One autumn night in the eighties a young Irishman of twenty-seven, who had passed most of his life in Germany, took his place in the orchestra pit of the Metropolitan Opera House to play the cello. His name was Victor Herbert. He had just arrived in New York, and from his obscure seat he looked around curiously at the mass of faces glowing weirdly in the vast, dim auditorium. He felt a symbolic force in the crowding immensity of the place, in the numerous dazzling points of light that leaped back from the precious stones on the hands and breasts of the women who sat in the two great curving tiers of boxes. What future was he to have in this land? The conductor emerged from the depths beneath the stage to his eminence on the podium. Applause rolled over the heads of the musicians below him. He raised his baton and the opera began. Twenty-five years later, the same immigrant heard from the stage of the same theatre the performance of an opera he himself had written. Similar rolls of applause came from the audience, but this time not to pass over his head in the pit. The acclaim was for him, a tribute to his artistry. Thus, in the romantic fashion, may be outlined the beginning and the climax of the career of the most popular composer of light opera to be developed in the American theatre. And of one of the most beloved figures who ever made the rounds of Broadway.

本書は、一人の無名な奏者がアメリカの光に導かれ、巨匠へと上り詰める軌跡を情熱的に描いた評伝の傑作です。ジョセフ・ケイの筆致は、歌劇場の暗がりに差し込む一筋の光のように、若きヴィクター・ハーバートの野心と不安を鮮やかに浮き彫りにします。彼が楽団のピットから見上げた煌びやかな世界は、まさにアメリカンドリームという名の巨大な舞台装置として、読者の心に強烈な予感を与えます。 音楽という魂の言語を通じて異邦人が自己を確立していくプロセスには、単なる成功譚を超えた芸術的な深みがあります。伝統と喧騒が混ざり合うブロードウェイで、いかにして彼が独自のロマンティシズムを響かせたのか。喝采の裏側に潜む芸術家の孤独と創造の歓喜が、壮大な叙事詩のように綴られています。伝説へと変わる瞬間の熱量を、ぜひその目で確かめてください。