The Metropolitan Opera Murders

by Helen Traubel

It happened right in front of the soprano's eyes...the man in the prompter's box gasped, twisted grotesquely, and died. The appalled diva went on singing Brunnehilde--and the audience never guessed someone had cued a real corpse for Valhalla!

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Detective, Classics

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the book to read for opera definitions. Footnotes are 5 star exact information on not only the forms but nuances of this 1950's context. History defined in facts as it was precisely without opinion piece bias or slanted nuance for context.

Super easy cozy read. Wagner dramatic.

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Metropolitan Opera Murders (1951) is Helen Traubel's venture into detective fiction. Her intimate knowledge of the wheels within wheels that make New York's Opera House run gives the mystery its very authentic flavor. She takes the reader behind the scenes to reveal the jealousies, temperaments, and talents that can be blended to produce several motives for murder. The book opens with the Wagner's Die Walküre in mid-performance. Elsa Vaughn, the diva singing Brünnehilde, watches in horror as the prompter, one time a singer himself, dies in the prompter's box--hidden from the audience.

When Lieutenant Quentin begins investigating, it is revealed that Rudolf Salz was killed by his drinking poisoned liquor which he lifted from Vaughn's dressing room. And she tells him that this isn't the first incident--someone had put ground glass in her cold cream and, fortunately, it had been noticed before any damage was done. As the case continues, another woman who had aspired to Vaughn's role is shot while sitting where the star was thought to be and several attempts on Vaughn's life are foiled. But, now that her rival is dead, who exactly would benefit from Vaughn's death? Quentin will have to work his way through blackmail, professional jealousy, and misleading evidence to spot the killer and real motive before it's too late.

This is a fair example of a mystery by a first-time author who is trying to use her real-world experiences as a backdrop for murder and mayhem. Traubel does a decent job--she has tried valiantly to provide red herrings, false clues, and fair play. She is at best providing the atmosphere and authentic setting and characters--and she even gives a good portrayal of the lead detective. The mystery itself is not terribly intricate and old hands at the detective novel game will spot the killer and motive, but Traubel is entertaining and this makes for a nice, comfortable, quick read. ★★★--just.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Tanja ~ KT Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published in 1951, The Metropolitan Opera Murders has been reprinted via Poisoned Pen Press. What a wonderful way to greet new readers. The Metropolitan Opera house is an iconic place for music and the arts. So when a murder happens the stage is set for some thrilling drama. The game is afoot and Detective Lt Sam Quentin is on the case!! Time to revisit the classics, friends!!

~Tanja

*Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sharing this title with me.


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[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daily Deal | Unrealistic dialogue, intrusive footnotes, fine plot | Nobody has ever interacted with other humans the way they are written here. Insurance agents talk like a Dashiell Hammett PI, NYPD Lieutenants make sure to carefully spell out the exposition for their suspects. Operatic sopranos drink and have big lunches and boisterous conversations right after being drugged and gassed and just before full Wagnerian performances. Sure.
The footnotes added by the modern editor were awful. In some cases, they explained things that were then explained in the text on the following page. They define words that are still in common use. They drag in biographical info about the author in the middle of a scene. They give Wikipedia-style detail on offhand references that the reader could look up when they aren't reading a fictional narrative, if they somehow aren't familiar with, for example, Walter Winchell, and if they care that much about someone who is just a name drop in one sentence.
It's hard to find the story in the middle of all the footnotes, but it's perfectly fine when you do, if a bit obvious. Still interesting.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Famed Wagnerian soprano Traubel (with a little help from ghostwriter Harold Q. Masur) came up with this conversation piece about beautiful, popular Wagnerian soprano Elsa Vaughn, who helps solve a pair of murders, one committed in the prompt box as Elsa sings Brunnhilde in Die Valkure, the other in Elsa's own dressing room during a production of Tristan and Isolde. Among the suspects are members of the socially prestigious DeBrett family, as well as the singers and hangers-on backstage at the Met (that would be the old Met, not the one at Lincoln Center, since the book was written in the 1950's). The plot isn't the most brilliant, but there are a lot of backstage tidbits from Traubel's profound knowledge of opera singing. This edition was published by the Library of Congress Crime Classics.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light and fun, like an old Hollywood movie.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a member of the company is murdered during a performance of the Metropolitan Opera, the intended target must be identified.

Mystery Review: The Metropolitan Opera Murders has been recently republished as part of the Library of Congress Crime Classics series, apparently because it was co-written by Helen Traubel (1899-1972), the most famous Wagnerian soprano of her time. Forgotten today (numerous photos of her are online), she was then a larger than life character, and appears in the novel as "Elsa Vaughn." Other than her own appearance, I don't know how much of it might be a roman à clef, but it's fun even without that, containing credible characters and being very Manhattan. The Metropolitan Opera Murders is an excellent read for anyone who enjoys grand opera (assuming it hasn't changed much from the Fifties -- is Wagnerian opera still popular?). The footnotes are numerous, awesome, amazingly thorough, deadpan, and could serve as a college-level course on the subject. I learned more about opera than I'd ever known. For readers with no interest in opera this is not your book. The mystery is only average and while I may or may not have figured it out, the perp was the one person I was hoping it wasn't. But this isn't a book to be read for the plot, it's about an exotic and unique setting with eccentric characters, about getting a voyeuristic insight into an unknown and insular world. As we learn, a world dependent on the snobby upper crust, because opera isn't important at all to most people for whom it's just the shrill and noisy singers on the classical music station. This is the first book I've read with a (known) ghost writer (I debated even reading it), but there's obviously a whole lot of Helen Traubel here, with a good sense of humor (the detective's name is Sam Quentin). The book snob in me rebels against reading a ghost-written book, but somehow I survived without too much charring. The ghost writer was Harold Q. Masur (1909-2005), a lawyer (the story has legal elements) who had a significant mystery writing career of his own. The Metropolitan Opera Murders is an average gem in a resplendent setting. [3½★]

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, but predictable classic mystery. 4/5 stars.

I'm a sucker for a classic mystery. I can't help it, but it's just my vibe. This one is that to a tee. From start to finish we get that feel. We hop right into the crime, and it doesn't stop from there. We get to experience a variety of different characters, and while some are stereotypical, they're still enjoyable regardless. The writing was really smooth, and I never felt bored or distracted. To me, these are all the sum of a good mystery. I did find the reveal obvious and guessing it probably about 50% through, but it had good setup which still made it believable and fun. If you like classic mysteries, I'd definitely recommend this one! It's on the shorter side too, so you'll get through it pretty quickly.

I'd also like to shoutout these Library of Congress editions. They're wonderful paperback productions, and I really appreciate the footnotes which add so much to the history and story. I've collected a bunch of them so far, and I hope they keep coming!

Quick hits:
+ The writing is well done.
+ The mystery has good setup, even with a predictable ending.
+ The characters were stereotypical, but still enjoyable.
+ Wonderful edition.

[Maggie]

Both hard-boiled and over-written. But fun!

p. 134: "The sight paralyzed all of Elsa's muscles except those which control articulation. How many decibels went into her scream, as the pivot of her jaw swung open, no one will ever know. The mechanical instruments that measures sound were not at the moment available. Powered by twenty years spent in developing her lungs, larynx, and diaphragm, fortified by countless Valkyrie war cries, it was an awe-inspiring sound that must have agitated seismographs across half the continent. For the first time in operatic history a dramatic soprano hit an F above high C."

Weirdly, it has footnotes, actual bottom of the page footnotes. I guess that's a result of being published by the Library of Congress? Some of the footnotes are useful - little nuggets of opera history, or conjecture as to which real opera singer has been fictionalized. Others seem bizarrely didactic - doesn't everyone who reads know that a reference to Ossining is about Sing Sing prison, or that elevators used to be manually operated?

One interesting footnote explained the "Mazda glare of 42nd Street" - apparently Mazda was the trade name for a kind of tungsten bulb.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an opera-lover, I enjoyed this for the insights, (straight from the soprano's mouth), into the world of singing and the workings of the post-WW2 Met.

As a murder mystery which included the deaths of a wannabe singer, a voice coach and a rising opera star, it was mediocre.

There are plenty of suspects and lots of motives are thrown around. There is even an arrest. The police are endearingly incompetent until the last moment and there is some love interest. But real clues are a bit lacking and the murderer's motivation seems rather unconvincing, causing me to wonder if the author was leaving openings for many possible solutions.

Helen Traubel obviously put a lot of herself into this and so the authenticity of the setting and characters is not in doubt but it is clear why this was her only full-length foray in to the genre.

Leslie S Klinger is responsible for the many explanatory footnotes, some very useful, and most very necessary for those not familiar with the world of opera.

3.25 stars.

[Brian Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lively whodunnit murder mystery story, set in New York City circa 1950. It opens with a dramatic death on stage at the Metropolitan Opera. There's a closed circle of suspects and the pacing of the storytelling creates suspense. The setting is the Metropolitan Opera and there's plenty of opera trivia included in the story. Most of the characters are connected with the world of opera, either as a performer or a behind-the-scenes person. They bring their egos and ambitions to the story giving a real life dimension to their actions. Detective Sam Quentin of the New York Police leads the search for the killer and follows a trail of red herrings.
A "contextual" Introduction and explanatory footnotes help the reader put the book in perspective. (One revelation is that it was ghostwritten by Harold Q. Masur, a writer of several crime novels).
Recommended.

[Becky Bosshart · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read that the author was also a world-famous Wagnerian soprano at the Met in NYC, I was absolutely floored. That’s the equivalent of being a Super Bowl-winning quarterback—but no, there’s only one Met and dozens of NFL teams, and Wagner requires a unique strength and presence to sing. Even the best Italian singers can’t do it. So Helen Taubel was a dramatic operatic soprano AND a murder mystery writer?? Wow. And she’s a very good traditional murder mystery writer. Although there were a few plot holes, the characterization and writing were both good and the plot left me guessing until the end. I loved the setting inside the world of opera—it was never overwhelming. I also found the footnotes from the Library of Congress to be essential, not to mention fascinating. Usually footnotes distract from the story, these enhanced.

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

A wispy little mystery, written (with help) by an opera singer, so it's full of details about what life on the stage is really like.

It seems that someone is out to kill Elsa Vaughn, lead singer at the Met. Unfortunately, her poison was drunk by Rudolf Salz, whom everyone had a reason to dislike. Lieutenant Quentin has to figure out who was the intended victim, and who wants either of them dead (pretty much everyone). Can Quentin find the killer before they strike again?

Not much substance, a lot of detail about the opera, a quick little read. A side note: these Library of Congress mysteries tend to have a lot of footnotes, most of them are too detailed and detract from the story, feel free to skim or ignore.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 1951 mystery from Traubel (1899–1972), the leading soprano at New York's Metropolitan Opera in her day, opens onstage during a performance of "Die Walküre". Elsa Vaughn, a celebrated Wagnerian soprano who's performing the role of Brünnehilde, watches in horror as Rudolf Salz, a former holdentenor who's filling in as prompter, convulses and dies. Salz was poisoned, and Elsa may have been the intended victim. Elsa teams up with NYPD Homicide Lt. Sam Quentin to uncover the murderer among a cast that includes an opera manager named Aaron Van Cleff (as in the musical notation) and members of a prominent family named DeBrett (as in the guide to the English peerage). Meanwhile, enormous egos collide over Wagnerian interpretation.

[BBoulier · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Helen Traubel’s “The Metropolitan Opera Murders” (1951), the stage prompter is poisoned during a performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre at the Metropolitan Opera House. But, was the poison really meant for him? Could it be that the real target is the star soprano? Lieutenant Quentin of the NYPD must decide the intended victim and who among many suspects is the murderer. Traubel, a well-known Wagnerian soprano, produced a delightful mystery with ghostwriter Harold Masur. While the writing is pedestrian, the plot is very good, there is a lot of inside information on opera companies, and there is some nice humor. Highly recommended. The 2022 Library of Congress version provides a lot of background on Traubel and this mystery

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a lightweight, pedestrian murder mystery. The characters are rather mundane. They are clearly modeled on the characters that you would find in any 1940s detective film, ie, the heroine, the hero, the ingenue and her boy friend, the detective, the villain and the victim. The plot is fairly predictable including the plot twists and the final outcome. What distinguishes this story and sets it above and apart from the average mystery are its setting, ie, the Metropolitan Opera, and the gossipy style of writing which offers a window into the behind-the-scene politics and machinations that occur as singers seek to succeed by obtaining leading roles in major productions.

It’s a rather enjoyable read. As a result it rates 3.5 stars.

[Bodil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rather enjoyed this book. It is written in the early 1950:s, but is well worth reading today. We learn nothing about the police detective’s private life and his other problems, which is a nice change from many modern detective stories. It is about singers and others at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and will all the foot notes added to this new edition, one could pick up quite a bit about opera in general and particularly Wagner operas. In some ways it is a simple story, but the book is rather fun and at least I had not guessed who “had dunnit”.

[Stuart Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay mystery that was not all that exciting. The editor helpfully supplies footnotes to explain operas and singers that may not be all that familiar to today's readers, even if they are opera buffs. However, the footnote that explains what an elevator operator does seemed at first extraneous but then I realized how unfamiliar such a job is to the vast majority of today's readers. Made me feel old indeed.

[Joedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this classic crime story, authored by Helen Traubel who, in her prime was considered "the greatest Wagnerian soprano" in the world. A great story that touches on so many aspects of the opera world...characters, surroundings, and situations that are as true today as they were in the 1950s when the book was published. This is the first I have read in the Library of Congress Crime Classics series and have already ordered a few more!!

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is part of the Library of Congress reissue series for older crime fiction. Helen Traubel was (before my time) a Wagnerian opera star, and she really knows her opera and opera world. It's a light read, but, if you're an opera buff, you'll enjoy this backstage look at opera intrigue. For what it's worth, I didn't guess whodunit until near the end.

[Edmund Kubiak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a nice little mystery. Helen Traubel was well-known soprano and she decided to do a bit of writing on the side. This was her second book after The Ptomaine Canary. It's an easy read and gives some nice background into what goes on behind the scenes in an opera company.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars: An unpretentious, old-fashioned mystery that isn't quite a "cozy" but falls close to that category. It's a fun read and while the author herself is supposedly the basis she used for her heroine, there isn't much ego at work. Enjoyable.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated, predictable, loved it, sort of. Not much to recommend, unless you appreciate Helen Traubel's career and her references to greats of the Met's past. Some humor in this tale, too, if you spot it.

[Alice Kwok · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really sweet, fun Golden Age mystery. Loved the Wagnerian opera angle, written by an actual Wagnerian opera singer. Loved having a heroine who was unapologetically fat and portrayed as romantically desirable.

[Arianna Keyser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read if you enjoy murder mysteries and the performing arts. I particularly enjoyed the footnotes provided in the library of Congress crime series version as a way to add insight and deeper understanding of the references for historical and operatic context.

[Art · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short murder mystery, fun learning about the nuances and definitions and historical figures in the opera world. Kind of knew who the murderer had to be halfway through the book, still a fun, small read.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun 1950s mystery written by a soprano at the Met.

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I cannot remember WHY I picked this up... the concept (famous Wagnerian soprano as author) and yes, enough Opera background to hold one's attention but, nah. Just a nice little set of murders.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun for the history and the typical, classic mystery in a new location. Not to mention the innumerable opera/music/theater jokes throughout!

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot was thin, the characters were flat, but the humor and the opera lore made this quite enjoyable.