‘Serenade: A Memoir of Music and Love from Vienna and Prague to Los Angeles, 1927 to World War II to 2012’ – This Book Does What No Other Nonfiction Book on Opera Has Done Before.
By Carol Jean Delmar
Opera Theater Ink
So you want to learn about opera but don’t want to read a boring nonfiction book all about it. You don’t just want to read opera summaries, but you are curious as to what opera really is. You think it’s intimidating. Well, it’s not. It’s beautiful and romantic, and if you want to find out just how much you’d enjoy it, I recommend that you read my new memoir about my parents: a true love story if there ever was one.
It is a cinematic story that could just be the love story of this decade, with beautiful settings and backdrops like Viennese opera houses and landscapes, plus 100 illustrations.
“Serenade” is a nonfiction memoir which has dialogue and the creative narrative inherent in a novel. My father is the main character. He literally sings Lieder and opera throughout the memoir, and my mother is always there beside him. This is a book for the average woman reader who aspires to read a love story, but just may end up in an opera house after she does.
The book delves into the stories of a handful of operas, and educates. Yet it educates with a lyricism that is romantic, poignant, and moving. And the reader will see before he or she hears — what makes opera one of the most beautiful genres (in my opinion, the most beautiful) in the fine arts category.
But the book is also for those who are familiar with opera. My father was an opera singer in Vienna and Prague in the late 1930s. He was just starting out, but received immediate acclaim. Significant people who were in the opera world during that era play roles in my book. The average reader may not know who some of them are, but the real opera aficionados will.
There is much historical data in the memoir as well, related to the Holocaust. The Anschluss, Kristallnacht, the S.S. St. Louis, a letter from the Theresienstadt concentration camp, the Triscornia immigration camp, and illustrations of my parents’ passports — my parents lived through the Holocaust nightmare. But you must read the book and travel with them to Vienna, Prague, and parts of Switzerland, Italy, Venezuela, Panama, and Cuba, to learn more.
Ultimately, my parents lived a truly beautiful love story. “Serenade” is based on the audiotapes that my father left me, and on my travels around the world to tell their story accurately.
The publication date is June 15, 2013. The book is available on Amazon.com, at Barnes & Noble, and at the Book Clearing House (BCH), a vendor for Ingram and Baker & Taylor. More names will be added to the list.
PLEASE GO TO THE “SERENADE” WEBSITE AT www.SerenadetheMemoir.com. Read all about the book. Look at the story description and the wonderful reviews. Enjoy the Slideshow, but move your curser toward the top so that you can see all of the photo captions. And please “Order” the book and spread the word. I began writing “Serenade” well before I started writing opera reviews. My father exposed me to opera at an early age. If you are in love with love like I have always been, “Serenade” will bring opera into your hearts and minds. —CJD
www.SerenadetheMemoir.com
‘Serenade: A Memoir of Music and Love from Vienna and Prague to Los Angeles, 1927 to World War II to 2012’ – This Book Does What No Other Nonfiction Book on Opera Has Done Before.
By Carol Jean Delmar
Opera Theater Ink
So you want to learn about opera but don’t want to read a boring nonfiction book all about it. You don’t just want to read opera summaries, but you are curious as to what opera really is. You think it’s intimidating. Well, it’s not. It’s beautiful and romantic, and if you want to find out just how much you’d enjoy it, I recommend that you read my new memoir about my parents: a true love story if there ever was one.
It is a cinematic story that could just be the love story of this decade, with beautiful settings and backdrops like Viennese opera houses and landscapes, plus 100 illustrations.
“Serenade” is a nonfiction memoir which has dialogue and the creative narrative inherent in a novel. My father is the main character. He literally sings Lieder and opera throughout the memoir, and my mother is always there beside him. This is a book for the average woman reader who aspires to read a love story, but just may end up in an opera house after she does.
The book delves into the stories of a handful of operas, and educates. Yet it educates with a lyricism that is romantic, poignant, and moving. And the reader will see before he or she hears — what makes opera one of the most beautiful genres (in my opinion, the most beautiful) in the fine arts category.
But the book is also for those who are familiar with opera. My father was an opera singer in Vienna and Prague in the late 1930s. He was just starting out, but received immediate acclaim. Significant people who were in the opera world during that era play roles in my book. The average reader may not know who some of them are, but the real opera aficionados will.
There is much historical data in the memoir as well, related to the Holocaust. The Anschluss, Kristallnacht, the S.S. St. Louis, a letter from the Theresienstadt concentration camp, the Triscornia immigration camp, and illustrations of my parents’ passports — my parents lived through the Holocaust nightmare. But you must read the book and travel with them to Vienna, Prague, and parts of Switzerland, Italy, Venezuela, Panama, and Cuba, to learn more.
Ultimately, my parents lived a truly beautiful love story. “Serenade” is based on the audiotapes that my father left me, and on my travels around the world to tell their story accurately.
The publication date is June 15, 2013. The book is available on Amazon.com, at Barnes & Noble, and at the Book Clearing House (BCH), a vendor for Ingram and Baker & Taylor. More names will be added to the list.
PLEASE GO TO THE “SERENADE” WEBSITE AT www.SerenadetheMemoir.com. Read all about the book. Look at the story description and the wonderful reviews. Enjoy the Slideshow, but move your curser toward the top so that you can see all of the photo captions. And please “Order” the book and spread the word. I began writing “Serenade” well before I started writing opera reviews. My father exposed me to opera at an early age. If you are in love with love like I have always been, “Serenade” will bring opera into your hearts and minds. —CJD
www.SerenadetheMemoir.com
Posted in Commentary/Opinion, News, Previews