Researching William Berger

At the time of the Yangzhou riot that brought unwelcome notoriety to the mission activity in China, Berger had to defend Taylor and his group from the attacks of the British press. Often, he had to assume this role with little or no knowledge of the current events in China due to the delay in communication with the missionaries overseas.

The Bergers resigned due to failing health and also due to his personal convictions which were similar to Andrew Jukes (in conflict with the traditional Christian principles of the China Inland Mission) regarding the eternal punishment of non-Christians. He remained a faithful supporter of the mission and a friend of Hudson Taylor until his death.

Born in California on January 25th 1961, studied Romance languages and musicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was editor in chief for the Stanford Daily, the newspaper of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California from 1979-1980. For five years he worked in the San Francisco Opera, being responsible for acquiring company's records collection. As author, he wrote such books on music and operatic composers as: Wagner Without Fear (1998), Verdi With a Vengeance (2000), Puccini Without Excuses (2005), all published by Random House. He has also written opera libretti and articles on religion and architecture.

He frequently gives lectures on operatic music and composers, and is also a radio commentator and has recently been a regular host for New York Public Radio's Overnight Music and WNYC radio. Since creation of the Metropolitan Opera Radio on Sirius in the Fall of 2006, he writes all the commentaries heard during entractes of historical broadcasts. Berger is currently often a co-host during live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts, and is often the moderator of those broadcasts' Met Opera Quiz.