"Life in Opera

Amazon Review by Helena Thompson

"Life in Opera" offers an inventive means of piecing together, like a brilliantly designed mosaic, various angles of - precisely what the title gives away - life in the opera world today. Part One of the book offers 29 conversations with some of today's greatest opera stars and general managers as well as a film director, an artist manager, a fashion designer - all of whom discuss living and working in opera, as they bring their particular contributions to the art form. Their various perspectives provide the reader with such a well-rounded, complex vision of the opera world, that, after reading this book, one feels almost intimately acquainted with the intricacies, the excitement, the challenges of this world.

But the magic touch of "Life in Opera" lies in the author's very personable, direct style coupled with her evident in-depth knowledge of singing and opera, and her superb instinct for how to draw a wealth of professional and personal information from her interview subjects. Maria-Cristina Necula has the gift of getting her subjects to open up! In addition, the reader gets an immediate sense of intimacy, as if one were present during the conversation. Necula's faithfulness to the manner of expression of each interviewee is precisely the key to that sense of accessibility to the stars - which is what makes the conversations such delectable reading material, aside from their insightful and enlightening qualities.

In Part Two - Author's Corner - the magic continues. Necula reveals herself to us as a versatile, talented writer, both endearing and courageous in her candor as she recounts some of her encounters on this book's journey, and the surprising consequences that ensued. Particularly charming and amusing are "Magically... Diana", about a case of mistaken identity on the streets of Vienna that resulted in a chance interview with soprano Diana Damrau. "And the Oscar Goes To..." is a sweetly entertaining account on how the author suddenly found herself playing a scene opposite Catherine Deneuve in the film "Princesse Marie", after her interview with "Tosca" film director, Benoit Jacquot. Undoubtedly enlightening for students and teachers of singing, and fascinating for the rest of us, is "The Miraculous Principles", Necula's description of her voice lessons with tenor Ramon Vargas, which offers a glimpse into Vargas's holistic philosophy of singing. The book ends with a moving tribute to the Bucharest Opera House. Thus, the author pays homage to the home of her first encounter with the lyric art during the Iron Curtain years, in which anti-communist manifestations took place on the stage embedded within the operas, as the singers manipulated the libretto to take stabs at the regime. And to inspire the bundled-up but faithful audience on freezing, heat-deprived winter nights.

A hundred years from now, when people will want to know what it was like for the opera artists of the 21st century, "Life in Opera" will serve as vivid and accessible testimony. What makes "Life in Opera" unique is not just its historical quality but also its timelessness. The principles of singing, the joys and challenges of this profession are eternal, and this book's enlightening, not to mention, educational value, will be as valid a hundred years from now as it is today.