Call Me Debbie

January 1, 2015

The upfront title sets the genial tone for this frank and confessional biography. Throughout, opera singer Voigt (b. 1960), a self-professed antidiva, maintains a no-holds-barred conversational tone, with a healthy dose of humor--one highlight: a jinxed production of Tristan und Isolde--and infused with her Christian faith. She delivers plenty of dish, from the bizarre antics of Mezzo X and Mezzo Y to her self-lacerating low self-esteem and addictions to food, men (distant and temperamental ones), and alcohol. One weight-loss attempt involved the injection of women's urine--she kids you not. Voigt eventually shed, and kept off, more than 100 pounds through gastric bypass surgery. Not surprising given her career, the singer is prone to high drama. Regarding an abusive boyfriend (and pot farmer): "He was a criminal and I was his willing prisoner." She's equally fluent in therapy-speak, having recently completed a rehab stint in 2013. VERDICT There's plenty here to captivate those who have followed the opera scene; the book also serves as an accessible entry to the world of Richard Wagner and Giacomo Puccini. Multimedia collections should also keep on hand the behind-the-scenes 2012 documentary Wagner's Dream, about the Metropolitan Opera's recent Ring cycle, starring the soprano in her prime. Viewers witness her slipping onstage and then nimbly recovering, which is one of the disarming anecdotes recounted here. [See Prepub Alert, 7/7/14.]--Kent Turner, School Library Journal

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