Tom Sutcliffe (1) (1943–)

"A brilliant read... You'll find elegance, variety and subtlety as many different minds engage with the search for truth through a varied art form." --Jane Steen, The Bridge

"Sutcliffe's selections allow us to hear the voices of a huge range of operatic observers . . . The voices of his collection don't coolly survey and study opera. They laugh about it, weep and grumble and argue over it." --James Treadwell, Music and Letters

"One of the most enjoyable books on opera I have encountered . . . a resounding success." --Matthew Peacock, Classical Music

A wide-ranging anthology covering the written record of opera -- from Tchaikovsky on Wagner's Ring to Cecil Beaton on Turandot at the Met.

Opera has always generated strong views and opinions. For example, what did Berlioz write about Weber's Der Freischütz in 1841? What was the idea behind Gluck's Reform operas? How did Mozart himself view his collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte? What is the legacy of Maria Callas?

These are among the myriad questions that are addressed in The Faber Book of Opera, an exceptional collection of writings about opera -- in theory, in practice, in review, and in fiction -- all drawn from primary sources by acclaimed music critic Tom Sutcliffe. From Gustave Flaubert's description of a performance of Lucia di Lammermoor in Madame Bovary to Voltaire's exploration of the difficulties of conveying true tragedy within the operatic form to Virginia Woolf's views on Wagner's Parsifal, which seemed to her to have been "poured out in a smooth stream at white heat," this is a collection that covers, in over seventy-five short, carefully chosen excerpts, just what it is that makes opera so extraordinary. After all, the history of opera is not just the musical masterpieces that have been written during the last four hundred years; it is also the record of what people -- ranging from Goethe and Rousseau to Verdi and Stravinsky -- thought about the process and about what composers through the centuries have tried to do through this unique form.… (mer)

The tension between opera's conservatives and innovators has gone on for years: the defenders of an established canon take issue with those who want fresh perspectives. Directors grow increasingly daring, and they often stir controversy with extreme interpretations. Tom Sutcliffe, a British opera journalist, stands firmly with the innovators. He sees opera's future health in its ability to reimagine its classics. His descriptions of the work of provocative directors in the past two decades make a persuasive case, even when some of the productions sound like misfires.

Sutcliffe locates the true effect of a performance inside the mind of the spectator. For him, "believing" in a performance--the ability to become engaged and stirred by it--is the crucial sign of its worth. It is a measure that allows the greatest latitude in interpretation. He examines the work of some aggressively imaginative directors: Patrice Chéreau's violent Ring cycle at Bayreuth, whose stabbings had audience members screaming "Enough!"; Peter Sellars's Americanized Mozart (Le Nozze di Figaro set in a New York penthouse and Don Giovanni among drug addicts in the South Bronx); Richard Jones's garish Die Fledermaus, which sought to shove bad taste down the audience's throat with sets full of dancing champagne glasses and chocolate boxes. Robert Wilson, more influential than any of these, gets strangely little mention.

Live performances are difficult to write about for those who haven't seen them. Sutcliffe fails to solve the problem with excessively minute descriptions of staging, which tend to obscure his larger points. His uninflected prose style, perhaps designed for reportorial accuracy, doesn't help. Nevertheless, his study will stimulate those who see opera as a limitless source of theatrical riches. --David Olivenbaum

Sutcliffe brings his long association with opera as both performer and critic (for the Guardian and the Evening Standard) to this exploration of the opera productions he considers most interesting or innovative. Star performers take a back seat here. Instead, Sutcliffe uses his extraordinarily wide experience of opera productions (especially those in Britain and Europe from the mid-Seventies to the present) to portray the producer as central in the process of renewal, creativity, and even

"In an environment where productions of opera will increasingly depart, often radically, from the `norm' ... it is imperative to be able to understand the bases for these rethinkings. This book is of major importance to the field of opera today. Patrick Smith, editor-in-chief of Opera News The staging of opera has become immensely controversial over the last twenty years. Tom Sutcliffe here offers an engaging and far-reaching book about opera performance and interpretation. This work is a unique tribute to the most distinctive and adventurous achievements in the theatrical interpretation of opera as it has developed in recent decades. Readers will find descriptions of the most original and successful avant-garde opera productions in Britain, Europe, and America. Sutcliffe beautifully illustrates how updating, transposition, or relocation, and a variety of unexpected imagery in opera, have qualified and adjusted our perception of the content and intention of established masterpieces. Believing in Opera describes in detail the seminal opera productions of the last fifty years, starting with Peter Brook in London after the war, and continuing with the work of such directors and producers as Patrice Chreau in Bayreuth, Peter Sellars and David Alden in America, Ruth Berghaus in Frankfurt, and such British directors as Richard Jones, Graham Vick, Peter Hall, and David Pountney. Through his descriptions of these works, Sutcliffe states that theatrical opera has been enormously influenced by the editing style, imagery, and metaphor common… (mer)