Contents

• Foreword
  
• Acknowledgements
  
• Overture: Lotfi in the Underworld
  
• The Temple Shall Not Fall Tonight
  
• Prompting the Prompter
  
• Those Wacky Wagnerites
  
• Have You Seen Lotfi’s Violetta?
  
• The Unkindest Cut of All, Part I
  
• Wasn’t that Better, Kid?
  
• Coming to a Head
  
• Intermission: (Mis)adventures in Italy
  
• The Curse of the Joyous Woman, Part I
  
• The Exposed Unmentionables
  
• The Unkindest Cut of All, Part II
  
• An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse
  
• The Shah’s Non-Command Performance
  
• Mid-Life Crisis
  
• Horsing Around in Vienna
  
• The Many Faces of Love
  
• Intermission: A Potpourri of Madness
  
• The Curse of the Joyous Woman, Part II
  
• The Rio Norma
  
• Did I Hear Him Right?
  
• Acting Up on Opening Night
  
• Do Worry, Be Unhappy
  
• Boards and Other Well-Meaning Obstacles
  
• Dinner with the Yeltsins
  
• Two Gentlemen in Verona
  
• What’s My Line?
  
• Finale: Lotfi’s Song