<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Gorgeous but specialized
Review: Here we have Wayne Koestenbaum, the glorious diva and author of the equally hysterical and painstaking "Jackie Under my Skin", and he's come up with another gem. This celebratory (and at times overtly scholarly) tome is an homage to the opera diva, the fabulous queen of opening night, the ageing homosexual who argues Joan Sutherland until 4 a.m. over pink champagne, the devotee, the La Scala denizen, the man most at home in the dark with his Prima Donna. I would suggest that unless one is quite giddy about opera, this book should be avoided. However, if you are someone who can cognitively argue the merits of the 1952 Callas recording of Tosca on EMI on vinyl versus CD, this book may be your new Bible. Do yourself a favour and read a few off the Stately Homos of England too. I would suggest "The Naked Civil Servant" by Quentin Crisp and perhaps "The Swimming Pool Library" by Al Hollinghurst as complimentary texts to this darling little book...one that would make Dame Edna swoon. Happy Hunting.
Rating:
Summary: Opera Fans, Take Note
Review: Koestenbaum has crafted an insightful if sometimes academic work in "The Queen's Throat." He charts the peculiar affinity between gay men and the opera, a relationship he believes begins with an "outsider" sensibility that the sexuality and the musical genre share, and along with that a love of artifice. So far so good, but the book hits rough going about two thirds of the way through when Koestenbaum enters that stream of thought loosely housed under the heading of "deconstruction." Central to the decon. canon is the impossiblity of separating art and politics, and opera as well as gayness are for the author "subversive." I read a lot of gender studies/ feminist thought and even so, I found his line of reasoning rough going. "The Queen's Throat" is worthwhile, but a carefree night at the opera, it ain't.
Rating:
Summary: Opera Fans, Take Note
Review: Koestenbaum has crafted an insightful if sometimes academic work in "The Queen's Throat." He charts the peculiar affinity between gay men and the opera, a relationship he believes begins with an "outsider" sensibility that the sexuality and the musical genre share, and along with that a love of artifice. So far so good, but the book hits rough going about two thirds of the way through when Koestenbaum enters that stream of thought loosely housed under the heading of "deconstruction." Central to the decon. canon is the impossiblity of separating art and politics, and opera as well as gayness are for the author "subversive." I read a lot of gender studies/ feminist thought and even so, I found his line of reasoning rough going. "The Queen's Throat" is worthwhile, but a carefree night at the opera, it ain't.
Rating:
Summary: Queenly Insights
Review: The author is sometimes outrageous yet outspoken in some of his assumptions and observations about those who attend and enjoy opera and those singers and other musicians who perform these works. Some may disagree vehemently with some or all of his consclusions, but no one who reads this book will be without an opinion - either agreeing wholeheartedly with the author or having a "hissy fit" over his "over-the-top" arguments and perceptions. It is amusingly illustrated with occasionally very droll captions to go with the archival photos. On the whole, this book is a pleasant diversion for before-bed reading and may keep you from falling asleep with some of the author's "apercus" in mind
Rating:
Summary: Queenly Insights
Review: The author is sometimes outrageous yet outspoken in some of his assumptions and observations about those who attend and enjoy opera and those singers and other musicians who perform these works. Some may disagree vehemently with some or all of his consclusions, but no one who reads this book will be without an opinion - either agreeing wholeheartedly with the author or having a "hissy fit" over his "over-the-top" arguments and perceptions. It is amusingly illustrated with occasionally very droll captions to go with the archival photos. On the whole, this book is a pleasant diversion for before-bed reading and may keep you from falling asleep with some of the author's "apercus" in mind
Rating:
Summary: Theory on a High Note
Review: The Queen's Throat is an insightful and animated blend of knowledge and intuition exploring the connections and overlappings of homosexuality and opera, arriving at a number of intriguing conclusions. The core of opera's queerness is dismantled and reassembled with a reflective and lyrical precision that defies typical essay format and approach. This is a brilliant monologue -- a very entertaining brainstorm which even includes silly graphics. It's smart, funny, personal, and spirited and even of interest for the operatically challenged. In fact, I bet big opera fans would give this a five.
Rating: 
Summary: Tediously whimsical
Review: There's no denying that Wayne Koestenbaum is a very smart man, but that still doesn't make THE QUEEN'S THROAT very worthwhile. The narratorial persona he adopts (which he's stuck to ever since the book was published ten years ago) is of a slight hysterical, over-the-top aesthete who takes to impossibly grandiose and silly declamations (such as when he pretends to dream he is Thaïs: "Wayne, Thaïs must have pearls!"). The book really belongs to that peculiar moment in academia when writers could claim whatever trivial thing they did in daily life was politically important, with regard to identity politics, simply because they claimed it to be "subversive"; if you give even two seconds worth of thought to the strictures and actual repressive measures gay men and women must face on a daily basis all over the world, you'll see how trivial Koestenbaum's claims that his trivialities are politically important really are. There is some fun to be had in the reading of this work, but the narrator's giddy narcissism does get very wearisome after a while. This new edition comes with a new and especially pompous preface from Tony Kushner.
Rating: 
Summary: Intense!
Review: This is daring, high-wire exploratory literature of the most beguiling kind. Much more than a reach into the mystery-laden world of one aspect of gay culture, though it is that as well, this is a book about desire, about the fantastical meanings within music, about enslavement and redemption. I read the book in one sitting. It's a devastating piece of prose writing, it gleams and pulls you awake with pins! It is a riveting exposition of the extravagance of sexuality, of sexual desire as metaphor for psychological neglect, an enticing and bewitching brew of fantasy and sorrow. Koestenbaum is in sublime command of his thought, the language is both startling and voluptuous, operatic, really. In Chapter 4, entitled "The Callas Cult", he begins one paragraph "Worshipping Callas, am I behaving like a vulture?" After thoroughly examining the widespread, unreasoned obsession with Maria Callas, he concludes "But it's impossible to circumscribe love. As a commentator, one can only operate like a skylight at a premiere, advertising a location." The mastery of prose throughout is never anything short of brilliant, and is often ecstatic, so that the book's 'colors' dip inevitably toward the mystical, the ineffable. I think it is a complete triumph, a masterfully accomplished piece of unforgettable literature. Highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: Intense!
Review: This is daring, high-wire exploratory literature of the most beguiling kind. Much more than a reach into the mystery-laden world of one aspect of gay culture, though it is that as well, this is a book about desire, about the fantastical meanings within music, about enslavement and redemption. I read the book in one sitting. It's a devastating piece of prose writing, it gleams and pulls you awake with pins! It is a riveting exposition of the extravagance of sexuality, of sexual desire as metaphor for psychological neglect, an enticing and bewitching brew of fantasy and sorrow. Koestenbaum is in sublime command of his thought, the language is both startling and voluptuous, operatic, really. In Chapter 4, entitled "The Callas Cult", he begins one paragraph "Worshipping Callas, am I behaving like a vulture?" After thoroughly examining the widespread, unreasoned obsession with Maria Callas, he concludes "But it's impossible to circumscribe love. As a commentator, one can only operate like a skylight at a premiere, advertising a location." The mastery of prose throughout is never anything short of brilliant, and is often ecstatic, so that the book's 'colors' dip inevitably toward the mystical, the ineffable. I think it is a complete triumph, a masterfully accomplished piece of unforgettable literature. Highest recommendation.
<< 1 >>
|
