Mary Ellis Peltz

A lightweight but charming history of the early years of the Met. This has been superseded by better histories in the years since, but there's an appeal here due to Peltz's pedigree, as the first chief editor of 'Opera News' at the time of publication, and subsequently the founder and director of the Met's archives for the last 25 years of her life. Plenty of useful insights found within.

A very sweet book of its time, with an overview of the history of opera and synopses, with musical excerpts, of most of the major operas being staged between the wars. The introduction gives this book a welcoming tone, designed to provide guidance to listeners across the USA to those famous Saturday Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, in an era before television and in-theatre surtitles.

The text is mostly name-dropping and trite observations. As the books works through changes in arts popularity (Italian then German opera, acceptance of ballet, etc.) under changes of creative leadership it is the pictures and illustrations that really make this history of The Met enjoyable to peruse.