The Encore

August 14, 2017
In this inspiring memoir about faith, music, love, and illness, soprano Tillemann-Dick recounts the challenges of living with a disease that compromises her lungs even as she performs on the world stage as a top-selling Billboard classical artist. In 2004, 21-year-old Tillemann-Dick was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, a devastating disease that, in the absence of a lung transplant, kills nearly 70% of patients within the first five years of diagnosis. Tillemann-Dick transforms her experience into a moving opera. The emergency room becomes an “avant-garde production” of Lucia di Lammermoor with its “chorus of beeps and buzzers, all underscored by the percussive expletives of the drunkard on the other side of the curtain.” Amid the “horrific, minimalist score” of the ICU, Tillemann-Dick recovered from a double lung transplant, fighting to regain her voice and her independence. That first lung transplant failed, and she had her second transplant three years later. Nevertheless, she continued to live her dream life, singing with her transplanted lungs. She notes early on, “I’m not afraid of death. I’m afraid of not living the life I’m meant to live.” This is a moving memoir, and in it Tillemann-Dick shares her life of wonder, opera, and love.

September 1, 2017
A renowned American soprano tells the "personal mythology of [her] opera."At the beginning of her career, an academy teacher told Tillemann-Dick, "to be a Great, you need three things...you must get very sick, you must fall in love, and you must work, work, work. Then, in ten years, you will really be something." As her debut memoir shows, she did all three with impressive grace and dignity. The author splits the book into three acts to mimic the structure of an opera and show her rise and fall. In the beginning, Tillemann-Dick had all the makings of a great singing career: talent, connections, and luck. However, her prospects looked bleak when she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. She learned that she needed a lung transplant or she would die within a few years. Thankfully, the author had a large, supportive family behind her as she tried to reconcile her illness with her passion for singing. Throughout the book, she describes not only herself, but her family members (she has 10 siblings) in a relatable fashion. Even though there are a lot of characters, they are all sufficiently fleshed out. Tillemann-Dick ably shows the grueling process of trying to get healthy, keeping the tone upbeat while effectively demonstrating the gravity of the situation. As she was healing, she fell in love; while her relationship was far from perfect, it was enduring and necessary to her recovery. As the narrative ends, readers see that the author has achieved the kind of greatness she was seeking: "I've fallen in love, I've gotten very sick, and I've worked more than I ever knew was possible....Even the great divas die. But like a timeless melody, true greatness never does." An uplifting story of overcoming significant odds to fulfill a dream.

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