Book reviews

Benjamin Ivry

Do I Bark Like a Dog?: How an Italian Family History Shaped a Boy in London by Michael Volpe Renard Press Michael Volpe, the much admired founding director of Opera Holland Park, which he ran from 1996 to 2020, now directs the innovative ‘If Opera’ company based in Wiltshire. Volpe previously wrote Noisy at the Wrong Times, a memoir of how he emerged from an impoverished Italian immigrant family on a Fulham housing estate to contribute mightily to the London opera scene. This time his investigation is focused on identity, on how Italianità impacted his achievement in music theatre. Volpe and company proved that Mascagni’s Iris, Cilea’s L’arlesiana and Montemezzi’s Love of the Three Kings were more than mere staged hysteria. Devoid of literary airs, Volpe’s prose expresses a passion…

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Opera Now (Digital) - 1 Issue, Summer 2024

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