Fortissimo: Backstage at the Opera with Sacred Monsters and Young Singers

by William Murray

H. L. Mencken declared that “the opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.” It was not meant as a compliment, but to William Murray, former New Yorker staff writer and aspiring opera singer, a bawdy house is an apt metaphor for the a place of confusion, high and low drama, fleshly pleasures and raucous song.

In Fortissimo , Murray follows twelve young singers in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s training program, the prestigious Opera Center for American Artists, through the 2003–2004 season. In the course of the year, these singers attend countless coaching sessions, inspiring master classes, nerve-racking auditions and grueling rehearsals—and finally perform with some of the most celebrated names (and spectacular egos) in opera, from Samuel Ramey to José Cura and Natalie Dessay. While chronicling their progress, Murray offers an insider’s look at the different aspects of the opera world that influence a young singer’s success, a world filled with temperamental maestros, ambitious directors, old-world tradition and sacred monsters.

Weaving recollections of his own days training in New York, Rome and Milan in the 1950s with the personal and artistic struggles of the young singers in Chicago today, Murray lays bare the staggering ambition and relentless will required to achieve a career in the arts. As he writes, “Becoming a successful opera singer—stepping out on a huge stage to try to fill the house with your voice, to bring an audience of thirty-six hundred people to its feet—is as risky in its own peculiar way as embarking on a career as a matador. You can triumph, you can struggle to survive or you can perish from your wounds.” Fortissimo is a delicious tale of rising talents, angst and heartache and small triumphs, and the music that inspires it all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

William Murray was an American fiction editor and staff writer at The New Yorker for more than thirty years. He wrote a series of mystery novels set in the world of horse racing, many featuring Shifty Lou Anderson, a professional magician and horseplayer. Among his many contributions to The New Yorker was the magazine's "Letters from Italy" of which he was the sole author. The majority of his later years were spent living in Del Mar, California, "exactly 3.2 miles from the finish line" of Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. Murray died in March 2005 at age 78. Just prior to his death, Murray had completed a book about Chicago's Lyric Opera Center for American Artists.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mar 26, 730am ~~ Review asap.

645pm ~~ I love opera, even though I am not very educated about it and do not get to see it much. Although that will change now because I have looked up links for many different performances at YouTube so I have a lot of home work to do!

This book deals with Chicago's Lyric Opera house and its Young Singers program. Published in 2005, at the time it followed one season at the opera and the trials and triumphs the singers went through during the season Murray was allowed behind the scenes. I thought it was fascinating, and Murray was the ideal writer for such a project, since he knew and loved opera, even having had youthful plans to be a star on the stage.

The phrase 'young singers' does not mean student singers. It means a person who has trained for a career and wants or needs a little more polish, a little more exposure, to break into the mainstream. The Lyric program offers that, and seems at times almost too much of a good thing. I was exhausted just reading about some of the long days put in by the young singers.

Murray's knowledge was impressive, and he shared it without seeming snobby. I have a list of shows and arias that I want to hear just because he commented on how beautiful they were. I should be careful about reading books about musicians, I guess, because they always create so many other projects! lol

The only problem with this book was that since it was published nearly 25 years ago I kept wondering what had actually happened with our group of singers. I love opera but I do not keep up with its news so when I finished the book I started googling. Most continue in the field, either still
performing or as teachers, but one young lady had died of cancer in 2020, at age 44. Before that happened, though, she had enjoyed as successful a career as Murray had predicted for her in the book.

I'm very glad to have found the recordings of so many operas at YouTube. I used to watch them on the cable channel A&E back when that stood for Arts And Entertainment and not whatever it is supposed to mean these days when they only have crime dramas on. That old-style A&E is where I discovered how thrilling opera can be. And as we learned in Pretty Woman, you don't always need to know what the singers are saying to be moved by the story.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed a whole lot!

[Lois Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up listening to the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday afternoons, adoring the music, the performers, so this book about the development of young opera singers was down my alley. However this book isn't about just the young singers of the 2003-2004 Lyric Opera of Chicago training program as interesting as it is to watch them develop over their year of coaching, master classes, auditions, rehearsals and performances, but also about the opera training, experience and knowledge of the book' author, William Murray. Murray had trained to be an opera singer, had decided that he didn't have the voice to make it to the top, and had become a writer/journalist. He covers his experiences on and off stage, his knowledge of the "Sacred Monsters" and Divas and what makes one of them, as well as his reportage on the singers at Chicago. This is a fascinating book for anyone who loves opera.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about a year in the life of the student singers at Lyric Opera of Chicago! I was so excited when this book came out, could not wait to read it, and loved it. It follows young singers from the Opera Center (now called the Ryan Center) as they learn their craft, sing small parts in operas, and understudy the stars. I am fascinated by the backstage happenings at opera houses, and this book was a lot of fun to read. This is a fascinating look at how young opera singers are trained - their classes, auditions, and many rehearsals.

Since I am a super at Lyric Opera, this felt like a story about my home. It was great fun to read and really gives you an idea of how these training programs work and all the hard work that goes into becoming an opera singer. Serious serious work.

[Ernest · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book which takes a detailed and uncompromising look at the world of the aspiring professional opera singer(s). This book is not for everyone-one has to either understand and/or appreciate opera, classical music or the inside look at the world of the professional. It is (and would have been) better if you really know the opera pieces, to fully appreciate the effort required.

[Adri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enjoyable.

[Lindley Ashline · Rating 1 out of 5]

I put it down after the chapter-long screed about how lazy, immoral and generally awful fat people are, and haven't picked it back up.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great unbiassed look into a Young Artist Program and a gritty take on opera.