The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Joseph Volpe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2006

A fascinating, anecdote-filled behind-the-scenes look at more than forty years of the highlights, successes, and day-to-day inner workings—all about productions, the divas, and backstage dramas—of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, by Joseph Volpe, the only general manager to have risen through the ranks.

This book is the story of Volpe’s years leading up to those at the Met, from his first job as a stagehand at the Morosco Theater to the odd jobs he picked up moonlighting: setting up a searchlight or laying down a red carpet for a movie premiere, changing titles on the marquees at the Astor, Victor, and Paramount theaters. It is his Met years—from apprentice carpenter to general manager—that give us a story about New York and the business of culture. Volpe looks at the Met today, an institution full of vast egos and complicated politics, as well as its glittering past—the old Met at Thirty-ninth and Broadway, and the political and artistic intrigues that exploded around its move to Lincoln Center. With stunning candor, he writes about the general managers he worked under, including Rudolf Bing and Anthony Bliss; his own embattled rise to the top; the maneuverings of the blue-chip board; his bad-cop, good-cop collaboration with the conductor James Levine; and his masterful approach to making a family of such highly charged artist-stars as Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Teresa Stratas, and Renée Fleming, and such visionary directors as Franco Zeffirelli, Robert Wilson, and Julie Taymor.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this brash, captivating memoir, Volpe, the Metropolitan Opera's outgoing general manager, writes, "[T]o be a successful leader in an opera house, you sometimes have to behave operatically." The son of a men's clothing maker, Volpe rose from being a carpenter's apprentice making scenery in 1963 to preside over the Met a few decades later. He describes a learning curve powered by ambition, shaped by mentors such as Rudolph Bing and bent by infamous conflicts, most notably with diva Kathleen Battle, whom Volpe fired. Along the way, Volpe impresses readers with numbers (the main stage of the Met is 100 feet wide, for instance), and he portrays himself as a problem-solving David overcoming various Goliaths of snobbery, budgets and ego, aiming only to keep the Met successful—and solvent. It's a cagey, entertaining strategy that allows him to sound off on topics ranging from Lincoln Center politics and the particular difficulties of staging a production to the current state of the arts in America. Volpe focuses on his achievements and his relationships with artists like Pavarotti and gives short shrift to his home life, marriages (two failed) and family, while concluding that "making opera is a job for the human spirit." Photos. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

From December 1963, when Volpe joined the Metropolitan Opera as a 23-year-old carpenter, until he became general manager in 1990, he learned on the job what is needed to make an opera company run like clockwork: teamwork. But an opera company's operation resembles a battlefield, for it is fraught with constant skirmishes among the staff. Volpe was in the middle of most such skirmishes as a hands-on leader, yet success depended on each person doing his job well and everyone working together harmoniously. Still, he took definite charge to maintain harmony, as when he dismissed Kathleen Battle for disrupting rehearsals. An affable man, he notes many of his friends among singers, instrumentalists, scenic designers, benefactors, and stage staff in a memoir filled with stories, mostly uplifting, but that also attests to his paramount concern for the smoothly operating team of board, performers, production designers, stage personnel, and administrators. A penetrating and honest behind-the-scenes look at the world's most successful opera company and the battles fought to keep it on top. Alan Hirsch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; First Edition edition (May 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307262855
• ISBN-13: 978-0307262851
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #741,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Part autobiography, part history of the Met, and part stories about the performers, July 26, 2006

By 

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera (Hardcover)

Opera is dramatic and bigger than life on stage and back stage. Now we learn about all the drama that also goes on in managing the Metropolitan Opera, the largest opera company in the world and an arts organization that puts on more opera performances each year than any other company on earth. Its budget is more than $200 million for something like 240 performances per year. I was quite surprised to read how the monies to fund this huge budget are raised. No, it isn't the government, corporate, or even the richest donors that provide the bulk of the money as I had suspected.

The 2005-2006 budget was $221 million. The Box Office receipts were $101 million, the endowment of $300 million provided another $18 million, parking and commons revenues provided $10 million, and the support from the Federal, State, and City governments was only $375,000! Where does the other $92 million come from each year? 125,000 private donors, 2/3 of whom live outside New York City, provide donations ranging from $60 to more than $500,000 and total $80 million. The 300 members of the Metropolitan Opera Club provide another half-million, and the board members each provide substantial contributions to the met each year. I found this fascinating and quite a different mix than I had expected.

The author, Joseph Volpe, has run the Met for the past 16 seasons, but has worked at the met for more than four decades. He joined as a carpenter and worked his way up from the back of the house to operations. While he showed great skill in getting the shows on stage, he was passed over more than once for the job of Managing Director because of his blue collar background. But after floundering through some poor appointments, Volpe got the job. He admits that his personal style is more, well, frank than most other arts managers and the scowl on his face on the cover photograph (and in some of those included in the book) let us know that he is all about getting the shows on stage and at the highest level rather than getting us to love him as a person.

Volpe came to love opera while working at the Met. True, his grandmother had him listen to "Cavalleria Rusticana" with her when he was a child, but it was getting the magnificent sets to work and to hear the great singers, choruses, and see the dancers, costumes, and even the guests, that got him to see what grand opera is truly about and fall in love with the greatest of all art forms.

The book is part his own biography, part the history of the Met, and part about the great singers he has worked with while at the Met in his various capacities. The book has dozens of interesting photos from all the eras of the Met and the stories of the singers are well chosen and very entertaining. Pavarotti, as you might expect, provides some wonderful anecdotes when he is trying to help Volpe lose weight and includes Volpe in his "yoga" lessons.

The book is quite a pleasant read and I enjoyed it a great deal. It is interesting to hear about the whole of the opera company including everyone it takes to make the shows rather than just the great soloists. Coming from a blue collar background myself, I enjoyed hearing about the working guys and gals that make the show work for those fabulous artists who create the great music with their voices and hearts. The magic wouldn't be nearly as powerful without all those sets, costumes, lights, and the performers on the chorus or the dancers.

Recommended!

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bravo Volpe! From Blue Collar Carpenter to General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera!, May 14, 2006

By 

C. M Mills "Michael Mills" (Knoxville Tennessee) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera (Hardcover)

Joe Volpe is an American success story! Volpe was Brooklyn born; street tough and eager to learn! In over 40 years at the
Met he has arisen from carpenter to the general manager position.
After 16 years at the company GM this talented on hands leader will officially "retire" at the end of 2005-2006 season.
Volpe's book charts his rise to the top of the Metropolitan opera as this tough, sometimes abrasive but always honest impressario opens the doors of the Met at Lincoln Center to give
us a seat at the world's greatest opera house!
I devoured this book in two days as I learned of the way the Met functions; union negotiations and the quirks and perks of the operatic figures whom Volpe has worked with over the years.
The chapter on Pavarotti and Domingo was outstanding. Volpe's
firing of Kathleen Battle is discussed and the reasons for her
dismissal were warranted!
I turned to this book after listening to Volpe's review of his career on the Met broadcast during this past year. Even if
someone was unfamiliar with the arcane and forbidding world of
opera for the neophyte this book is a winner!
Bravo Senor Volpe! Thank you from an opera fan in Knoxville for your years of outstanding service to our beloved Met!

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A standing ovation for this outstanding performance!, May 7, 2006

By 

Stephanie Pierson (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera (Hardcover)

You don't have to be an opera love to love this book. Mr. Volpe is a great story-teller and what stories and backstage drama there is. This is a book that combines brilliant business insight with an amazing personal success story. It offers an insider's look at the stage of the world's best opera house and a backstage tour of divas and dramas. It's got something for everyone and Mr. Volpe's story is both candid and compelling. You feel like you have the best seat in the house after you finish reading this book. And I am waiting for an encore!