Mirella Freni: money laundress?
Soprano Mirella Freni is under investigation by the Bologna District Attorney’s office of Bologna for money laundering and exportation of money abroad in connection with the BER bank. The artist from Modena, 76, will be heard by the magistrates in the next few days to clarify her position, now that the DA Antonella Scandellari has sent her a notice of the closing of the investigations. The singer has so far denied any wrongdoing. (Thanks to Our Own Ercole Farnese for the tip!) [Corriere della Sera]
Her defense will run somewhere along these lines:
I wonder if there will be a Signore Scarpia among her interrogators.
Leeeeeeeeve meeeeeRELLLLLLLLLa alOHHHHHHHHHHHHHne!!!!
Why are they pursuing great divas for white collar crimes when other divas are committing the greatest sin of omitting trills?
Philistines!
Ghiaurov’s first wife’s name was Zlatina. We used to call her Zlut for short.
Oh mon dieu, Mirella,
Vous me donnerez du courage; Vous me protégerez, Seigneur!
One would have thought that this would have all come out in the wash at the time she was still singing Madame Sans-Gene, so obvious that role, a giveaway.
One would also think it more important to rid the country of that modern day Caligula then to persecute a little old nonna who has given untold thousands a bit of pleasure and beauty in their lives.
At any rate, it is all Pavarotti’s fault: he got the lion’s share of the milk from that wetnurse they shared back in their mutual infancy.