68938X1 First Edition. University Press of New England: 2010. 320 pages. Hardcover with dustjacket. Brand new book. A lively and engaging memoir of one of opera's driving forces Lotfi Mansouri has lived a full life in opera: triumphs and near disasters, divas and divos, moneymen and true artists, he has known them all. In this entertaining and engaging memoir, Mansouri lifts the curtain and invites the reader to see how magic is created on stage. He has lived a storied life: early years in Iran, move to America, long stays in Europe and Canada, directing tasks on several continents, and a brilliant final act as the General Director of the San Francisco Opera, all the while continuing to mount productions worldwide. He has known virtually everybody in the opera world over the past fifty years, and has collaborated with some of the greatest. Mansouri was also a central figure in the recent rejuvenation of opera through innovations such as supertitles and, perhaps more important, the staging and commissioning of new works that would appeal to a more contemporary audience, such as SFO's production of The Death of Klinghoffer, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Dead Man Walking. Mansouri isn't shy about dropping names and bruising some egos (even his own. Anyone who wants to know what the opera world is really like can now find out in the company of a charming and expert guide. LOTFOLLAH "LOTFI" MANSOURI is an Iranian-born opera director and manager. He was the General Director of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto from 1976 to 1988 and of the San Francisco Opera from 1988 through 2001. In addition, he is credited with the revolutionary introduction of the running translation strip or "supertitles" to the world of opera in 1983. In 2009 he received the Opera Honors award of the National Endowment for the Arts. $39.95USD
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