Vincenzo Bellini: A Guide to Research & Richard Wagner: A Guide to Research. (Book Reviews: Reference Works).(Book Review)

Vincenzo Bellini: A Guide to Research. By Stephen Willier. (Routledge Music Bibliographies). New York: Routlege, 2002. [xv, 248 p. ISBN 0-815-33805-8.$85.95.]

Richard Wagner: A Guide to Research. By Michael Saffle. (Routledge Music Bibliographies). New York: Routledge, 2002. [xvi, 440 p. ISBN 0-824-05695-7.$50.]

Undoubtedly, Rossini and Verdi are the two towering figures in nineteenth-century Italian opera. Indeed, until fairly recently scholars tended to draw a straight line of influence between the two, often overlooking the contributions in form and function by contemporary composers such as Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini, among the other forgotten voices. Happily, a renaissance of interest in these "lesser" figures has emerged, and scholars are just now beginning to understand their contributions to the art form and their influence on dramatic narratives in opera.

Likewise, the guides to research on various composers and genres (first published under the auspices of Garland Publishing and now under the careful guidance of Routledge) maintain a certain authority in the reference collections of music libraries everywhere. While an overall standard set of guidelines governs the compilation of such works, each author is given enough flexibility within those guidelines to present the information in the way deemed most appropriate for the genre or composer at hand. Two of the most recent additions to the list of research guides are those by Stephen A. Willier on Vincenzo Bellini and Michael Saffle on Richard Wagner. Each author has taken a different approach in producing his annotated bibliography, and each has come to a different result in the organization of the information available on these composers.

Stephen A. Williers Vincenzo Bellini: A Guide to Research claims to be a "critically annotated bibliographic raisonne" (p. xiv). Unfortunately, the author has not produced a bibliography that is either critical or arranged in a manner particularly inviting to the reader. The arrangement of the various sections is immediately puzzling, for it progresses from specific to general rather than the more typical general to specific. For example, the chapter "Nineteenth-Century Assessments and Impressions" (specific) precedes that of "Biographical Sources" (general). Indeed, even the author's preface shifts abruptly from topic to topic--scholarship produced, performance practice issues, reception, biography, etc.--an aspect of writing that interrupts the flow of the narrative. The use of "see" references in the preface, as well as in the body of the work, is not consistent, for they sometimes appear at the ends of sentences in parentheses, but at other times do not. The references with no parentheses contribute to th e lack of flow; those in the body of the work are not helpful. There is no way the reader can really tell whether he might be interested in consulting the reference cited--is it an article? a review? what is its relationship to the original? The reader is sometimes left disappointed in the usefulness of the system. There are other oddities as well. The annotations provided by the author are not critical at all, but merely descriptive of the contents. Questions such as "Why is this work important to Bellini scholarship?" "Who is the audience?" and "How does this relate to other publications?" are not ...