Mew & Cry Catcalls from the Box

"Mew & Cry" is a cat song and a play on words. It is a hue and cry, an alert to all, proclaiming the joy of opera, a musical genre often avoided like the plague. The author, a lifelong writer and arts aficionado, avoided the subject until she turned 70 when she realized she wasn't getting any younger and it was high time she faced up to opera. She attended a Met Live in HD opera presented on a big screen at a venue near her home on the West Coast at exactly the same moment it was performed on stage in New York City. To her surprise, she loved it. It was grand, compelling theater and often very funny. She knew she had to write about opera, so, in bright, breezy, approachable prose, she reviewed seven operas from the 2013-14 season at the Met and published a book titled "It's Not Over." She couldn't wait for the next season, after which she still wanted to share her joy in writing. "Mew & Cry" includes reviews of all 10 operas in the Met Live 2014-15 season. "Catcalls from the Box," the subtitle of "Mew & Cry," is a bit of irony. It is a fact that cats rule and as rulers have an opinion on everything, an opinion that's expressed in mews, snarls, hisses, and purrs, often from the box. The author in her metaphorical opera box muses on the Met. Belle Catto, the author's beautiful-singing feline, is featured on the cover, fairly oblivious to the topic at hand. The reviews are accompanied by frolicking cat silhouettes and complementary graphics. The cats and the author invite readers to be dazzled by Macbeth's inadvertent ghost, the crazy antics of Figaro as a bridegroom and as a barber, a teasing cigarette girl who takes no bull from any man, a chamber of commerce of master singers to rival American Idol, a besotted writer and his wind-up doll, can-can dancers chez Maxim's, zombie brides, the other lady of Loch Lomond, and the inevitable clowns. All good things come to an end, and the season ended, but that doesn't mean it's the end of opera. It's still not over, and it won't be long before the curtain rises once again on the joy of opera. Like catnip to a feline, "Mew & Cry" will pique the interest of fledgling opera-goers. Experienced opera-goers may raise a hue and cry of their own at the author's interpretative arias, but ultimately they will smile with recognition and appreciation; they know opera is the cat's meow.