Molto Agitato: The Mayhem Behind the Muisc at the Metropolitan Opera [Paperback]

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, Plácido 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 Agitatois a must-read saga of power, wealth, and, above all, great music.“Weav[es] telling vignettes and interseting interpretations into a rich tapestry that vividly describes what goes on behind the great gold curtain. [Fiedler] deserves an ovation.”--The Dallas Morning News

“Elegant. . . . It’s the opera book that tells you what you really want to know, not by gossiping, but by sensitive discussion of facts long-hidden behing [the Met’s] Kremlin-like façade.”—The Philadells4