Famous Prima Donnas

Strang, Lewis Clinton, 1869-1935Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.6

Word count: 249K words
Chapters: 25

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Famous Prima Donnas by Lewis Clinton StrangAuthor: Strang, Lewis Clinton, 1869-1935,Language: English, Class: ML: Music: Literature of music, Release Date: May 24, 2011

Editor's review

This book is a monograph on operatic sopranos by Lewis Clinton Strong, belonging to the music literature category and distributed free by Project Gutenberg. The author lived from the late 19th to the early 20th century, a time when opera was flourishing in Europe and America. The book recounts the stories of several renowned sopranos and has both historical value and the character of personal biography. For readers who want to understand the golden age of classical opera on and off stage and how women artists established their standing on stage, this book offers relatively concentrated introductory material. The English original bears the marks of its era; reading it lets you feel both the aesthetic tastes of music critics a century ago and the standards by which voice, performance, and personal charisma were judged at the time. It suits opera lovers as extended reading or as supplementary reference for music history and gender studies, but is not recommended as a systematic vocal textbook.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General enthusiasts interested in classical opera and vocal art
Readers studying late-19th-century European and American music history and performance culture
Students who want to understand the professional circumstances of women opera singers in history
Advanced readers who enjoy personal biographies and are willing to read English originals

Not a good fit for

Beginners hoping to systematically learn vocal technique or music theory
Readers who prefer contemporary popular culture and have no interest in classical opera
Readers with limited English reading ability who need a Chinese translation

Reading tips

Read the table of contents first and start with chapters on sopranos you have heard of; no need to read straight through.
Look up names and operas as you read to build basic background and lower the barrier to understanding.
Listen to contemporary recordings alongside the book's evaluations to feel the aesthetic differences between eras.
Skip unfamiliar English expressions for now and grasp the overall thread of each figure.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English?

The original is in English and is a free e-book released by Project Gutenberg. There is currently no accompanying Chinese translation, so reading requires some English foundation.

Can I read it without any opera background?

You can, but the book involves many operas and singer names, and understanding suffers without background knowledge. It is advisable to first learn the signature roles of several major sopranos before entering the main text.

Is this book suitable as a vocal textbook?

No. It leans toward personal biography and period record rather than vocal method or technique training. Those who want to learn singing should choose dedicated textbooks and courses.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Strang, Lewis Clinton, 1869-1935 Author · American · 1869–1935

Lewis Clinton Strang (1869–1935) was an American drama critic and writer. Public information about his life is limited, and only one of his works is held in this collection, namely Famous Prima Donnas. Judging from this work and his known identity, he long focused on the art of the stage, with particular attention to the world of opera sopranos and actors, and was skilled at recording the artistic careers and stage presence of celebrated performers from the perspective of a drama critic. His writing addressed general readers and combined historical documentation with readability, reflecting the interest in and manner of recording performing arts among American drama critics in the early twentieth century. This work also offers later generations a reference for understanding the lives and performances of opera singers of that time.