Review of a book on Angelo Masini

Luigi Inzaghi Il tenore Angelo Masini (1844–1926)
Raffaelli Editore, Rimini, 2002, 422 pages

The first 81 pages of the book deal with biographical information, including his origin, his career's first steps, narrations of his stays in different countries arranged by chapters on cities or countries, his encounters with Verdi, his retirement and finally his death. It is followed by a chronology per year giving the cities where he sang during that year, including the operas sung in the respective city. After that, there is a list of all the roles he sang in each opera (a total of 58).
The main part of the book is the chronology (224 pages). It is organized by year starting with his birth. Important events during that year, such as the deaths of Meyerbeer or Rossini, are also indicated. Masini's appearances are listed with dates, theatre name, city and cast. This is followed by reviews incorporated into the chronology.
An important feature of the chronology is that the author gives the source of all the entries, usually one of his many collaborators. One wishes all contributors to Record Collector did the same. It is a very exhaustive job. The next section is on documents, dated and not, related to Masini. Finally, there's a bibliography, acknowledgements, an index of names and an appendix containing documents arrived too late to be included in the text.
The books is filled with many pictures. What more do you want? An outstanding job!


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