This is a great collection of photographs of opera stars from a fine scholar and dealer of historic opera and music related photographs, letters, autographed items and other interesting documents. What do these things have to do with music? Well, they certainly provide an added psychological connection with the past and the artists and a human dimension to the understanding of their artistry. This book is a great addition to every music lover's library.

Opera used to really matter--and all important thinking persons weighed in on their favorite music and singers. James Joyce sang with McCormack. Nietzsche partied with Wagner. And these are some of the stars they fetishistically worshipped!

As the title states, this is a collection of historic photos (all black and white) of pre-1950 opera stars. These are high quality prints in a soft-cover volume. The photos contain very brief biographical sketches of the subjects, including dates, voice classification and area of principle activity. This is an invaluable tool for the historic opera buff. While some of the photos are standard issue, most are unique or from the author's personal collection. Now, when you hear the names Caruso, Ruffo, Pinza, Ponselle, Melba, etc., you can see what these great singers looked like -- usually in full costume.

A worthwhile and interesting book. It is a most useful thing is to put a face on the names that are so well known, and to see how different the great masters were, not only musically, but physically. The only unfortunate thing is that there are only a one picture of each, could have been interesting to see some younger pictures, a greater variety, etc. of some of the more famous names.