The Operagoer's Guide: One Hundred Stories and Commentaries

Father Lee has succeeded in distilling the plots of 100 standard operas in a small book that is a little more than 200 pages. The best parts of the book are not the plot summaries (however well written), but the commentaries that are included after each opera's plot summary. Father Lee has written extensively on opera (and also spoken about opera on Met broadcasts), always bringing tremendous insight to individual works. The marvelous thing here is that the commentaries in this book (most of which are only 2 or 3 paragraphs) really provide the information needed to enjoy an individual opera and to understand its place in the repertoire. This is a great book to have whatever your knowledge and experience with opera. It will likely leave you wanting to learn more about specific operas (and perhaps send you off to listen to some recordings -- Lee make a recommendation for each opera). If there is any disappointment at all with this book, it is that it is so short. Fortunately Father Lee is a prolific writer whose several books about opera cover perhaps 50 to 60 works in detail. He is a wonderfully wise guide to the riches of opera --a scholar whose writing is clear, engaging, and supremely informative. This book is a great starting point for an individual opera, but I would really recommend reading his other books on opera to build upon this little book.