Cecilia Bartoli is a public relations dream - vivacious, sexy, the very model of the modern operatic diva - and this biography is like "essence of Bartoli" captured and arranged, with effortless deftness and wit, on the page. The title refers both to her best-known role and her rages-to-riches life-story, but there's none of that "her grandmother worked in the fields, her grandfather sang on street corners" nonsense. Hoelterhoff, a Pulitzer prize-winning critic at the Wall Street Journal, cuts straight to the operatic chase, and the book reads like a soap opera, with fabulous insider gossip and a series of hilarious encounters with a stellar cast, including the Love Couple (Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu) and Mr P (guess who). Even if you don't know Puccini from a pain in the neck, you won't be able to put this down.
