Book Review

Revealing Masks: Exotic Influences and Ritualized Performance in Modernist Music Theater. By W. Anthony Sheppard. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. ISBN 0-520-22302-0 (cloth). Pp. xv, 350.

We all wear masks. Whether it is that of parent, professor, or colleague, we tend to change our face in different situations, subtly altering our appearance and behavior to slide smoothly into a socially acceptable mode. Since we all have this tendency and often accomplish the change unconsciously, what is most interesting about our masks is not that we have them, but rather what they say about us.