Life with the Met: Hilarious Reminiscences of Thirty Years Behind the Golden Curtain by Helen Noble is a 250-page hardcover published in 1954 by G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York. The dust jacket is shelf worn, price clipped and has surface wear and chipping and small tears. Inside, the top of the spine has wear from the dust jacket. The pages are starting to tan around the edges but else are clean. This is a a reader's copy.
When Helen Noble first came to the old yellow brick building at 39th Street and Broadway in search of a job she could not have known that she would be there, a valued and popular member of the staff of the Metropolitan Opera, for over thirty years. First she came to know well the fascinating back-stage realm as a member of the technical department; then as secretary to Edward Ziegler, the Assistant General Manager, she was privy to all the secrets and intrigues of house policy. She helped her beloved boss and Giulio Gatti-Casazza to cope with the temperamental starts and conductors of the Golden Age of Song at the Met.
In her book she described with humor and high spirits the personalities and foibles of Chaliapin, Farrar, Bori, Scotti, Jeritza, Ponselle, and other great singers of yesteryear who she knew and observed under the most intimate conditions, and also tells of more recent stars liek Lily Pons, Grace Moore, Rise Stevens, Kirsten Flagstad, Lawrence Tibbett, and Ezio Pinza. She lived through all their triumphs and tribulations, played with them at the famous Opera Balls of the '30s and at the fabulous parties of the Spring Tour.
Here is life behind the golden brocade curtain with all its color and temperament, its laughs and pathos.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 54-5490
