PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Rene Weis is a freelance author and a professor of English at UCL. He has a written on a wide variety of subjects, including Edith Thompson (of the infamous 'Thompson and Bywaters' murder case in the 1920s), the last Cathar insurgency in the Pyrenees in the Middle Ages, and a biography of Shakespeare. As a professional Shakespearian, he has published extensively on Shakespeare and Renaissance drama, his publications including editions of Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Henry IV Part 2, and an Oxford World Classics edition of the works of John Webster. A lifelong lover of opera, he also contributes regular pieces to the programmes for Royal Opera House productions.
[Weis's] delineation of [Duplessis's] apotheosis as Verdi's Violetta is masterly and moving. Weis is an opera oficionado, and the discussions of the evolution of Piave's libretto, the autobiographical echoes of Verdi's own life and sublimity of the score of La Traviata itself bring an extraordinary and revelatory breadth of understanding to the work. Lisa Hilton, Times Literary Supplement [A] scrupulous biography ... Weis has meticulously combed public records, private letters, libraries, archives and historic sites throughout France, fusing fact, myth, lore and hypothesis to breathe life into the woman who would inspire the novel and play La Dame aux Camelias, by Alexander Dumas fils, Verdis Traviata, and screen portrayals ranging from Garbo to Julia Roberts ... [His] description of Maries Cinderella rise from waif to cafe society is heartbreaking ... Opera News [A] superbly readable and meticulously researched biography... It is hard to think of a more dramatic life, from a horrific childhood to the glamour of high society, and Weis tells it with operatic pathos. Sunday Times, Bee Wilson [A] scrupulously researched biography ... Weis powerfully delineates the social forces that victimized Duplessis, while still managing to convey the independence of spirit that made her so captivating. The New Yorker Weis's accomplished depiction shows an intelligent, worldly and wise young woman who managed to keep her lovers (and her husband) as friends. New Statesman An instructive account og an extraordinary world. John Robert Brown, Classical Music magazine Rene Weis retraces, with meticulous attention to detail, tact, and sensitivity, the thousand hidden and not so hidden facets of a woman who was celebrated, courted, and adored by the 'Tout-Paris', and who died rejected and ignored by all ... an excellent and accomplished book that holds the reader in its spell throughout, because it engages with, and reveals, a woman who was honest, lovable, and 'of good company' Herve Le Mansec, Res Musica ... well-researched, meticulously sifting the claims and counter-claims of previous biographers ... this book will provide an intriguing glimpse of the poignant and often bitter realities' of Violetta VerdiPerspektiven
