SPECIAL EDITION
Bay Area Readers on Their Most Treasured Books
Janet Napolitano is president of the University of California.
Sometimes a book gives you a different way of thinking about a particular historical period, as did Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals.” Sometimes a book gives you different insight into the human condition, as did Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina.” But sometimes a book serves as the introduction to another art form altogether. This is what “The New Milton Cross’ Complete Stories of the Great Operas” did for me.
I was home sick from school one day, prowling my parents’ bookshelves for something to read. While I don’t know what prompted me to pull Milton Cross from the shelf, I was soon entranced by the stories contained in it, from “L’Africaine,” by Meyerbeer to “Die Zauberflöte,” by Mozart. Each story contained “comedy, tragedy, pageantry, and romance in a repertoire that is almost inexhaustible.”
I put a recording of Puccini’s “La Bohème” on the stereo (remember those?). The music, when combined with Cross’ vivid description of the plot about a group of poor artists in Paris and the ill-starred romance between Rodolfo and Mimi, spurred my imagination. Years later, when I saw my first performance of “La Bohème,” I harked back to that afternoon of reading and listening.
When my dad passed away a few years ago and we were cleaning out his house, I spied my old friend Milton Cross still resting on a bookshelf. I grabbed it, and it is with me to this day, along with a lifelong love of the art form to which he introduced me.