By Warren Boroson
The late Herbert Breslin, who was Luciano Pavarotti’s
manager for 36 years, wrote a warts-and-all book about him — and included nasty
comments about a slew of other opera singers as well. His book, “The King and
I,” which came out in 2004 and was co-written by Anne Midgette, is a true joy
to read. Especially if you enjoy nasty putdowns of famous people.
Breslin must have
endured a lot of abuse from his clients — hence, his apparent decision to get
even in the book he wrote.
Re “Ricky” Bonynge,
the conductor, and his wife, soprano Joan Sutherland: “He was pretty smart, and
she was pretty dopey.”
Critics had
reservations about Bonynge’s conducting. Pavarotti would say, “Who does he
think he is, this no-good conductor?”
After a performance
with Sutherland, Pavarotti, perspiring, said to her, “Joan, we fat people know
how it is.” She stared at him coldly and replied, “Luciano, WE are not fat. YOU are fat. I am big.”
Kiri Te Kanawa,
“the beautiful (if boring) Maori diva...”
Birgit Nilsson was standing in the wings while
Montserrat Caballe was singing. What are you doing here? someone asked her. I’m
here to hear Madame Aballe, she answered. You mean Madame Cabelle? No, Madame
Aballe. She has lost her [high] C. (I doubt that this ever happened.)
Why did she sing in
the sticks? Nilsson was asked. “The money is just as green in Iowa as it is in
New York.”
Katia Ricciarelli
“was a lovely-looking if slightly vacant woman with a very pretty voice that
didn’t have much muscle to it.”
Pavarotti on his
rival, Placido Domingo: “…he’s not a man of quality…. He’s a black marketeer
who unseated [rival tenor] Carreras by getting him thrown out of theaters he
wanted. … so ungenerous.”
Breslin on
Domingo: “He began a conducting career; he wasn’t a very good conductor, but it
kept him busy.”
Angela Gheorghiu
is “so difficult that people are
reluctant to work with her. Joe Volpe once fired her from a production of ‘Carmen’
when she refused to wear the wig for her character, Micaela. He’s supposed to
have said, ‘That wig is going on stage whether you’re in it or not.’” It went
on without her.
Riccardo Muti “has
a reputation as being very, very egotistical and very vain. In other words,
he’s a conductor.”
Renee Fleming:
“…her story would be very different if there were some good soprano competition
out there to give her a run for her money.”
Marilyn Horne was furious that Joan
Sutherland shared the cover of the Times Magazine with her. And “she has a
mouth that can present you with every curse word you ever heard, and she used
them all….”
On Lily Pons singing the Mad Scene from
Lucia: “She “basically chirped away at it, not always on the right pitches.”
(Must have been when she was older.)
When Leontyne Price substituted for another
soprano in a performance of “Aida,” with Pavarotti, she supposedly said, “I
want one dollar more than you’re paying that fat man.”
Tito Schipa, famous tenor with a poor
memory: He had words to arias he was to sing written all over his body — “his
sleeves, his chest, you name it.”
Alfredo Kraus
was famous for “being extremely interested in money.”
Roberto Alagna
“was supposed to be the Second Coming. It turned out he wasn’t even the Fourth
Coming.” Today “He doesn’t even sell out at the Met.”
On Carol Fox, who co-founded the Lyric
Opera of Chicago: She “was a bitch on wheels.”
Franco Corelli had
stage fright “that led to full-scale tantrums before performances….”
Richard Tucker
once told a friend of Breslin’s, through a mouthful of bad teeth, “You know,
it’sh a helluva reshposhibility to be the greatesht tenor in the world.”
Jon Vickers, on
receiving advice from a stage director on how to kiss Desdemona in “Otello,” “I
don’t need a faggot to tell me how to kiss.”
Actresses who
apparently were asked to star with Pavarotti in his disastrous movie, “Yes,
Georgio,” included Sally Field, Candice Bergen, Goldie Hawn, Blythe Danner,
Sigourney Weaver, and Kate Jackson. Rumor has it that Cher told Jackson,
“Never, never ever do a movie where you can’t get your arms around your
romantic lead.” She bowed out. A little-known actress, Kathryn Harrold, got the
part.
Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf, the soprano, was married to Walter Legge, who was her manager.
“Walter was a famous monster. He was really terribly hard on her…. Walter was
really a big jerk.”
Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau, the German baritone: “High class is not quite the term I’d use
to describe him; he was more highfalutin. He gave the impression that his
bodily emanations…didn’t smell.”
On Breslin and Pavarotti
Breslin actually knew
a lot about opera and opera singers. He praised a favorite of mine, soprano
Miliza Korjus — “a lovely-looking woman, if a bit zaftig [chubby]….” And he
helped the careers of a good many deserving singers and other artists.
When Pavarotti flew
on the Concord, he insisted on sitting in the first seat, first row — reserved
for dignitaries. One time, the president of France was on the same flight. Oh,
it’s no problem, said Pavarotti. “Ask him to switch.”
Soprano Mirella Freni and Pavarotti were born
in the same town and reportedly had the same wet nurse. Mirella always said
that you could see who got all of the milk.
His former wife,
Adua, said that Pavarotti had stopped growing up when he was about 3 1/2 years
old.
Breslin, summing up Pavarotti: “…he doesn’t
care about anybody but himself.”
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