Opera Anecdotes

by Ethan Mordden

From backstage squabbles and box-office chicanery to the gallantry and glory of creation, this book unveils a delightful panorama of opera lore, alternately hilarious, poignant, and wise. Ethan Mordden has mined the literature for "the best stories" and retells them in the fresh and witty style that prompted Publishers Weekly to hail him as "one of the most entertaining and provocative writers around."
Mordden has selected a vast collection of classic, arcane and unusual anecdotes, including Giuseppe Verdi's advice on how to run an opera house and how to write an aria, Enrico Caruso's adventures in the San Francisco earthquake, Arturo Toscanini's reunion dinner with his former lover Geraldine Farrar, and Beverly Sills' ad libbing from the Met balcony during a Lily Pons Lakmé . The volume contains sad stories, too, as when Hans von Bülow confronts his wife Cosima after she has left him for Wagner; and silly stories, as when Colonel Henry Mapleson attempts to put on Il Trovatore while missing one of the four principals, Azucena. We see history being made when Gluck's "psychological" orchestration so startles the Paris Opéra orchestra that the players trail off in astonishment; and we see history nearly unmade when Luciano Pavarotti's plane crashes en route to Milan.
"There is history here," Mordden notes, "for if many of the tales are silly, many others are telling. They bring us close to a moment in which art is invented, revised, elaborated. The characters of opera's adventures are so vital and stimulating that almost anything they do enlightens us."

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

267 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 1985

Reviews

[Riq Hoelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of good stories like this:

A soprano, on a tour in Mexico, was captured by bandits who turned out to be music lovers unwilling to molest a daughter of art. They agreed to let her go - if she proved that she was indeed a prima donna of the opera.

"How can I do that?"

"Sing!"

"What? Sing in a cavern? Before rabble? Without footlights, makeup or costumes? No lords in the boxes? No critics in the pit? No bouquets hurled at the curtain? No money in the box office?"

"Let her go," sighed the bandit chief. "She's a prima donna, all right.
---
As many stories need setups, you can learn quite a bit about the history of opera performance rather painlessly.

The book covers singers, conductors, impresarios from Caruso to Toscanini, everyone but the operagoers. To address this deficit, I have a story of my own to add.

A friend of mine is a big classical music lover, and though he collected many opera overtures, had never been to the opera. Some new friends, however, were opera fans and determined this must be remedied ASAP. So before long there they were in fancy dress, in their seats, the house lights dimmed and music starting to play. Suddenly my friend's eyes lit up and he could not resist whispering to his friends, "Hey, they're playing the Carmen overture!"

[John Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone who loves opera since attending my first one with my mom, I’ve read a few books to learn more and thought this one would bring me behind the scenes to take a look behind the curtain. It did but the way the book was written made me think I was missing some of the better stories. Most of the stories were flat, perhaps because I love opera but don’t understand it as much as most people would to devote the time to consume this type of book.

There were some fun stories – about opera and people. One particularly fun story was of a porter, upset that the opera star made so much money signing. After hearing what he made, the singing sung the first four notes of an octave scale, stopped then said that would have earned the singing what the train worker would make all year. It reminded me of when I asked a cartoonist how long it took to make the cartoon I was using for an award (after paying him) and he paused then said, “A lifetime.”

It was also interesting to read about the “opera house war” between the Metropolitan Opera and the Academy of Music. Reading about Richard Wagner will make me appreciate his next opera better. The background on Richard Strauss and his dance with the Nazis was fascinating. It reminds the reader of the conflict arts have had often with the leadership of a country. Other stories in the book remind the reader that arts is also a business, including the one where Oscar Hammerstein recruited an Irish opera singer for his work at the Manhattan Opera House and said that with “an Irishman singing Italian opera in New York,” it would produce a packed house.

Still, while making me grin and sometimes laugh, this book was too much work for the reward. It provided less understanding of what happens behind the scenes than I thought and was the least interesting of the few opera books I have enjoyed. And, what made it harder to get through was the weird selection of different text sizes randomly throughout the book. What was with that?

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a classical music fan, though not particularly an opera fan. But I enjoyed this book anyway. Mordden, who’s an engaging writer, doesn’t take himself too seriously or make greater claims for the truthfulness of his stories than they deserve. Some are clearly ben trovato. Mordden’s witty biographical sketches—sometimes longer than the anecdotes themselves—are perhaps the most valuable part of the work. I read some of the book while exercising at the gym, but I found it more satisfying to read the rest at home where I could use the internet to check out the more interesting characters as well as learn definitions of some vocabulary words unfamiliar to me—on a couple of occasions in the punch line.

[Pascale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read it many years ago and really enjoyed it then.

[Paul Hasbrouck · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you thought Opera was just stiff singers belting out music that makes your ears bleed, this book is not for you. To tell the truth i love Opera, the staging, the wonder of the music, the glory of singers and plots that are wild.
This books is filled with stories about singers, composers, writers and mangers that are hidden from the Opera going public. The feuds, the loves, the hates that make up the Opera world. Most of the time you will laugh and laugh at the goings on.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

hilarious stories of the world of Opera over the centuries.