Cinderella and Co Book

Cecilia Bartoli, the celebrated mezzo-soprano, has captured the imagination of the record-buying public more than any other female opera star, and has received consistent critical acclaim by those in the know since making Cinderella in Rossini's Cenerentola, her signature role. Manuela Hoelterhoff, herself something of a diva amongst cultural commentators, here accompanies Bartoli on two years of travel and trial by critic, as she sinks her gleaming pearly whites into the heart of the backstage world of opera. Cinderella & Company is at once a heartwarming portrait of a young woman on the up, and a delightfully caustic insight into a world of ego and ambition often shrouded in mystery, but here exposed in glorious, rampaging technicolour by an author with her feet firmly planted on the ground--and, at times, her tongue tucked firmly in her cheek.And they are all here--Pavarotti, Domingo, Levine--in all their glory, laying themselves bare to the sharp edge of Bartoli's gossipy, yet endearingly fond, sword as she wends her own ambitious way through the glorious world that is opera, spilling her thoughts to Hoelterhoff who, in turn, leaves no stone unturned, with her keen sense of the important and the ridiculous. An absolute must for opera buffs, Cinderella & Company is a satisfyingly sage encounter with a world that is so much larger than life. --Susan HarrisonRead More