A Note from the Reviews Editor

It will not have escaped our readers that, over the course of the last three issues, the Opera Quarterly has been undergoing a thorough transformation indeed: the marks can be seen in the layout as much as the content, the font as much as the focus. Beginning with the present issue, this revisionary spirit extends to the Reviews section. OQ, of course, has a longstanding tradition of presenting lively—and often witty—reviews. For that we must thank my predecessor, Joe K. Law, who has edited the Reviews section since 1998 with distinction, imagination, and aplomb. On top of these responsibilities, Joe also saw the journal through the publication of the first two numbers of vol. 21 after Thomas E. Glasow (the former editor of OQ) passed away. Indeed, the bulk of reviews collected in this issue—with the exception of the two immediately following this Note—has also been edited by Joe. As the new Reviews Editor, I hope to build upon his manifold accomplishments.

The decision to rename the traditional two rubrics of the Reviews section as "Scholarship" and "Performance" (rather than "Books" and "Recordings") reflects our aim to relocate OQ at the intersection of contemporary scholarship and performance practice. Thus, in addition to publications directly concerned with the history, aesthetics, and analysis of opera, the "Scholarship" section will engage with more wide-ranging topics in current academic debate, such as the voice and the body, theatricality, performativity, and multi-mediality; from time to time, it may also admit special issues of periodicals or conferences to discussion. In short, this rubric will serve as an opening onto interdisciplinary perspectives that promise to have an important bearing on our understanding of, and encounters with, the phenomenon of opera.

More immediately noticeable, perhaps, is the metamorphosis of the former "Recordings" section. Here, too, our scope is broadening to encompass reviews not only of acoustical recordings on CD but also of productions on DVD and video, as well as the occasional live performance. This shift responds to the growing recognition that opera is a multimedia event intended for the stage (rather than an exclusively musical work conceived as a display of the singing voice)—a perception which is itself both part and parcel of the recently burgeoning market for opera on DVD. The profusion of recorded video has dramatically multiplied the number of spectators who may set eyes and ears on an individual production, both around the globe and across time. Indeed, in a certain sense, opera's VHS and DVD distribution has suspended the inherent ephemerality of operatic performance. To be sure, experiencing an opera at home on one's television or computer screen—doing so alone, say, over dinner, or with friends, loudly commenting on details of production—is decidedly not the same as witnessing a performance live among a dressed-up, hushed audience. Obeying their own aesthetic laws and catering to different needs, DVD or video versions of opera differ fundamentally from the staged productions from which they are derived. Hence, the new "Performance" section seeks to provide a forum for conceptualizing this difference, as well as for discussing specific productions of operas, whether live, recorded, or both. To foster this discourse—that is, to assemble literally different viewpoints—we will intermittently offer "spotlight reviews" penned by both practitioners and scholars and comprising commentary on an especially controversial or influential staging. A forthcoming issue, for example, will include a cluster of reviews of Patrice Chéreau's recent return to the operatic stage with Così fan tutte at the 2005 Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, while one issue of vol. 23 will feature a set of reviews of the Stuttgart Ring cycle, mounted by four different directors over the years 1999 to 2000.

As far as possible, we will also strive to relate the Reviews section to the topic or work upon which each issue is premised. In all, the OQ Reviews section is opening up to multiple trends and voices current on the operatic scene. As will be clear in what follows, however, its horizons will broaden with modest steps and small installments. We welcome your...