The Hard Bargain Audiobook By David Tucker, Burton Spivak cover art

The Hard Bargain

Music, Medicine, and My Father Richard Tucker, Opera Legend

Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Hard Bargain

By: David Tucker, Burton Spivak
Narrated by: Tom Bauer
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $24.95

Buy for $24.95

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

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 fathers wishes, David wanted to follow his father onto the opera stage.

Their struggle over Davids 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.

Visit the Tucker and Spivak website, thehardbargainbook.com, for more information.

©2018 David Tucker and Burton Spivak (P)2019 David Tucker and Burton Spivak
Entertainment & Celebrities Funny Heartfelt Witty
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup
All stars
Most relevant  
Too repetitive.
poor pronunciation interferes with enjoying the story. Some interesting history of Opera! I couldn't wait for it to end!

interesting but repetitive

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

The reader of this book cannot pronounce ordinary words: indigent, minyan, Verdi. It doesn't matter if it's Italian, Hebrew, or plain English; he butchers it. Over and over. It makes it painful to listen.

On top of his appalling lack of preparation for this reading, he appears to have no idea where to pause at a transition before continuing or how to pace his reading to enhance meaning. He is an absolutely TERRIBLE reader for a potentially interesting and touching book.

This is a reader?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.