The Hard Bargain describes in vivid detail and elegant prose the clash of wills between a famous father and his hard-driving middle son. Richard Tucker, the American superstar tenor from the golden age of the Metropolitan Opera, demanded that his son become a surgeon. Rejecting his father's wishes, David wanted to follow his father onto the opera stage. Their struggle over David's future-by turns hilarious and humiliating, wise and loving-is played out in medical and musical venues around the world. The father and son strike a bargain, the hard bargain of the title, which permitted both dreams to flicker for a decade until one (the right one, it turns out) bursts into sustaining flame. This heartfelt memoir about a son's struggle against the looming power of a magnetic father is conveyed in a moving narrative that one reviewer has called "the most dramatic exploration of the private life of a legendary singer in the annals of opera literature."
