Not every celebrated musician makes an interesting subject for a biography. Even the most illustrious performing career is apt to read like a grocery list if the author cannot find something more to write about than a parade of engagements and accolades.
Was Lois Marshall a good choice for a biographical study? I would not have said yes with certainty until I read James Neufeld’s 334-page labour of love, Lois Marshall: A Biography. Indeed, I approached this book with more than a little skepticism: despite Marshall’s stature as Canada’s reigning soprano in the 1950s and ’60s, the image she projected in public—neatly encapsulated by her own insistence that she was “just a singer”—did not seem to offer much promise. Fortunately, it turns out that there was more to Marshall than met the eye.
In this well-written and unabashedly admiring narrative, Neufeld offers a thorough account of Marshall’s life, up to her death in 1997 at the age of 73. Her ascent...
Colin Eatock is a Toronto-based writer, critic and composer. Last year his book Remembering Glenn Gould was published by Penumbra Press, and his compact disc Colin Eatock: Chamber Music was released on the Centrediscs label.
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