Lotfi Mansouri: An Operatic Journey
“In this fitfully compelling account of Mansouri’s long professional life (co-authored by Donald Arthur) many of the most interesting passages relate to the particulars of his background, his eventual near-complete assimilation to Western life, and such reconciliation with his family and past as the changes in Iranian history afforded him. His relationship with his father makes a particularly telling thread.”—Opera“Lotfi Mansouri’s new memoir is a must-read on several levels. His career as a director/administrator (and sometime tenor) spans five decades of opera-world change. He brought important new works, techniques, and artists to the stage. He is an immigrant who recalls the pain and triumph that journey engendered. And, oh, yes, the dish! Mansouri puts on what he calls ‘my best Persian smile’ as he candidly settles scores and names the (big) names he tussled with over the years.”—Wagner Notes“One of the most fascinating books on opera for a general reader in recent years.”—Pittsburgh Tribune-Review“Easy, breezy, boastful and bitchy. That’s Lotfi Mansouri: An Operatic Journey (Northeastern University Press), the memoir by the man who dragged the Canadian Opera Company into the modern era during his tenure as general manager from 1976 to 1988. . . The personal adventures are as gripping as the larger-than-life personalities of the opera world. . . Most endearingly, the book also celebrates the pleasures of working hard to break down the stereotype of opera as an elitist art form.” —The Toronto Star