Weep, Shudder, Die: On Opera and Poetry

220-page paperback / 5" x 8" / ISBN 9781589881969
Publication Date: 12/3/2024

A unique book about opera—personal, impassioned, and provocative. 

Weep, Shudder, Die explores opera from the perspective by which the art was originally created, as the most intense form of poetic drama. The great operas have an essential connection to poetry, song, and the primal power of the human voice. The aim of opera is irrational enchantment, the unleashing of emotions and visionary imagination.

Gioia rejects the conventional view of opera which assumes that great operas can be built on execrable texts. He insists that in opera, words matter. Operas begin as words; strong words inspire composers, weak words burden them. Ultimately, singers embody the words to give the music a human form for the audience.

Weep, Shudder, Die is a poet’s book about opera. To some, that statement will suggest writing that is airy, impressionistic, and unreliable, but a poet also brings a practical sense of how words animate opera, lend life to imaginary characters, and give human shape to music. Written from a lifelong devotion to the art, Gioia’s book is for anyone who has wept in the dark of an opera house.

PRAISE for WEEP, SHUDDER, DIE:

“Looking at opera from the standpoint of its texts, as only a gifted poet and librettist can do, Dana Gioia examines why a surprisingly small number of operas have attained a secure place in the repertory. His insight into the workings of this uniquely lyrical fusion of the arts makes Weep, Shudder, Die not only a definitive assessment of the importance of poetry to the operatic undertaking, but a gift to opera lovers everywhere. Read…Reflect…Delight!”
—Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Listener’s Encyclopedia of Classical Music

“Weep, Shudder, Die should be read by anyone who enjoys opera, or who cares about its place in today's world. Dana Gioia explores, with imagination and insight, the relationship between the libretto and the music. I learned a great deal in reading it, and at the same time enjoyed the experience immensely.”
—Henry Fogel, Former President, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and League of American Orchestras

“This impassioned and insightful book will delight opera fans and intrigue anyone interested in poetry and the performing arts.”
—Booklist

“A vigorous case for the humble opera libretto as poetic drama . . . Smart, lively.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Gioia’s knowledge of opera is comprehensive. He exhibits thorough familiarity and understanding of the Puccini, Verdi, and Mozart standards, as well as rarely performed contemporary works and a great deal more . . . It is difficult to imagine an opera lover who would not enjoy this book. There were many points at which I said to myself, ‘Ah. I never thought about it that way, but I see what he means.’ . . . Five stars: A book about opera to enjoy and to learn from.”
—Fanfare

“Exploring the relationship between text and music, Gioia argues that seamless collaboration between composers and librettists has produced some of opera’s most spectacular works . . . Gioia’s at his most convincing when he’s affectionately analyzing the form’s particularities, including the unabashed emotion with which it captures the ‘extremes of human existence’ (‘No one suffers silently in opera’).”
—Publishers Weekly

“Dana Gioia has done as much as any living poet in the last half century to restore music and drama to the increasingly tuneless and predictable realm of American verse. Now, with Weep, Shudder, Die, the fruit of a lifelong love affair with opera, he restores poetry and drama to their rightful place in the realm of classical music. Gioia argues that ‘in opera the words come first,’ but that the real gift of the medium—to poet, composer, performers, and audience—is the opportunity to collaborate in the creation and experience of a uniquely stirring work of art, a meeting of Muses like no other. This brief book is itself a showcase of critical acuity and stylistic flair, which, like the best librettos, will leave you humming long after the performance is complete.”
—Boris Dralyuk, author of My Hollywood and Other Poems

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Dana Gioia is a poet and critic. He has published six full-length collections of verse―99 Poems: New & Selected won the Poets’ Prize as the best new book of the year, and Interrogations at Noon won the American Book Award―and a memoir, Studying with Miss Bishop (Paul Dry Books, 2021). His controversial volume Can Poetry Matter? was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and is credited with helping revive the role of poetry in American public culture. Gioia has served as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and as California State Poet Laureate. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California.