Don"t look to this book--a genuine autobiography, with no taint of the ghostwriter"s art--for dirt and gossip, for hints on how best to interpret such bel canto roles as the heroine of Donizetti"s Lucia di Lammermoor, or for help with developing a bel canto technique of one"s own. The Autobiography of Joan Sutherland is a book for the true fans of the great Australian prima donna, one of the finest sopranos of all time, and one of the most hard-working and professional singers to appear in recent decades. Sutherland primarily chronicles her life as an operatic diva; she skips rather quickly through her childhood, even dealing with the trauma of her father"s death on her 6th birthday in a single tight-lipped paragraph. You may find many more details than you need on her travels and performances, but what shines through is the portrait of a dedicated artist who readily acknowledges what she owes to her colleagues, and most particularly to her husband/coach/conductor, Richard Bonynge. Sutherland recreates a now-legendary time in the history of opera, and she does it with humor and a refreshing lack of pretension.