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Work: A Story of Experience, Louisa May Alcott
Alcott continues to be a real mixed bag. She's interested in some degree of independence from women, but she also buys into the Beecher notion of separate spheres. It's an interesting, and interestingly flawed, tale, and like many Alcott novels rather foolishly sentimental in spots. I expect to reread this a few more times.
A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn
I said at one point that if I had to pick a single volume to teach American History out of, that would be it. Now I'm not so sure. This history written from the point of view of the losers is a real eye-opener, and while polemical, the author makes a point of directing the reader's naturally aroused ire not at the unchangeable, if unjust, past, but rather at the malleable present and the teaching of history therein, in addition to more obvious and pressing problems of our system of government. The last chapter functions as a call to participate in the creation of what I have been referring to as the "disorg". Great stuff; somewhat depressing.
Like so much else I'm reading this month, this one gets assigned a bunch (sometimes excerpts in a reader) in a lot of classes. Nobody seems to be slamming his scholarship, but there are some serious attempts to distract one from it by comparing it to other histories with an ideological slant.
How to Talk to Anybody about Anything, Leil Lowndes
Obviously, any book with this as the title is bound to be somewhat superficial. Each section is a template of a half-dozen questions designed to draw out another person by playing to what they care, and making it appear that you know about and care about the same things. Some of this is occupational, and some is avocational -- sports, enthusiasms, etc. The first two questions are intended to find out what subsection of the occupation or enthusiasm the person belongs, and to determine their level of expertise. The next couple questions are directed at details of the profession or hobby. The second to the last question is stated as being about "the most important issues" for that occupation/hobby -- but the reality is it's almost invariabley "how does taxation/government regulation impact you and what do you think about it". The last question is designed to convey the impression that you might be interested in buying whatever it is they might be selling. While the book could have been intended to help the reader learn how to converse with people in an effort to learn or improve oneself, the author instead opts to help the reader pretend interest in an effort to get something out of the other person -- successfully. Fascinating, and about as distasteful as the hoary ancestor of this approach to socializing, Dale Carnegie and his How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Lowndes teaches seminars and gives a lot of keynote speeches. And the descriptions of these are even more superficial than this book.
Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera, Fred Plotnick (incomplete)
I took a class about the history of opera in college and enjoyed it enormously, even though one of the operas I saw for the class was Massenet's Werther, which I might wish on my worst enemy, and then again, I might be more merciful. The class did an excellent job analyzing the music and dramatic structure, and the history of opera, but a less than stellar job discussing the current state of the art, kinds of voices, and contemporary singers. Hey, it was a lousy one quarter, two credit class. This book does a terrible job covering the history of opera (superficial doesn't begin to cover it), but an excellent job covering (yes, you guessed it) contemporary singers, voice types and the state of the art in recordings. The first half does all that; the last half covers eleven operas in excruciating detail. I've read the first half, and am currently in the process of working my way through the second, after taking myself off to CD Now and ordering eleven complete operas. This is not a cheap thing to do, I might add -- it's exactly the right thing to put in perspective spending $65 for a ticket to La Traviata.
Like many of the other books I read this month, this one gets used as a text fairly often.
Rigoletto, Verdi; Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
So it's not a book. I figure I read it in two different English translatiosn and in Italian -- that's got to count for something. The most familiar part of the music is the tenor aria La Donna e mobile, but a lot of other sections are vaguely familiar also. Pavarotti does a great job as the Duke, and while I never really have liked coloratura (sp?) singing much, I must grudgingly admit that Plotnick is right to think Sutherland is one of the greats.
Tosca, Puccini;
I am, needless to say, still working my way through Plotnick, reading librettos and listening to opera. I never have liked any Puccini as well as I like Verdi -- I suspect it's the plot-oriented part of me showing again. "Va Tosca" is really spooky tho, and it's kind of nice to see the heroine get to do someone in this time around.
Lucia di Lammermoor, Donnizetti; Libretto by Cammarano
More of the same: women dying due to unrequited love, and murdering someone just before they exit this earthly stage permanently. Sutherland continues to impress, and all characters concerned continue to annoy.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia/The Barber of Seville, Rossini;
Not more of the same. No one dies. The hero and heroine hook up (yes, I know it won't last, but that's later). Some pretty amusing bits. Some startlingly bad diction. I just bought a copy of Sir Denis Forman's A Night at the Opera, which if I were ever to write a book about opera, that's the book I'd write, saving me considerable effort and making this exercise a lot more entertaining having found the perfect guide for me so early in the game. Forman loves opera, but that doesn't mean he lacks a sense of humor. He talks a bit about snobs (enough to know that's the category for Plotnick, but I suspected as much), and a lot about the problems of the craze for Authentick. Well, Plotnick's selection here was bad and he knew it but he went for it anyway because it had the closest to the original libretto, weak bits and all and obviously the composer knew best, right? Ah, well. Nucci's not up to the task of some of those zippy songs -- he sounds out of breath, strained and he is just flat missing a lot of syllables. Ramey, as I've come to expect, is superb, and Horne sounds great, of course. No one else is standing out one way or the other, really. This is clearly one I'm going to have to buy a different recording of. I suppose it was inevitable Plotnick's choices wouldn't all be good. It's a fun tale, tho. I don't have the Beaumarchais in French, but I have a translation, which I also read. Pretty lame that Rosina gets aced out of her inheritance anyway. Altho probably realistic.
Don Giovanni, Mozart
The first one I bailed on reading about first and listened to cold. Te Kenawa (I heard her very briefly as Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto above) has, as everyone says, a lovely voice. But crappy diction and no sense of drama. Maybe the latter is okay in this instance, but the former is always bad.
Tales of Hoffman, Offenbach
Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky
The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France, Robert Darnton
Darnton is exploring the history of books and reading and attempting to determine whether the Enlightenment produced books read immediately prior to the revolution in France, or if perhaps other reading was more influential. His research is careful and his analysis cautious. He provides extensive excerpts for the reader to judge herself. His writing is clear and engaging. I'll be watching for other books by him.
People (at least used to) teach classes in this kind of thing. The disconnectedness and lack of sure conclusions bothered other people more than me.
The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln, Gluckel
Gluckel was a pious Jewish woman in 17th Century Germany who raised a large family, married twice and engaged in trade. I have always been somewhat confused why more Jews did not leave Germany in the years before the Holocaust. I was aware of earlier pogroms in Europe, but did not fully understand the pervasiveness ill-treatment of Jews -- nor the degree to which they became accustomed to it. The additional taxes, the laws limiting where they could live, the forfeiture of their property upon death in many situations, their lack of protection by the law -- a Christian could kill a Jew with little fear of investigation, much less prosecution or punishment.
This book seems to get assigned a lot, in Jewish schools to the young 'uns and in colleges to people studying Medieval Europe or women or Jews or whatever. Judging by the syllabi, nothing much interesting is done with the text, which is kind of a pity. Gluckel's kind of a jerk in some interesting ways.
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This file recreated from The Internet Wayback Machine in January 2002. Copyright Rebecca Allen, 2002.
Created July 16, 1996 Modified: January 10, 2002