Cinderella and Company : Backstage at the Opera with Cecilia Bartoli

Rating:
Summary: This ain't writing, it's word processing!
Review: What does an author do when she doesn't have enough material to fill a book on the subject of her biography? Digress by trashing every other opera singer she can get a dig in. Is it any wonder why singers can be paranoid, neurotic, and overly sensitive? Of course her favorites, such as Tebaldi get passed over as though ram's blood was smeared on their dressing room doors. My suggestion is talk to a friend who's read the book already. They'll probably remember the nastiest digs and save you the money as well as the 15 minutes it takes to read this.

Rating:
Summary: Never met a singer I didn't hate.....
Review: While Bartoli is on the cover, she is really not the center topic of this book. It's really about the people that make opera "big" today. The author never misses an opportunity to slam any singer that crosses her path or someone else's path. What bothers me most is here is an obviously intellegent woman who seemingly makes most of her income in a world that she so abhors. Perhaps she felt better about herself after writing the book but it does little for the world of opera. My guess her research consisted of reading a couple of months of any Opera bulletin board on the Web for the trash she re-cycles.