Unfinished Adventure, Evelyn Sharp. The very readable and witty memoirs of a woman who lived a very interesting life and travelled to a number of places (including Ireland, the Rhineland, and the Soviet Union) as an author/journalist/activist/relief worker in the first few decades of the 20th century. I feel like I should give it a better review than this, but instead I'm going to go off on an extended tangent.
This is the sort of book where famous names show up here and there, particularly in the early chapters when Sharp talks about her time writing for the "Yellow Book". But also later in the book we occasionally get a mention of "I was busy writing a libretto for Ralph Vaughan Williams". So of course I had to look up this opera -- I say that opera is not my fandom, and it isn't, yet surprisingly often I find myself in this position -- The Poisoned Kiss, which seems to have gotten a critical reception of "The libretto isn't great, but the music is". I listened to the recording I linked as background music while doing work and it was quite enjoyable as that, though I wasn't paying much attention to the lyrics.
Anyway that got me wondering about women librettists: I remember that in last week's Jenny Lind reading, Felix Mendelssohn had been in touch with Jenny Lind's friend the writer Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer about collaborating on an opera. Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer, about whom I wish I knew more, because she clearly had a very interesting life, did in fact write some librettos, though she's better-known for her prolific output adapting popular novels to the theatre, including an adaptation of Jane Eyre that toned things down by making the woman in the attic not Rochester's wife but his brother's wife. The impression I'm getting is that historically women librettists were more common than women opera composers, but still unusual, and mostly not all that well-known unless they were also composers (e.g. Ethel Smyth). I'm not sure if their work is benefitting as much from the increased attention to women composers and women playwrights we see these days. So if you know any interesting historical women librettists, I'd be happy to hear about them!
Becoming Trader Joe, Joe Coloumbe and Patty Cavalieri. Recommended by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
queenlua, her review gives a better sense of the book than I can. The memoirs of a very different person with a very different sort of life -- an unabashedly capitalist guy explaining how he built up a successful business.
There's no way I could read this book without being reminded of my dad, who was one of the early customers of Trader Joe's and had a similar writing style, ad I wish he could have read this. Only partway through so may have more to say next week.
This is the sort of book where famous names show up here and there, particularly in the early chapters when Sharp talks about her time writing for the "Yellow Book". But also later in the book we occasionally get a mention of "I was busy writing a libretto for Ralph Vaughan Williams". So of course I had to look up this opera -- I say that opera is not my fandom, and it isn't, yet surprisingly often I find myself in this position -- The Poisoned Kiss, which seems to have gotten a critical reception of "The libretto isn't great, but the music is". I listened to the recording I linked as background music while doing work and it was quite enjoyable as that, though I wasn't paying much attention to the lyrics.
Anyway that got me wondering about women librettists: I remember that in last week's Jenny Lind reading, Felix Mendelssohn had been in touch with Jenny Lind's friend the writer Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer about collaborating on an opera. Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer, about whom I wish I knew more, because she clearly had a very interesting life, did in fact write some librettos, though she's better-known for her prolific output adapting popular novels to the theatre, including an adaptation of Jane Eyre that toned things down by making the woman in the attic not Rochester's wife but his brother's wife. The impression I'm getting is that historically women librettists were more common than women opera composers, but still unusual, and mostly not all that well-known unless they were also composers (e.g. Ethel Smyth). I'm not sure if their work is benefitting as much from the increased attention to women composers and women playwrights we see these days. So if you know any interesting historical women librettists, I'd be happy to hear about them!
Becoming Trader Joe, Joe Coloumbe and Patty Cavalieri. Recommended by
queenlua, her review gives a better sense of the book than I can. The memoirs of a very different person with a very different sort of life -- an unabashedly capitalist guy explaining how he built up a successful business.There's no way I could read this book without being reminded of my dad, who was one of the early customers of Trader Joe's and had a similar writing style, ad I wish he could have read this. Only partway through so may have more to say next week.
