The Catropolitan Opera: The Centenary Celebration of the Grand Catropolitan Opera Company
This is a book of great wit, filled with tremendous amusement value for Opera lovers, for cat fanciers, and, especially, for cat-fancying opera lovers.  Susan Herbert's delicious portraits of cats in familiar operatic costumes And settings -- from the cover portrait of a spear-carrying, breast-plated feline Brunnhilde in winged helmet (ho-jo-to-ho!) to the closing ensemble of garret-dwelling Bohemians--evoke familiar stage pictures, but with startlingly different occupants for those customary costumes. Don't miss the coronation portrait of Boris Godunov, complete with tiny cat icons on the collar of his robe, the presentation ofDer Rosenkavalier's silver rose, the Queen of the Night as an angry white Persian or Herbert's evocation of the moment when Floria Tosca places the cross on the chest of the recently deceased Baron Scarpia. Wagnerians will particularly appreciate the scene from Act III ofDie Walkuere, when Brunnhilde, lugging the unconscious Sieglinde, beseeches the aid of her spear-toting sisters, and the moment inDas Rheingoldin which the giants haul away the goddess Freia as payment for The building of Valhalla; the giants are played by bulldogs. Along with Herbert's full-color paintings, the operas are illustrated with small, pen-and-ink drawings of other characters: Rosina inBarber of Seville, Tatyana in night gown, writing her letter to Eugene Onegin, Sieglinde slipping a sleeping potion into Hunding's drinking horn--and isn't thatDie Meistersinger's jealous pedant Beckmesser on the title page?  The "authorized history" of the Catropolitan Opera, by Bill Meadowcane, is less effective than the pictures, and he has, further, done a bit of miscasting in some operas. A few scenes are mislabeled. Still, these are just quibbles about a most enjoyable picture book, a pleasure both for children who know little or nothing about the opera, and for adults who know a great deal.--Sarah Bryan Miller