RICCARDO STRACCIARI

Written by Eliana Stracciari and Adriano Orlandini
Gangemi Editore April 2013, 414 pp
ISBN  978-88-492-2562-4

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How can we not but strongly recommend a book devoted to one of the greatest baritones in operatic history and which has part of it dedicated to the world’s greatest opera chronologer and  friend of operanostalgia the late Tom Kaufman. Tom would have been very proud of the day-by day detailed chronology (92 pp!!) of the legendary baritone worth the price of the book alone. As we have already published two main articles on Stracciari in our past issues (see our profiles section) we are not going to reconstruct his career once more. Suffice to say the book is a marvel even if Italian is  alien to your linguistic capacities. The author – Stracciari’s granddaughter- reconstructs Stracciari’s career and family life (including tragic stories such as the death of his only son Gino) meticulously in 21 chapters. All chapters are lavishly illustrated with loads of  rare photos from the family archive. They include photos from his stage appearances, colleagues and private life. On a few occasions though the photo captions lack detail and some famous singers thus remain sadly enough unidentified for the neophyte.  A few minor typos include Theo Bauer (not Baurer), Cyrena van Gordon (not Cyrene) etc.  
A big bonus are two appendices with an iconography and a discography. An index is included as well. A worthy tribute to a most fascinating and legendary operatic artist.