Grand Opera - by Charles Affron & Mirella Jona Affron (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The Metropolitan has stood among the grandest of opera companies since its birth in 1883. Tracing the offstage/onstage workings of this famed New York institution, Charles Affron and Mirella Jona Affron tell how the Met became and remains a powerful actor on the global cultural scene. In this first new history of the company in thirty years, each of the chronologically sequenced chapters surveys a composer or a slice of the repertoire and brings to life dominant personalities and memorable performances of the time. From the opening night Faust to the recent controversial production of Wagner's "Ring," Grand Opera is a remarkable account of management and audience response to the push and pull of tradition and reinvention. Spanning the decades between the Gilded Age and the age of new media, this story of the Met concludes by tipping its hat to the hugely successful "Live in HD" simulcasts and other twenty-first-century innovations. Grand Opera's appeal extends far beyond the large circle of opera enthusiasts. Drawing on unpublished documents from the Metropolitan Opera Archives, reviews, recordings, and much more, this richly detailed book looks at the Met in the broad context of national and international issues and events.

From the Back Cover

"Drawing on vast and intricate research, Grand Opera lays out the entire history of the Metropolitan Opera--its triumphs and its catastrophes, its labor squabbles and its architecture, its impresarios and its stars. For anyone who cares about opera, this book is an essential reference guide and companion."--Wayne Koestenbaum, author of The Anatomy of Harpo Marx

"The history of America's foremost opera company has been in need of refreshing, and the Affrons have done it well. For readers new to the story, they have given a highly readable and informed account. For those familiar with earlier tellings, theirs is an invaluable complement. And it brings us all up to date, especially in the increasingly Byzantine areas of management and patronage, and their effects on artistic policy. An important contribution." --Conrad L. Osborne, critic and author

"Grand Opera is the latest and certainly one of the most fascinating literary explorations of the colorful history of the Metropolitan Opera. In this thoroughly documented narrative, rich with succulent detail, Charles and Mirella Jona Affron provide the reader an engrossing account of the genesis of America's premiere opera company and its oft-tumultuous journey through time, proving in many ways the old adage that 'there's nothing new under the sun.' This is a great read, and an essential addition to my library."--George I. Shirley, J. Edgar Maddy Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Music, University of Michigan; tenor, Metropolitan Opera, 1961-1973

Review Quotes

"Richly detailed . . . For better or worse, where the Met goes, other companies follow; and as the Affrons' gracefully written and finely researched history so often reminds us, the history of the Met is frequently the history of opera itself."

-- "Cambridge Humanities Review"

"A valuable and readable history of the Met."-- "Wall Street Journal"

"A welcome addition to the annals of opera history. Opera fans will feast on the facts and famous figures that fill these pages."-- "Library Journal"

"An entertaining and serious contextualization of the state of the Metropolitan Opera today, as well as an emotionally and intellectually satisfying read."-- "Christian Science Monitor"

"Passionate opera fans Charles and Mirella Affron have created a comprehensive, decade-by-decade history of the Metropolitan Opera House and its changing repertoire, from the inaugural 1883 Faust to Marian Anderson's Civil Rights era debut to the age of 'Live in HD' simulcast. If the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice whetted your operatic appetite, here is a splendid multicourse meal."-- "Chronogram"

"The Affrons have filled a void with Grand Opera: The Story of the Met. . . . They have written a conscientious, readable history of this world-renowned opera company. Their writing style is elegant, fitting for the elegant Met."-- "The Missourian"

"This new history is an epic treat for the Metophile . . . An exhaustively researched, updated, thoughtful Met Opera history. The successive directors' flaws and achievements are described with equanimity. It compellingly conveys the problems and the progress, the failures and the glories of the Metropolitan Opera."-- "Wagner Notes"

"This volume tells of a grand operatic melodrama, though played out as often by general managers and unions as by prima donnas."--Best Books of 2014, -- "Financial Times"

About the Author

Charles Affron, Professor Emeritus of French Literature at New York University, and Mirella Jona Affron, Professor Emerita of Cinema Studies at The College of Staten Island/CUNY, are coauthors of Best Years: Going to the Movies, 1945-1946 and Sets in Motion: Art Direction and Film Narrative. Charles Affron is the author of Lillian Gish: Her Legend, Her Life; Cinema and Sentiment; and Star Acting: Gish, Garbo, Davis. Together with Robert Lyons, the authors are series editors of Rutgers Films in Print and Rutgers Depth of Field.