Knowing, full of buzz about the world of classical music, and lots of operatic fun.
High-end show-biz backstager from aggressive manager-agent Breslin, who serves up some juicy dish in his account of a 36-year relationship with the “King of the High Cs.”
According to the author, he discovered Pavarotti, a man larger than life, larger than anybody, and made him the most famous singer in the world. During their now-ended symbiosis, Breslin took the Italian tenor from an obscure opera stage to the world stage and arranged presentations in unaccustomed venues. (He recalls a Madison Square Garden performance as “the peak of our career,” but many saw it as the start of a long decline; Breslin doesn’t mention the vendors hawking frankfurters while the big man bellowed into the Garden’s mike.) Breslin, or perhaps self-effacing co-author Midgette, is deeply knowledgeable about opera, but the portrait of Pavarotti is unrelenting and unforgiving. The singer loves food and himself. After that, he loves women. He is at once stingy and generous, we are told. He is an arrogant know-it-all with a large entourage, too lazy to learn new roles. In other words, this is a get-even book about an important cantatore, primo uomo, and divo. The supporting cast includes many of classical music’s great names, including sopranos Renata Scotto and Joan Sutherland, long-standing rival Plácido Domingo, and famously frank Metropolitan Opera manager Joe Volpe. The text is candid about money, taxes, and various business aspects of the profession, as well as its practitioners’ famous feuds and foibles. There are details about bookings on The Ed Sullivan Show, the stinker of a movie Yes, Giorgio, and the negotiations that led to The Three Tenors concerts.
Knowing, full of buzz about the world of classical music, and lots of operatic fun.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2004
ISBN: 0-385-50972-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2004
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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