A must for opera lovers and fun for general readers as well.
The past and present of men singing in falsetto.
“Would you consider entering naked?” is the first line of Costanzo’s charmingly idiosyncratic memoir/history. These words from the director of Philip Glass’ opera Akhnaten, and the countertenor’s response, signal that this will not be a conventional opera autobiography. Costanzo did indeed agree to enter naked, and it’s only the initial instance of his openness to radical innovations in this venerable art form. Describing his preparation for the role also gives readers the first example of his ready wit: “What if someone told you you were about to appear buck naked in front of three thousand people? I bet you’d start looking for a personal trainer, too.” He made the front page of The New York Times Arts & Leisure section; throughout his career, Costanzo has had a gift for getting boundary-pushing work noticed in the mainstream. “I want the art I make to reach the broadest possible audience,” he writes. This heartfelt credo inspired such outside-the-box maneuvers as making a music video for each track of an album composed entirely of arias composed by Handel or Glass. Tracing the history of castrati, the male singers castrated as boys to retain their sopranos, Costanzo spotlights how vital these voices were to baroque operas such as Handel’s, going on to cover the early music revival of the mid-20th century that led to the rise of countertenors to sing the roles first made possible by this now-outlawed practice. Autobiographical chapters recall a close relationship with supportive parents, an early career in musical theater, the voice teachers who facilitated his move to opera, and much more. The text rambles a bit, but every page imparts Costanzo’s passion for what he does and the unabashed entrepreneurship that led Opera Philadelphia to name him its general director in 2024. He promptly initiated a Pick Your Price policy, the entire season sold out, and 67% were first-time ticket buyers.
A must for opera lovers and fun for general readers as well.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9780374614669
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An exquisitely original celebration of American Blackness.
A potent series of “notes” paints a multidimensional picture of Blackness in America.
Throughout the book, which mixes memoir, history, literary theory, and art, Sharpe—the chair of Black studies at York University in Toronto and author of the acclaimed book In the Wake: On Blackness and Being—writes about everything from her family history to the everyday trauma of American racism. Although most of the notes feature the author’s original writing, she also includes materials like photographs, copies of letters she received, responses to a Twitter-based crowdsourcing request, and definitions of terms collected from colleagues and friends (“preliminary entries toward a dictionary of untranslatable blackness”). These diverse pieces coalesce into a multifaceted examination of the ways in which the White gaze distorts Blackness and perpetuates racist violence. Sharpe’s critique is not limited to White individuals, however. She includes, for example, a disappointing encounter with a fellow Black female scholar as well as critical analysis of Barack Obama’s choice to sing “Amazing Grace” at the funeral of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was killed in a hate crime at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. With distinct lyricism and a firm but tender tone, Sharpe executes every element of this book flawlessly. Most impressive is the collagelike structure, which seamlessly moves among an extraordinary variety of forms and topics. For example, a photograph of the author’s mother in a Halloween costume transitions easily into an introduction to Roland Barthes’ work Camera Lucida, which then connects just as smoothly to a memory of watching a White visitor struggle with the reality presented by the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. “Something about this encounter, something about seeing her struggle…feels appropriate to the weight of this history,” writes the author. It is a testament to Sharpe’s artistry that this incredibly complex text flows so naturally.
An exquisitely original celebration of American Blackness.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780374604486
Page Count: 392
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
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