Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first biography of the musician, conductor, and director Sarah Caldwell, an indomitable force for opera in America, and the first woman to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera.
Trade ReviewThe book is enthralling and provides insights into a person about whom little is available; recommended for all collections. -- Barry Zaslow * Library Journal, 6/1/2008 *
Sarah Caldwell was a unique force in the world of opera — inspired, inspiring, bold, idealistic, unconventional and almost indomitable. Daniel Kessler's fascinating exploration of her life and work is sensitive, cool-headed, delicately balanced, elegantly written and splendidly researched. -- Martin Bernheimer, Pulitzer Prize winning critic and New York correspondent for the Financial Times and Opera Magazine., New York correspondent for the Financial Times, editorial board member of Opera Magazine, and Pulitzer Prize-winning former music critic of the Los Angeles Times
Kessler provides eyewitness testimony for each scene's mise-en-scene, backed up by production stills and the sole studio recording Caldwell made (for EMI). Kessler's dilligent research probably cannot be bettered. * Opera, (British Magazine) *
There are many telling anecdotes in Kessler's fast-paced, honest, and very thorough chronicle of Sarah Caldwell's career. * Fanfare Magazine *
This new opus by Daniel Kessler, highlighting the ever-enigmatic Sarah Caldwell, starts off much more promising than Caldwell's self-penned memoirs....This book is more detailed, more deeply researched and promises to give a less subjective account of the elusive icon. * Opera News, March 2009 *
important and valuable historical survey. * The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 28, 2008 *
