The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera by Joseph Volpe Reviewed by Philip Gossett
The New Republic Online
"The rags-to-riches myth never fails to impress. Whether it be the scullery maid who becomes the princess or the apprentice carpenter who becomes the big boss at the Metropolitan Opera, it sets up a cogent model for an America where rampant capitalism promises equal opportunity. Joseph Volpe wears his scruffiness with pride. "I had never studied music," he announces in his new memoir. "I didn't have a degree in arts management. I'd barely graduated from high school." A few pages later he is more specific: "I hated school."
What Volpe liked was manual labor, first in gas stations or his..." Read the entire The New Republic Online Review.