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Who's My Bottom? Published in UK by Lulu - - to take the lid off the real world of the jobbing (albeit successful) opera performer - this is the book - - everything we could ask for: dramatic pacing, humour, insight, thematic threads and a big ending. Classical Music Magazine - - the tenor Christopher Gillett is a good enough singer (Prom, 2006) - - This is an important, well written and absurdly inexpensive short book about vicissitudes in the life of a "jobbing opera singer" - marketed as "very funny" - q.v. the deplorable cover ! It offers real insight into a working opera singer's life [Nicholas Hytner]. The core of the book, for me, is to be found though in Gillett's account [pp. 34 - 63] of Tan Dun's weird and sometimes Who's My Bottom? ends with a series of short and often bitter vignettes, similar to those Gillett puts on his blog (see No Plan in Milan 14 April 2012, a devastating account of a wasted day in Milan, hanging around La Scala):
Some readers may not know that opera singers are expected to appear for rehearsals having completely learnt their parts, and that singers are not paid for rehearsals; not one penny (for one production they lasted eight weeks !). They arrive to rehearse a production with the success or failure of the venture pre-determined, with no idea what the design concept will be and, least of all, singers have no say in it. For the Director's introduction "you have to wear your bravest smiles". "So-called conductors" (pp. 78-85) come in for withering scorn; only 10% know what they're on about; immensely famous conductors can't beat their way out of a paper-bag... Kleiber excepted, verily adored, but Solti less than admired for cheating at ping-pong on a social event he hosted... Some have nothing to do with the stage - leave all that to the prompter... Directors "used to be called stage managers - now they've become as, if not more, important than anyone else for selling opera"; Gillett elaborates on "the Traditionalist who only does Opera; Designer Directors; the Film or Theatre Director Who Thinks He Or She Can Do Opera" - scathing stuff... Small fees wither and all but vanish with rip-offs at lodgings; no phone and "extras" on top of exorbitant charges... It really is not a fun book. Like Pagliacci, the tragic clown, Gillett seems to be the life and soul of sociability and fun with his mates, on their regular periods abroad out of contact with families and young children, but inevitable destruction of personal life and key relationships is the other side of the coin, as suffered by Gillett and all too many more of his profession. A glimmer of hope is to be found in his discreet dedication of his great book to Lucy, Tessa and Adam. Decently produced in paperback with large print, but regrettably no index. Peter Grahame Woolf See also Classical Source
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wonderful opera 