The Impossible Art: Adventures in Opera

Composer Aucoin’s personal reflection on and guide to opera has the perfect title; in the book’s preface, he writes that opera’s (arguably) impossible feat is capturing human ideas and emotions. The book’s chapters can be read out of order, but each has a distinct relationship to the penultimate chapter, which explores Aucoin’s key operatic work, Eurydice (commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in 2020). In an earlier chapter, Aucoin analyzes other works inspired by the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice; he also examines the Verdi operas that were based on plays by Shakespeare (Otello; Falstaff). Aucoin’s expressive language conveys his passion for opera and its influence on his life. For each composer, librettist, or composition the book discusses, he explains what made them groundbreaking and new and what made them similar to their operatic predecessors.