THE KING & I

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.