Italian Opera

"I thought this was a magnificent book, which really got to grips with the whole subject of Italian opera. The span of David Kimbell’s intellect and his grasp of his subject are absolutely astonishing, and it’s a hell of a good story. Opera comes from Italy, it was born there, and for two centuries virtually every opera singer in the world was Italian. Italian opera singers were exported and became very rich, going all around the world. There was a tremendous appetite for Italian opera and the Italian style of singing. And the story of how it started at the beginning of the 17th century is fascinating. It’s a bit clouded in uncertainty; they’re not quite sure what happened when to create this extraordinary art form. But they have managed to establish the room, in the building, in which the first opera took place. It developed from people reciting the Italian language in a way that enhanced its melodic quality. And then gradually this enhanced speech turned into tunes, and the tunes turned into arias over a span of about 150 years. And you have this amazing phenomenon whereby, at the beginning of the 19th century, opera had completely taken over Italy, much as happened in America during the explosion of cinema at the beginning of the 20th century. In Florence. The story of Italian opera is a fascinating story. If you’re even the tiniest bit interested in opera, this is a great book that really, really captures it."