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

by MURRAY, WILLIAM

• ISBN13: 9781400053605
• ISBN10: 1400053609
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-09-13
• Publisher: Crown

Summary

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 opera: a place of confusion, high and low drama, fleshly pleasures and raucous song. InFortissimo, Murray follows twelve young singers in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's training program, the prestigious Opera Center for American Artists, through the 20032004 season. In the course of the year, these singers attend countless coaching sessions, inspiring master classes, nerve-racking auditions and grueling rehearsalsand finally perform with some of the most celebrated names (and spectacular egos) in opera, from Samuel Ramey to Jose 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 singerstepping 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 feetis 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."Fortissimois a delicious tale of rising talents, angst and heartache and small triumphs, and the music that inspires it all.

Author Biography

William Murray was a staff writer at The New Yorker for more than thirty years and authored more than twenty novels and works of nonfiction, including City of the Soul and The Last Italian. He died shortly after completing this book.

Table of Contents

PRELUDE The Golden Age of La Puma	1	(103)
1 The Cell	15	(10)
2 Chasing Down the Talent	25	(8)
3 State of the Art	33	(13)
4 Coming Out a Star	46	(8)
5 Letting It Fly	54	(10)
6 The Director Also Rises	64	(8)
7 The Sources Inside	72	(9)
8 Getting Through It	81	(12)
9 A Cornucopia of Characters	93	(11)
10 Mastering It	104	(11)
11 Fear and Trembling	115	(10)
12 Waiting in the Wings	125	(10)
13 Getting It All	135	(16)
14 Joining the Program	151	(11)
15 Survival	162	(16)
16 Attitudes	178	(9)
17 Everybody Wants to Get into the Act	187	(10)
18 A Night to Remember	197	(17)
19 Careers	214	(13)
20 That's Entertainment	227	(7)
21 The Competition Blues	234	(11)
22 It's in the Details	245	(11)
23 The Glory of Their Singing	256	(11)
POSTLUDE High Notes	267	(4)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	271