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Lotfi Mansouri: An Operatic Journey by Lotfi Mansouri with Donald Arthur Boston: Northeastern University Press/University Press of New England, 2010 342 pages, $39.95
Impresario Mansouri opens with a chapter on his farewell gala at age 71 in September 2000 as director of the San Francisco Opera. He goes over some the positives and negatives of such a life in the chapter "Staging My Own Funeral." He names his three conductors for his gala with two as good friends (Richard Bonynge and Patrick Summers) and the third his SF music director (Donald Runnicles) with whom he barely speaks. He quotes retired singer Joan Sutherland's tribute to him: "dear friend and longtime colleague . . . always so well prepared and could sing all the roles" (8). He explains why another fine soprano, Gwyneth Jones, couldn't appear at his gala: she made her appearance contingent on a contract to sing Turandot when she could no longer handle the role. They had met decades earlier, and she always radiated alluring class, but now refused to recognize her best singing...