First Nights at the Opera

by Thomas Forrest Kelly

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, opera was the grandest entertainment in Western culture. In First Nights at the Opera, the renowned music scholar Thomas Kelly narrates the social history of European opera during its golden age by taking us behind the scenes at the premiere performances of five extraordinary and influential Handel’s Giulio Cesare (London, 1724), Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Prague, 1787), Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots (Paris, 1836), Wagner’s Das Rheingold (Bayreuth, 1876), and Verdi’s Otello (Milan, 1887). What was it like to be there, to see and hear and perform these operas for the very first time? Kelly takes us behind the curtains to introduce us to the nervous composers, the anxious impresarios, and the performers who had never sung these words to an audience before. Members of the audience, eager with expectation, take to their seats and What will appear on stage? Will someone miss a line? Will it be a triumph or a humiliation for the composer? Richly illustrated and briskly narrated, this glittering introduction to the world of opera will delight aficionados and neophytes alike.

Genres: Music, History

464 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2004

About the author

An American musicologist, musician, and scholar. He is the Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music at Harvard University.

Reviews

[Mary Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covers 5 major operas from different composers/periods [Handel's Gulio Cesare, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, Wagner's Das Rheingold, and Verdi's Otello) with details on the run up to their premieres, all the wheeling&dealing it took to make it happen, what the physical spaces were like, who were the singers, and what the first audience saw and how they responded. Great look at the history of opera as well as great composers and performers -- as well as the business of putting on operas. My favorite part was each opera has (translated) original documents from contemporaries (and sometimes the composers themselves).

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is kind of a sequel to Kelly's First Nights, but focusing on opera. He again takes five major works and gives a detailed accounting of their premieres: Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, Wagner's Das Rheingold, and Verdi's Otello. This book has all of the strengths of the earlier volume: hitting the sweet spot of content and tone to appeal to both non-musicians and musicians, making extensive use of primary sources, and good structure. It was especially interesting to read about the stagecraft involved with producing an opera. I also enjoyed the contrast between reading about the first three operas, which were made for and produced as part of a theater's regular opera season and whose composers were in their early or middle careers, and the final two, whose productions were highly anticipated special events whose composers were at the height of their fame and stature.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well illustrated and handsomely laid out, historically informative but easily readable, this opera pop-history publishing at its best.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brings to life the life and times of the productions reviewed