Front Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Authors Note -- Contents -- Prelude to a Scream -- Andante Con Moto -- Child Musician -- The Language of Music -- The Power of Song -- Music School, an Experiment in Frustration -- Summer Stock -- Cantabile -- New York -- La Voce -- Il Padrone -- Church Jobs -- Baritone Buddy -- Early New York City Opera -- Hong Kong -- Back on Track -- Italian Restaurants -- Allegro Con Brio -- My First AGMA Contract -- It's Only Rigoletto -- Managements -- Louise -- San Francisco -- Houston -- Auditions: Being Your Own Judge -- NYCO Encore -- Menotti and Barber -- The Spoleto Festivals -- Holland -- Accelerando -- When Opportunities Knock -- It's Always -- Sing, Herman! Sing! -- Mental Preparation -- Amsterdam versus Kennedy Center -- The Smell of the Greasepaint -- Under the Gun -- The Conductor, Il Primo Uomo -- Molto Vivace -- Study, Study, Study -- Riding The Crest -- Relationships: A Rocky Road -- Manon Lescaut in Tulsa -- Los Angeles -- Galvani and Cincy and Sills, Oh My! -- The Pearl Fishers in Milwaukee -- Pagliacci in Beautiful Miami -- And I puritani at NYCO -- Più Grave -- The Glory of Victory, the Agony of Defeat -- Postlude to a Scream: Perdition -- Epilogue -- The Road Taken -- Postscript -- Glossary -- About the Author -- Acknowledgments.