Customer Reviews

The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera

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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!

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!

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!

Joseph Volpe's "The Toughest Show on Earth" is a remarkably comprehensive look at the recent history of the Metropolitan Opera as told through the eyes of the retiring general manager, himself. Volpe has the best "view" in the house and no wonder...he's been there for over forty years.

From the start it's clear that Joe Volpe is not a man to be crossed lightly. Tough as nails (and nails were part of his business) he rises from an entry level position to the top job...and reveals much along the way. There's just enough "dirt" in this book to tickle the senses of the reader and anyone who has ever been in opera knows exactly what Volpe describes...in order to be associated with opera personalities it is sometimes required to act like one.

The longest chapter in "The Toughest Show" is devoted to Volpe's firing of Kathleen Battle and one can just see the steam building in the author's ears as he amasses stories of misbehavior on the part of the "embattled" diva over a period of years. Finally, he acts, much to the delight of the cast and crew. It's a juicy chapter and one of the best in the book. While Volpe offers reflections on just about anyone with whom he has come in contact, he reserves the nicest comments for conductor James Levine and (whom he calls the "Siamese Twins") tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. Without these three would there be a present-day Metropolitan Opera?

There are occasional bouts of self-serving given over to by the author and often he feels a need to defend himself based on some past controversial decisions, (which I found rather astounding given the fact that he is departing the scene) but what makes "The Toughest Show" such a wonderful book is the comprehensiveness of the Met story. It's not only onstage and backstage but everywhere else, too. "The Toughest Show on Earth" is the greatest guided tour around. It's a terrific read and Volpe deserves much credit not only for this book but for a lifetime of service dedicated to one of the nation's treasures...the Metropolitan Opera.

Joseph Volpe was a tough as the job he took on when he grabbed the reins of the Metropolitan Opera House, having to deal with the likes of James Levine and Luciano Pavarotti.
But as in the phrase beloved of behavorial psychologists, his was a "tough love." He started as a carpenter at the Old Met with but a passing interest in opera, but by the time he left, music infused his very blood with a passion for his work and the people who populated the space he called home.
The autobiography details the years, the failed marriage, the battles with superstars, the triumphs and disappointments with a candor perhaps unique in this type of memoir, where the authors tend to be either diplomatic or, as with Sir Rudolph Bing, unrelentingly acerbic.
Volpe tells his story in lean, plain-spoken language that reveals the inner workings of the gargantuan Met and makes that place of mazes and convolutions an environment the reader can understand.
Joe Volpe (after reading the book, it's hard to think of him as Joseph) dragged The Met kicking and screaming into the 21st century without violating the traditions that surround opera, and his book is refreshing, entertaining and revelatory.
It should be read by anyone interested in opera, politics or the big business of show.

Whether you're an opera fan, or symphony fan or a showbiz fan, this is a delightful, very readable book...full of the history of music in New York throughout the 20th century as well as vignettes about the likes of Pavarotti, Domingo, Bliss, Levine, and of course, Battle... many of them unusual, quirky and very funny.

I found this book absolutely fabulous. Mr. Volpe is to the point and shall we say, extremely honest, in his account of his years at the opera, including via himself. One finishes this book with a greater understanding of what goes on behind the scenes. It reads well, with enough details to keep the average reader riveted and without the unnecessary clutter found in some of those books that insist on giving us an hour by hour acount of events. I especially liked the way the book was subdivided. If it does follow a certain chronological order, each chapter focuses on a specific subject matter, for example signers... that serves as the guide thru the different events. Hence, this book is delightful and I strongly recommend it to all and especially, if not exclusively, to opera lovers. Even ones who do not know a lot about opera will love this book.
Marie Kirouack

Volpe's as-told-to Charles Michener book is a fascinating look at the rise of an exceptionally confident and brilliant man. The voice of the book sounds like what Volpe sounds like in his interviews. There is an excellent balance between personal history (pretty discreet), the history of the Met, how it's run, with a liberal dose of reportage of some of the famous episodes, such as the Battle firing. I did not sense any score settling: when Volpe doesn't like someone his reasons are convincing. He is expecially touching about Levine but what in the end I was happiest about was learning how Volpe fell in love with opera AFTER he began work there as a carpenter. Well-written and fascinating. Highly recommended

As a trained singer, broadcaster and opera fan, I couldn't pass up the chance to read this. It was worth it, believe me! Whatever one's opinion of Volpe's work at the Met, there is much to admire about him. From an early age, he was no stranger to hard work, and that was a large part of what got him into the top spot at the Met. Also, Volpe has been willing to act on his convictions; this especially showed in the firing of Kathleen Battle, whose unstable behavior and unprofessional treatment of colleagues had to be dealt with for the sake of the company. Volpe is also a hilarious storyteller; his account of a "diet" lunch with Luciano Pavarotti left me shaking with laughter! While I haven't agreed with some of Volpe's decisions, I have to hand it to him for his hard work, his forthrightness, and for his willingness to stick to his guns on many occasions for the sake of the Met's survival. Quite a story, and quite a person!

Volpe worked (and virtually lived) at the Met for 42 years, rising up steadily from the position of master carpenter to become its General Manager from 1990 to 2006. He wrote this book before his resignation (for which he gave a year and a half notice), having decided to retire because running the Met leaves absolutely no time for a personal life!

Volpe is a nuts-and-bolts, man-on-the-street type who has more common sense and business sense and even artistic sense than 90% of people who have ever darkened the Met's doorstep. I very much enjoyed his complete history of the Met, and the behind-the-scenes look at it through all of his 42 years there. He even addresses the dreaded Kathleen Battle debacle, in a way that makes it seem logical and inevitable. A great man, it's doubtful that the Met will ever see his like again.