Once upon a time, I spent most of my waking hours researching
and writing about opera in turn-of-the-20th-century American literature
for…you know…reasons. Anyway, I found a surprising number of
novels from this period that included opera scenes or focused on the
lives of opera singers. Actually, it shouldn’t have been too
surprising because during the last third of the 19th century, people
went kinda cu-RAZY for the operas of Charles Gounod and Richard Wagner.
They packed the opera houses night after night cause for some reason
they didn’t feel like listening to these performances on their iPods??
Whatever…But really, 1870-1920 is the most interesting time period, in my humble opinion. And the writers of the time capitalized on that. Trust me, these novels that are all about opera are some of the funkiest and most fascinating you’ll ever pick up. So look, I’m gonna give you a list of some of ‘em (if you reeeeally want more, though, just hit me up).
This one goes out to all my opera homies and anyone interested in cool, old, crazy novels. Enjoy:
