The King and I: The Uncensored Tale of Luciano Pavarotti's Rise to Fame by His Manager, Friend and Sometime Adversary($11.27Value)

Description

Luciano Pavarotti’s longtime manager and friend tells all. All . The King and I is the story of the thirty-six-year-old business relationship between Luciano Pavarotti and his manager, Herbert Breslin, during which Breslin guided what he calls, justifiably, “the greatest career in classical music.” During that career, Breslin moved Pavarotti out of the opera house and onto the concert (and the world) stage and into the arms of a huge mass public. How he and Pavarotti changed the landscape of opera is one of the most significant and entertaining stories in the history of classical music, and Herbert Breslin relates the tale in a brash, candid, witty fashion that is often bitingly frank and profane. He also provides a portrait of his friend and client—“a beautiful, simple, lovely guy who turned into a very determined, aggressive, and somewhat unhappy superstar”—that is by turns affectionate and satirical and full of hilarious details and tales out of school, with Pavarotti emerging as something like the ultimate Italian male. The book is also enlivened by the voices of other players in the soap opera drama that was Pavarotti’s career, and they are no less uncensored than Herbert Breslin. The last word, in fact, comes from none other than Luciano Pavarotti himself! The King and I is the ultimate backstage book about the greatest opera star of the past century—and it’s a delight to read as well. At his career peak, Pavarotti was called the king of the high Cs. But Breslin, his manager for 36 years, called him Mr. Brain; he knew everything, you see. With his clear, projecting voice, Pavarotti rose to fame with a strategy of impressive solo concertizing that eventually propelled him to the operatic stage. His first loves, however, were food and the society of family and friends. Generous, he also had a lazy streak that later stunted the development of his repertoire. He had trouble memorizing words, and he never read music. He moved minimally onstage, preferring to emote through singing, not action; his foray into movies, Yes, Giorgio, was a near disaster. Breslin's forte was his stubbornness at getting everything his client wanted--and he is driven by money. Sprinkled with many stories of other clients and Pavarotti's costars, the book is more about the manager-client relationship, including the coddling and the epithets, than about Pavarotti per se. Nevertheless, its stories of a star's rise and fall are told from the heart. Alan Hirsch Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Luciano Pavarotti’s longtime manager and friend tells all. All . The King and I is the story of the thirty-six-year-old business relationship between Luciano Pavarotti and his manager, Herbert Breslin, during which Breslin guided what he calls, justifiably, “the greatest career in classical music.” During that career, Breslin moved Pavarotti out of the opera house and onto the concert (and the world) stage and into the arms of a huge mass public. How he and Pavarotti changed the landscape of opera is one of the most significant and entertaining stories in the history of classical music, and Herbert Breslin relates the tale in a brash, candid, witty fashion that is often bitingly frank and profane. He also provides a portrait of his friend and client―“a beautiful, simple, lovely guy who turned into a very determined, aggressive, and somewhat unhappy superstar”―that is by turns affectionate and satirical and full of hilarious details and tales out of school, with Pavarotti emerging as something like the ultimate Italian male. The book is also enlivened by the voices of other players in the soap opera drama that was Pavarotti’s career, and they are no less uncensored than Herbert Breslin. The last word, in fact, comes from none other than Luciano Pavarotti himself! The King and I is the ultimate backstage book about the greatest opera star of the past century―and it’s a delight to read as well. Herbert Breslin has been a classical music publicist and manager for many of the greatest performers of our time for the past forty years. Anne Midgette is a regular reviewer of classical music for the New York Times and has contributed to Opera News and many other music magazines. The King and I is a vulgar, mean-spirited book that casts little credit on either the author, Herbert Breslin, or the subject, the world-renowned opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti. It also makes one wonder why co-author Anne Midgette, a respected music critic for the New York Times, would lend herself to such a project. That said, one has to admit that this tell-all book by Pavarotti's "manager, friend, and sometime adversary" is both readable and entertaining in a bitchy sort of way. A brash New Yorker, Breslin writes as I assume he speaks (I don't recall ever meeting him) -- he is sarcastic, in your face, funny at times, and full of braggadocio. But his passionate love of music, especially the opera, also comes through. It