Molto Agitato: The Mayhem Behind
the Music at the Metropolitan Opera
by Johanna Fiedler
Fasten Your Seat-Belts!!
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 Agitato
is a must-read saga of power, wealth, and, above all, great music.
Personal Review: Molto Agitato: The Mayhem Behind the Music
at the Metropolitan Opera by Johanna Fiedler
Johanna Fiedler knows opera inside and out and she provides us with the
inside scoop on what goes on behind the scenes at the Met, or that is,
what went on throughout most of the administration of Rudolf Bing,
Anthony Bliss and Joseph Volpe. She's the press representative for the
Metropolitan Opera and the daughter of Arhtur Fiedler, the long time
conductor of the Boston Pops, now deceased. Yes, this book has been
attacked as trashy tabloid yellow journalism material, but at least it's true
and raw, not pretending to be something it's not. It's full of juicy gossip but
it's written in an insightful, intelligent, human and mannered way so that it
is not vulgar or meaingless. In fact, my eyes were open to the myths I had
about opera and the artists of the field. She gives proper credit to all her
sources. This extensive book should delight the most hardcore of opera
fanatics but beware to discover truths behind any illusions you might have.
Opera is a dirty business.
Here's an inside look at life at the Met, the power struggles, the artists and
their issues and every single high and low that happened through the 60's,
70's, 80's and 90's. Opera is the Hollywood of the arts and never is this
more true than in this book that captures the temperament of everyone
involved in the world of opera- from agents, to conductors, to singers to
producers and artistic directors. I was very surprised to discover that my
favorite tenor Placido Domingo genuinely envied Luciano Pavoratti and
were actually rivals at one point, long before they made it as The Three
Tenors when Jose Carreras came into the picture. Carrerras, too, like
Domingo and Pavoratti cheated on his wife at one time with his co-artist
Katia Ricciarelli (what is it with the Three Tenors and sex ?) While I still
love Domingo, it is a bit shattering to discover the fallible nature of tenors!
Domingo was and always will be the more intelligent and consummate
artist but it was a bit sad to hear that he was unfaithful to his wife and that
he was nearly crazy with jealous of the Pavoratti phenomenon. It's like
Salieri being jealous of Mozart. Pavoratti has the big voice and the
presence but Domingo was the better actor. Pavoratti, too, had issues,
also cheating on his own wife and being very lazy, selfish, spotlight
hogging and hypocritical. Sopranos too have their issues and this book
lavishes us with all the diva antics. Kathleen Battle, unlike the more
exemplary African American singers- Leontyne Price, Grace Bumbry,

Shirley Verrett and Jessye Norman, behaved unprofessionally, showing up
late to rehearsals, being rude to costumers and co-artists. She was fired
from the Met in 1994, after an incident in which she even lashed out at
esteemed and experienced mezzo soprano Rosalind Elias. The incident
with Carol Vanness is also noteworthy. Another diva was Renata Scotto,
who didn't always have the perfect voice and ruined herself trying to
emulate Maria Callas. Conductors/directors and their clashes with singers
who have their own ideas is also a big part of this book. Rudolf Bing dared
to fire Maria Callas and did not allow Beverly Sills to debut at the Met until
late in her career because he had considered her singing beneath the
standard of the Met. In 1980, violinist Helen Hagnes was brutally murdered
and raped during an intermission and the investigation of the crime
revealed that some folks were using the back wings and hidden rooms of
the Opera for sex and drug use. Performances of Verdi's Macbeth are
never staged at the Met because it is "cursed". In two seperate incidents,
tragedy and horror erupted, at one time even a man committed suicide.
While there is too much to dish out in a summary, let me say that Miss
Fiedler is very accurate, suffusing her work with integrity and vivid, life-like
narrative. Plus, there are a number of black and white photos of the forces
behind the Met like Rudolf Bing, James Levine, Franco Zefferelli and
James Levine. The Met opened its doors for the first time in 1883 with a
production of Faust. Since then the Met has been an opera within itself, full
of colorful, dramatic characters. They're all here, more human than
operatic- Maria Callas (she's a character) Beverly Sills (who struggled hard
to get where she is now, as Chairman and other big positions at the Met
though now she is really retired) Joan Sutherland and her husband
conductor Richard Bonynge, Roberto Alagan and Angela Gheorghiu who
are opera's sexiest couple and look like Bonnie and Clyde to some. Birgit
Nilsson had a sense of humor and was once a simple farm girl and all the
other forces that brought opera to the Met for a long time. Things are
probably less scandalous now though now and then something comes up-
recently, mezzo Debora Voight was denied a role because she was "too
fat" for the Twiggy-super model version of Ariadne of Naxos. Go figure. We
love soap operas and opera is one.
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