Seeking the Sublime Cache: Opera Articles Selected and Written by William Berger

This is a collection of articles and presentations by William Berger, author, lecturer, and radio commentator for the Metropolitan Opera. The individual articles were written for a wide variety of major institutions, opera companies, and universities over the last 12 years, up to the present. Going far beyond summations, each chapter looks at the importance of the works under consideration and questions why they hold a place in the public “What’s the thing about each of these?” The goal in each case is to place opera itself squarely within the actual world, including interpersonal and global politics. The book is aimed equally at the opera-insider and the opera-outsider, with engaging ideas for both. Each chapter is framed by a new introduction, sometimes quite substantial, in which the author explains the original circumstances of its writing. There is often additional new commentary that could not have been written in the original publication. The result is a collection of new thoughts and insights about very old stories, uncompromising and sometimes provocative in addressing today’s volatile world of political strife and ideas in conflict.