Knopf 2003. Hardback with dust jacket, 448 pp.
If the opera world is full of "intrigue, double meanings, and devious
dramatics," then no place exemplifies this more than the world-famous
Metropolitan Opera, where politics, ambition, and oversized egos have
traditionally taken center stage along with some of the world's richest
music. Drawing on her fifteen years as its press representative, Johanna
Fiedler explodes the traditional secrecy that surrounds the Met in this
wonderfully entertaining account of its tumuluous history. Fiedler
chronicles the Met's early days as a home for legends like Toscanini,
Mahler, and Caruso, and gives a fascinating account of the middle years
when haughty blue-bloods battled stubborn adminstrators for control of a
company that would emerge as America's premiere opera house. She takes
us behind the grand gold-curtain stage in more recent years as well,
showing how musical superstars like Luciano Pavarotti, Pl cido Domingo,
and Kathleen Battle have electrified performances and scandalized the
public. But most revelatory are Fiedler's portrayals of James Levine and
Joseph Volpe and their practically parallel ascendancies--Levine rising
from prodigy to artistic director, Volpe advancing from stagehand to
general manager--and their once strained relationship. Weaving together
the personal, economic, and artistic struggles that characterize the
Met's long and vibrant history, Molto Agitato is a must-read saga of
power, wealth, and, above all, great music.