An Opera Sampler

Desmond Maley is the music librarian at the J.W. Tate Library,
Huntington College, Laurentian University, and the editor of Newsletter
of the Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and
Documentation Centres.

“Miscellaneous” is certainly the word to describe this accumulation
of operatic flotsam and jetsam. Carl Morey, a music professor at the
University of Toronto, has brought together various short articles
written mostly for Opera Canada or as program notes for the Canadian
Opera Company’s productions. However, apart from the introductory
review of the repertoire, there are no connecting links between the
pieces.

The best essays deal with opera in Canada. The accounts of 19th-century
opera and early Wagner performances in Toronto are rewarding, although
more could have been said about the reception of these works. A note of
enthusiasm can also be detected in the description of Harry Somers’s
operas Louis Riel and Mario and the Magician.

In general, however, these articles make a bland impression. Although
they are informative and well-written, one wishes they had more personal
feeling. Another unfortunate absence is any analysis of the music.
Presumably for reasons of space, Morey originally confined himself to
plot, textual matters, and appreciation. (The description of the
different versions of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, in particular, reads
almost like a detective story.) But since he had the opportunity to make
these essays into a book, surely this was the time for Morey to share
his musicological insights.