The Barnes Book is one in the long line of opera plot summary books which proliferated between the 1890s and mid-20th century, in that peculiar period when most major opera houses started performing the works in their original languages (due to greater historical awareness by musicologists but primarily a desire to make performances consistent, thereby attracting the best singers regardless of nationality in this newly globalised world) but before the rise of translated surtitles in the later years of the century.

The Barnes is a fairly late addition to the collection, coming in 1962, and takes the similar approach to some of Davidson's other lauded attempts such as her Stories from the Ballets. Rather than attempting to present a description of the plot as if one were in the opera house (as in Kobbe) or alternatively of providing synopsis with musical analysis (as in Newman), Barnes transforms the plot into a story, told in the past tense, with far more description and emotion than one would usually find. It's a big, chunky volume - and all the better for it - but perhaps has dated more as a result of this. This is the kind of book I revelled in as a child, in those halcyon pre-Internet years, when one had to imagine these stories in lieu of much else. The Barnes doesn't reward rereading because it lacks those additional benefits of the other volumes, but it can be a strong source for some of the operas that have fallen out of the repertory in the last 60 years and thus didn't make it to the video and LP era.

A sweet relic. ( )