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I Never Walked Alone: The Autobiography of an American Singer
 
 
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I Never Walked Alone: The Autobiography of an American Singer (Hardcover)

by Shirley Verrett (Author), Christopher Brooks (Author) "THE FIRST sound I remember is the sound of my mother singing ..." (more)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (6 Jun 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0471209910
  • ISBN-13: 978-0471209911
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.5 x 2.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 962,477 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Review

In this as–told–to presentation of a musical life. African American opera singer Verrett dryly relates details mainly of her impressive career. Readers unfamiliar with opera will appreciate the translations provided for all non–English phrases and titles, but they may not recognize all the names that Verrett drops as she lists her teachers, colleagues, and friends in the world of serious music. Now a professor at the University of Michigan, she includes insightful comments on interpreting some of her favorite roles, especially that of Norma in Bellini′s masterpiece. Revelations about her private world are few and relatively shallow until she discusses her tormenting health problems toward the end of their opera career. The title refers to her last big role, that of Nettie Fowler in the 1994 Broadway revival of Carousel, who sings "You′ll Never Walk Along." Succinct synopses of all the operas in which Verrett sang and a discography o Verrett performances close the book. Recommended for large music libraries for its value as a career chronicle. – Bonnie Jo Dopp, Univ. of Maryland Libs., College Park (Library Journal, May 15, 2003)

At the age of 5, Shirley Verrett′s mother taught her the song "Jesus Loves Me." Her father, who conducted the choir in a Seventh–Day Adventist church in New Orleans, asked her, "Do you know you have a very lovely voice, little girl?" "I think," she writes, "it was at the exact moment I became a singer." But she did not resume singing until she was 24 years old, married and bored selling real estate in California. She then made up her mind that "I′M really a singer, and I′m ready to sing." In her fascinating and down–to–earth autobiography, "I Never Walked Along" (written with Christopher Brooks, who teaches African–American studies at Virginia Commonwealth University), Verrett, now 72 years old, reminisces, often with funny anecdotes, of her life before and during her career, which began when she won a place on the Arthur Godfrey talent show, followed by study at the Juilliard School. Her first onstage appearance was in Kurt Weill′s "Lost in the Start," followed by four decades of singing in opera houses of the world, from the Metropolitan and San Francisco to La Scala, Covent Garden and the Paris Opera. Verrett focuses on singers she admires, for example Maria Callas: "She understood every word, every nuance of idea and emotion. She sang with conviction, as if she had written the opera herself." (The New York Times Book Review—Books in Brief, Sunday, September 7, 2003)



Review

"Recommended for large music libraries for its value as a career chronicle". (Library Journal, May 15, 2003)

"...a fascinating and down–to–earth autobiography." (The New York Times Book Review—Books in Brief, Sunday, September 7, 2003)

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THE FIRST sound I remember is the sound of my mother singing. Read the first page
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3.0 out of 5 stars Leaving us wanting more, 31 Aug 2003
A great diva should leave us wanting more, and Shirley Verrett is definitely a diva. Not in the sense now applied to frantically hyped starlets, but in the sense of a charismatic and serious artist whose presence and talent can light up an auditorium. I was lucky enough to see Verrett live several times in the latter part of her career and she was undoubtedly the real thing.

In many ways this is an admirable book. The (discreetly ghosted) prose is sober; Verrett talks pretty straight. She doesn’t believe in emotive gush and doesn’t get caught up in details of musical technique. She knows her value – in both artistic and monetary terms – but she is not afraid to admit the occasional mistakes she made in both her personal life and her career. She dishes a little dirt here and there (what would a celebrity biography be without some of that?), but there is no sense of scores being settled: she is rather setting the record straight. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that the chapters of her early years in New Orleans and California – she grew up the child of devout, but not unworldly Seventh Day Adventists – provided insights into a specific era and specific culture rather than merely cataloguing events.

Ultimately, however, I Never Walked Alone was not the satisfying experience I had hoped for. We are never quite taken into Verrett’s confidence. We learn of major decisions, yet we do not discover how she arrived at them. The impression is not of a woman with something to hide, but of a woman who doesn’t see why we have to know. Yes, a diva should always retain her air of mystery, but Verrett has the frustrating habit of endearingly letting down her guard in one paragraph, only to raise it again in the next. Her greatest vocal and dramatic performances exposed thrillingly raw nerves, but in her autobiography Verrett gives us only fleeting glimpses of the joys, tensions and conflicts that formed her as an artist and a human being.

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