Challenges: A Memoir of My Life in Opera

by Sarah Caldwell

A powerful pioneer in opera and music recounts her struggles and triumphs

Founder and long-time director of the Opera Company of Boston and the first woman to conduct the Metropolitan Opera, Sarah Caldwell was one of America's best known and most adventurous conductors and opera directors. Her career spanned her wildly successful and innovative productions of classical operas such as Offenbach's Voyage to the Moon, Don Quixote, and...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0819568856
• ISBN13: 9780819568854
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up

Customer Reviews

A Real Look at a Woman Conductor's Heart

As a profesesional woman conductor one generation behind Sarah Caldwell, I enjoyed the book immensely. Through Caldwell's recollections it shows the conductor's view of a performing arts organization...its triumphs, its daily grind, its "challenges." Especially interesting is reading about Caldwell's intensive preparation work before the operas were produced. Also interesting is reading about promising young singers who are now household names in the opera world. A great read for anyone who likes to know what goes on behind the scenes, this one really shows the life of the artist at work and how she feels about it.

Opera is an art form cherished by many Americans, and Sarah Caldwell gives readers a look into the b

Opera is an art form cherished by many Americans, and Sarah Caldwell gives readers a look into the business with "Challenges: A Memoir of My Life in Opera". A conductor and founder of the long running Opera Company of Boston, and the first woman to conduct a Metropolitan Opera, she speaks as her times in the field, and earning many honors and awards along the way. "Challenges" is a must for any opera fan who wants to know more about how one of the most vital people in the orchestra lives her life.