

Quick delivery, was as advertisedThankyou

A seriously wonderful book. I couldn't put it down. There's a lot of narration of performances and productions but, if like me, you are an opera fanatic and a devotee of the Met (at least the Met when it WAS the Met still) you will want this. I do NOT agree with the authors' conclusions about the future of opera, but that is obviously a discussion that should be, and is, taking place, so there will be various conclusions.

About as much fun to read as an academic textbook. I refer the reader to the bottom of page 348, in which the authors state that Placido Domingo made his Met debut "at Bing's 39th Street Met." Blatantly wrong!! Domingo's debut took place in 1968, at which time the old house had already been demolished! If this is an example of the authors' scholarship, it puts the entire book in a doubtful light.

Gave this as a gift to an opera buff, who is totally absorbed in reading this and says it is full of new [to him] information on the subject.

The focuses primarily on finances it seems to me. Though they are certainly a part of what makes an opera company, the book seems more suited to be condensed and printed in an issue of Accountant Monthly.I found that the material that actually discussed singers, and the operas/performances to be very.... 'bitchy'. Rather than present information about performances, the author primarily addressed when a singer should have retired, or, how in previous performances they had been better.One final thing - though I had no trouble understanding what was written, or the words used, I often felt like this was the author showing off the new vocabulary they had learned while studying for the SATs. At least one of the words was completely misused. "Myriad" is not a modifier - as in "it happened a myriad of times" ... That is an incorrect use. "It happened myriad times"

Bought this as a gift. I haven't yet given it.

A bit basic for those know Met History,

Dieses Buch hat mich bei meiner Bachelor - Arbeit sehr unterstützt! Es war sehr übersichtlich geschrieben und zudem gab es viele Infos die sonst nicht so leicht zu finden waren!