What people are saying about this book...
Media Reviews
"Thoroughly researched and excellently varied in presentation. . . . Among all the bests of the bests involved in this excellent volume is the astonishing price of $29.95! It’s certain to become a best seller in its field, and should re-vivify public interest in this fine artist and fine person. Bravi, Bravi and more Bravis to everyone concerned!"
— Penn Sounds
, Fall 2000
"...at last readers have a portrait that is much better than the average volume about an opera singer... put together with integrity and good taste"
— Choice
"This Centennial Portrait [is] an oversized, handsomely laid-out book complete with bibliography, discography, and over 100 photographs."
— Arthur, American Record Guide
"Highly recommended."
— Massanet Society Newsletter
"Occasionally, one comes across a piece of historical music scholarship so artfully constructed that the described era comes alive. This is the case with Lily Pons: A Centennial Portrait . . . For anyone interested in a fully human portrait of one of the twentieth century's leading ladies of opera, this book is essential reading."
— Margaret Kennedy-Dygas, American Music Teacher
"Born April 12, 1899 in Draguignan, died February 13 in Dallas, Lily Pons was surely French song’s most famous emissary across the Atlantic. After having created a sensation at her Met debut in Lucia di Lammermoor in 1939, she became one of the stars of the New York stage, where she appeared for 28 consecutive seasons.
At the time her centennial was celebrated last year, France had evidently forgotten its nightingale. But in the United States, where the most extraordinary illustrated biographies of illustrious singers continue to appear, James A. Drake, who had already written Rosa Ponselle: A Centenary Biography (see Opéra International, no. 223 – April 1998 - page 51), in cooperation with Kristin Beall Ludecke, has devoted to Lily Pons a book that is remarkable in every respect.
"
— Opéra International no. 251, (translation by MAF)
"One gets a sense of what the star of the book was like as a person, and even a feel for her times. It’s actually quite absorbing and educational even if one isn’t a big Pons fan, which I’m not. "
— James Miller, Fanfare
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