Apologies for the gap in posts but this has been down to health issues which I will not mention today. I have been indoors a lot and have had fun searching my shelves and re-reading books that I had forgotten I owned. I have also had a clear out and got rid of quite a lot of my collection after asking myself "are you really going to read this" or "are you really going to read it again?" and have been very strict with discarding quite a lot.
One book which I love is Lena Geyer by Marcia Davenport. I stumbled across it years ago when working at Highgate Library back in the sixties. I had never heard of it and it was rarely taken out but when I spotted it was about an opera singer I was intrigued as I have loved opera all my life regarding it as one of the highest art forms. Re the author:
"Her first novel, Of Lena Geyer (1936, reprinted 1982), is the story of a poor Czech girl and of her ascent to fame and fortune, triumph and tragedy. It is a work of fiction, yet Lena is only partly the child of imagination: she is a composite figure of several singers Davenport had known intimately, among them her own mother. The background of the novel opens a wide vista on the golden age of opera both in New York and in Europe".
Marcia Davenport was the daughter of Alma Gluck, a celebrated American soprano and spent most of her childhood, indeed her whole life, immersed in the world of music and opera. In the story of Lena Geyer we are introduced to 'real' people. Lena works with Gustav Mahler at the New York Met who conducts when she sings in Don Giovanni, Lilli Lehmann is her singing teacher and Jean de Reszke is her co-star in Tannhauser. The production notes and details about her performances were so detailed and informative that they sent me scrabbling to the back of the book looking for a non-existent index and reference
When I first read Of Lena Geyer, I knew nothing about Wagner, but once I saw the light and became a devotee, I re-read all the chapters dealing with Wagner performances and found their detail and background information was spot on. Hardly surprising as Marcia Davenport must have watched all these productions unfolding in front of her. What an incredible experience and one which makes me green with envy.
Much though I love this story, I do feel that in creating the perfect opera diva in Lena Geyer the author has made her almost TOO talented. She seems to be able to switch from Puccini, Mozart and Verdi to the heavier Wagner roles without batting an eyelid, a feat which is well beyond most operatic singers. To my knowledge, the only singer who did essay this, though I am prepared to be proved wrong, was Maria Callas who sang all the coloratura roles and, in her early years, also sang some Wagner. She abandoned the heavier German repertoire though for most of her career.
When writing this post I did some Googling and came across a fascinating article about the great Wagnerian soprano, Birgit Nilson, who was stalked for years by a female fan who sent her flowers before each performance and messages containing quotes from 'Of Lena Geyer'. chilling. Here is a link to an article in the New York Times
I have to say that I cannot think of many books with opera as its background, but I do remember reading the Mills & Boon books of Mary Burchell, pen name of Ida Cook, biographer of Tito Gobbi, who with her sister travelled around Europe attending the opera. They seemed to be a slightly eccentric pair to put it mildly, neither of them married, both spending their lives indulging their opera obsession, but during the Second World War, Ida used the income generated from her very successful romantic novelist persona to help Jewish refugees escape to England. A fascinating and brave pair of women. Article here.
As to who actually put forward this recommendation, my lips are sealed……
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