Noisy at the Wrong Times

Listed in The Sunday Times "100 Biographies to love"

Against a backdrop of nuns, hit men, gangsters, rugby and ice-cream, Noisy at the wrong times is an inspiring memoir by Michael Volpe, General Manager and founder of Opera Holland Park, now one of the UK’s finest and most popular opera festivals.

Volpe’s upbringing in a fatherless Italian family in London is hardly recognised as being one from which champions of the high, classical arts emerge, but at the heart of this story is his time at Woolverstone Hall, a prestigious state boarding school that took bright inner city boys and gave them an Eton-style education - with culture at the heart of the curriculum. Volpe's sudden immersion in a world of rules, traditions and high expectation produced some surprising – and not so surprising – results. With brutal honesty, Noisy at the wrong times charts Volpe’s torrid path through this extraordinary school; his countless misdemeanours, the tragedies he experienced, his often shameful behaviour and his endless conflicts - both emotional and physical – with authority.

Noisy at the wrong times is a lesson for modern educationalists at a time when inner city children from poor backgrounds are often written off even before they begin, when cultural education is diminishing and aspirational leadership of young people is little more than a platitude.

With wit, candour and a jaunty spring in his narrative step, Michael Volpe's vivid memoir shows just how much a good school with dedicated teachers can broaden the most recalcitrant child's horizons and transform his or her life.'

Anthony Holden, author and biographer

'If you assumed opera was for the privileged classes read this book. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll ask yourself how Michael Volpe turned childhood disadvantage into such a life-affirming asset. With a good deal of mischief is one answer.'

Fiona Maddocks, The Observer

'Volpe has introduced tens of thousands of Londoners to some of the most extreme stories in Italian opera, featuring families at war, lust, obsession and violence. Now he tells a true story that's just as gripping – with a little less violence but boasting a much more honest and engaging hero than opera can normally muster. A redemption journey without an ounce of smug, Noisy should be shouted about.'

Neil Fisher, Deputy Arts Editor, The Times

"Hugely entertaining and inspiring"

The Sunday Times