Frank Johnson
For someone, like me, whose interests include opera and politics this has been an exceptional year, at least for books about these art forms. One book combined both: Opera and Politics by John Bokina (Yale, £17.50). Opera has always been political; and it's not just the question of who pays for the performances. The American Mr Bokina is one of the few authors to have understood this, another being the Briton Anthony Arblaster, whose Viva la Libertiil Politics in Opera (Verso, £12) appeared in paperback during the year. Sharing the authors' leftish disposition is not essential to enjoying either. Opera: The Rough Guide by Mathew Boyden (Rough Guide, £16.99), as well as being a good introduction, has information and ideas new even to the seasoned.
On politics without opera, I enjoyed Blair's 100 Days by Derek Draper (Faber, £7.99) because I am unsnobbish about `instant history'. But the most magnificent book of the year on either subject was the ultimate opera buffs compendium, Sign- Off for the Old Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1950-1966 by Paul Jackson (Duckworth, £40); the second volume of a huge history of the Saturday afternoon American radio broadcasts of opera from New York, the recordings of which obsess all true opera buffs, or opera bores as we are also known.
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