Giacomo Puccini

Puccini Without Excuses: A Refreshing Reassessment of the World's Most Popular Composer

by: William Berger

Amazon Price: $8.73 (as of 06/04/2012)

This is an amazing book, at least an amazing book for me, because of what it's done for me. I must admit right now that I'm not a major opera fan, not that I don't like it, and not that I haven't listened to quite a bit of it over the years - it's just that my musical tastes lean more toward Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Charlie Parker's Reboppers. But Berger's book was so informative and so entertaining and, best of all, so enthusiastic, that the bug he is trying to infect us with regarding the operas of Giacomo Puccini has infiltrated my system and sent me reeling.

Berger is a radio host on NYC's PBS station (which I unfortunately have never heard), and his book reads exactly like what a well-informed, passionate d.j. would sound like as he waxed fervently about his musical loves. The book reads as if it were spoken and meant to be heard. This is a delightful and most enjoyable aspect of the book. As he recounts the story behind each opera, Berger interrupts himself with commentary, as if speaking over the performance at hand or hitting the pause button on the CD player. And his comments are highly personal, though not arbitrary or off-the-wall, meant to keep us on target and focused, but not school-marmish. He "speaks" to us like an old friend sharing what he knows and feels.

The book is a fairly thorough account of the man and his music: we get a brief biographical sketch, the operas (8 of them) in detail, recommended recordings, dvds, and books, Puccini in the movies, a glossary of opera terms and how they apply to Puccini's work, and more. And everything, even the glossary, has the Berger stamp of authority and élan to it.

So I've already started making a list of CDs based on Berger's recommendations and until I can get some of them, have put my LP version of MADAMA BUTTERFLY with Erich Leinsdorf conducting Anna Moffo and Cesare Valletti (not on Berger's list) on the turntable. That's what Berger's book has done for me: brought me back to the music of Puccini once again. Pops and Bird will just have to wait.