Saturday Afternoons at the Old Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1931-1950

This book is terrific! I love it! I am very interested in historical opera broadcasts/recordings and Paul Jackson's astute viewpoints are fascinating. I gorged on this book and read it cover to cover! I was even sad when I finished it....I must get the other two volumes pronto....the only thing now is that I am spending so much purchasing historical opera recordings but I am having a ball! I love reading about my collection as I listen to them. This book is very well written, informative and full of interesting tidbits and opinions about the operas, the Met and the performers/conductors involved. This history of the very beginning of the Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts is also very detailed. This book is riveting and a must-have if you are a fan of the Met or interested in reading about the great performers of yesteryear. The volume is also chock full of portraits of the singers in their costumes for the roles they portrayed; a glamour aspect that you don't see today. Two words: BUY IT!

Professor Jackson gives a detailed and vivid account of the beginning of the Saturday Matinee broadcasts from the Old Met. What may seem as an obvious part of the Metropolitan Opera's service to its fans was not always so, certainly not without the trials and tribulations during the planning stages of this wonderful project. Names of bygone artists of immeasurable magnitude bring us back to the era of giants, singers whose performances have become legendary and who served as benchmark interepreters of those works with whom the listening public fell in love week in and week out.It is a book filled with nostalgia and informative stories of the operatic greats who trod upon the boards of the Old Met.All opera fans who wish to get a flavor of what the Old Met was like would do well to purchase this interesting and wonderful account of the early history of the Met Broadcasts on Saturday afternoons. Higly recommended!

Overall, I'd say I was disappointed with the book. This is mainly because I was looking for more comments on Wagner's operas and, although there's much commentary, it's almost buried under the flood of Italian and French. The author uses too many strictly subjective phrases to describe singing --- just what does "white tincture" in a voice mean? He might know but I don't. He seems obsessed with the term "virginal" using it frequently when referring to sopranos' voices. What does that mean? He spends pages on operas that few people are interested in and have been dropped from the repertoire. He criticizes performances for "repertoire" type singing, even though the Met is a repertoire company. One of the most surprising events ever on the operatic stage - Marjorie Lawrence's riding of Grane into the flames of a funeral pyre - is passed off with a condescending comment. All things considered, it was worth the price.

This is an outstanding and detailed chronology of the radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Operan House.Jackson, the author presented a very interesting and detailed study with outsanding comments of the operas,singers , conductors and producers in a very profesional way. Its reading is easy to understand if you arean opera fan with a clear knowledge of the music and the plots of the operas performed those glorious years.He made special mention to the composers and their operas an the voices of singers like Melchior, Flagstad,Lehmann, Tibbet, Martinelli, Gigli, and others singers that were the first rate artists those days. I noticed that he made special and detailed analisis of wagner operas more than many other composers. I recommend this interesring book to all the opera loversin the world. J.M.lopez

I must agree with others that, even for the casual fan of historical opera recordings, this is an absorbing treasure trove of spot-on criticism and enlightening information about the early days of Met performance and broadcasting. The author provides context for appreciating the available performances without getting bogged down in technical details. The writing is brisk and engaging, and his affection for the topic is infectious.

What fun to read about these old broadcasts and hear the author's description of the performances and MET star singers. Not just a dry listing of who sang what, the author freely gives us his opinions of who sang well or poorly and how well the conductor brought the music to life. Since many of the operas were broadcast several times with different casts, the author can compare the strengths and weaknesses of various singers in the same role, just based on what he hears in these broadcasts.

For anyone who loves historic recordings, this book is invaluable. The descriptions of performances dating back to nthe beginnings of the broadcasts and continuing until the arrival of Rudolf Bing in 1950, taken from many sources, are perceptive, well written and illuminating. They're all here, from Flagstad and Melchoir to Lotte Lehmann, Rise Stevens, Leonard Warren, Ezio Pinza, Tibbett, and on and on (including the conductors' performances), remembered not in legend but how they actually sang on good days and, well, not so good days.

A step into the past.....a lot of memories. 5 stars. Great pictures. Well written and gives a feeling of stepping back in time.