Alexander Kluge

Everyone should make immediate plans to read this. I can't believe it has only garnered a single review. That is criminal. Amazon will outlaw such. Inquiries will be made. Committees will be formed. Excel may prove useful here. I first encountered this on the sadly defunct sign and sight. Shit, I miss that site.

Kluge is better known as a filmmaker. These stories are precise and explore the foggy cores of history and policy. Extremely dark and often funny, apprently the translation is but three-fourths the size of the original. Here's to german-speakers filling the void.… (more)

Collection of miniature essays and musings on all facets of opera. Much to ponder here. A mixture of fact and fiction; I can't tell which is which unless the individual selection is very obvious. Reflections on various singers, opera houses, and opera plots.
Some of my favorites:
"Total commitment": Leonard Warren, his dedication to his art and his unfortunate death onstage during a performance.
"Nearly every night they expected an air raid": During a performance of Tosca, how two people met then later married.
"Conversation with the Kammersänger":
He's always hopeful during Act I; he doesn't know the horrible denouement in the last act. Maybe someday it'll change to a happy ending.
"The bandits"> [Jacques Offenbach]: the composer's foreshadowing the events of the next 69 years in a work written in 2 weeks. "What a Cassandra!"
"Can hearts set buildings on fire?": The incompetence of the Cairo Fire Department in not saving the city's opera house from a fire, not people's passion for opera, caused the opera house to burn down. But like the phoenix, it rose from its ashes.
"Aggressive gaze of blood": what happened to Norma's children after their parents' death and succeeding generations.

Highly recommended for music lovers.… (more)