Author Stephen Tanner has had the good fortune to live and work in several European opera capitals, where he rubbed elbows with superstars and opera folk of just about every ilk. Many had droll lowbrow things to say about their very serious highbrow art — tales of bloopers, blithering idiocy, sex, vanity, jealousy, dirty tricks and just plain cussedness. The opera world, looking out from backstage, is fabulously different and funny. 202 pages. Paperbound.