Prima Donna: A History

by Rupert Christiansen

A guide to opera's greatest female singers over the last 300 years.

368 pages, Paperback

Published March 3, 1987

About the author

Rupert Christiansen is an English writer, journalist and critic, grandson of Arthur Christiansen (editor of the Daily Express) and son of Kay and Michael Christiansen (editor of the Sunday and Daily Mirror). Born in London, he was educated at Millfield and King's College, Cambridge, where he took a double first in English. As a Fulbright scholar, he also attended Columbia University from 1977 to 1978.

Reviews

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hugely entertaining book that follows centuries of phenomenon called "prima donna" (it was "virtuosa" and "cantatrice" in earlier times) from now-fogotten Mrs Tofts to present times - it definitely needs fresh update as we got newer voices in the meantime. Christiansen has a gift of turning potentially dry facts into interesting story and compares how one generations or style influenced the later artists. Along the way he has a thing or two to say about composers and conductors who had to put up with spoiled singers ("Nobody knows the Troubels I've seen" Rudolf Bing about Helen Traubel) and more often than not we got a picture of women who simply pushed everybody else around them to respect high standards. True, Christiansen has his own opinions about voices and I don't always agree with him but it's still the book is fascinating peek in a world that has its own rules. In the last chapter, he wisely recognizes the curious fact that people tend to appreciate stars of yesterday more than contemporary ones and that this is nothing new, every generation is showing this tendency to put up old names on pedestal and only the long gone stars are the real ones. I read this book several times from start to finish and always enjoyed it immensely.

[Elizabeth Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as research for my novel, My Phantom: The Memoir of Christine Daaé. ust about everything you ever wanted to know about just about every Prima Donna who ever lived.