Bess, is you our woman now?

Or, to put it another way, could this soprano be what the Met needs for Roberto Devereux?


While you ponder the future, you can enjoy the past: the final act of Verdi's Macbeth is now on Unnatural Acts of Opera.

Joyce DiDonato in Maria Stuarda

La DiDonato is joined here by Gabriele Fontana and Eric Cutler in this 2005 video.

Frocked up

UPDATED: Now with even more operatic tackiness!


A sampling of Diva Dress Disasters submitted by the cher public.Seen worse disasters? Email La Cieca!

Singing, actress

For those of you who were stumped by Lady Number Six, here's the mysterious dame herself, Galina Vishnevskaya, in a more accustomed version of Lady Macbeth, the 1966 film by Mikhail Shapiro of Katerina Izmailova.


The great diva returned to the screen only last year in Alexandra (directed by Alexander Sokurov), playing an elderly woman who makes the trek to Chechnya to visit her grandson, who has been stationed there as a soldier for seven years.

Ferocious!

The unusual and undreamed-of videos just keep popping up on YouTube. Here's a scene from Norma with Elinor Ross and Mario del Monaco!

No Sleep 'Til Sunnyside

Not a whole lot of news on matters operatic in the past couple of days, so La Cieca has decided a competitive quiz is in order. The clip below is the "Sleepwalking Scene" from Verdi's Macbeth divided among 14 sopranos and mezzo-sopranos. All you have to do is name the 14 singers in the correct order. (La Cieca has decided to be merciful this time and omit overly obscure singers. Each singer in this clip is or was internationally famous. However, La Cieca cautions you that not all these singers included Lady Macbeth in their onstage repertoire.)


When you believe you know all 14 voices, send your answer to lacieca@parterre.com. First correct answer will receive a gift certificate from amazon.com. Should there be no entry with all 14 correct answers by midnight on Tuesday, January 29, La Cieca will choose randomly among the entries with the highest number of correct answers.

In the meantime, please feel free to discuss and make wild guesses in the comments section.

UPDATE: As of Monday evening, La Cieca has not declared a winner. There is a tie for first place with two entries each naming 13 out of 14 correctly. Interestingly, they both mistake the same Lady. For those of you who might want to do a little more intensive study of the Ladies (and La Cieca doesn't mean only the lesbians in the audience!), here's the mp3 to download.

Ach! Hilde, weißt du, daß wir Ratten im Keller haben?

Weird sister

The inimitable, irrepressible Miss Tallulah Bankhead once more graces the studio of Unnatural Acts of Opera with a guest appearance on Apocryphal Opera Anecdote Theater. The legendary stage star joins Our Own La Cieca and Miss Cratchitt to perform a pair of scenes from Shakespeare's Macbeth. The main event, of course, is the second and third acts of Verdi's operatic version of the Scottish Tragedy, starring Shirley Verrett, Piero Cappuccilli, Nicolai Ghiaurov and Franco Tagliavini. Conducting this performance from La Scala on December 7, 1975 is Claudio Abbado.

Don't want to be a prima donna, donna, donna

"Believe you me, there is a lot of drama in the opera world, and you have to rise above it .... I really don't get into the drama. ... I don't cause scandals and I don't throw fits. For me, the thing to be admired is to be on time, be prepared and to give it 100 percent." That's Jennifer Larmore speaking "with a faint Southern accent" to The Cincinnati Enquirer. The mezzo firmly asserts "she's not a diva" in the very first paragraph of the piece.

Interestingly, there are lots of numbers in this article -- such as 500 (times Larmore claims to have sung Rosina), 90 (pounds she has lost in the past four years since gall bladder surgery) and, alas, 15 (top ticket price, in dollars, for her recital tonight University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; students get in free). La Cieca will to the reader to explain why, sometimes at least, it may better to be a diva after all.

This is my belief, in brief

That grand old man of music André Previn is writing another opera, following up on the clamorous success of 1998's A Streetcar Named Desire. The commission for Houston Grand Opera is Brief Encounter, based on Noel Coward's one-act play Still Life as well as the screenplay for the eponymous film. (First Tennessee Williams, then Noel Coward ... surely a collaboration with Jean Genet is the next logical step!) Well, anyway, the premiere of Brief Encounter, most likely omitting the above imagery, is set for May of 2009. Too long a wait, you say? Well, in the meantime, sit back and enjoy an excerpt from Previn's one universally recognized masterpiece.

Lady Be Good

La Cieca is happy to announce a special performance to mark the return from exile of Unnatural Acts of Opera. Our program is a reprise of the first opera ever podcast on this site, Verdi's Macbeth featuring Shirley Verrett and Piero Cappuccilli. Claudio Abbado conducts the orchestra and chorus of La Scala on December 7, 1975.

Front burner

A legendary Lulu crosses over.

Wait 'til you've refined it

A controversial new production of Massenet's erotically-tinged opera Manon featuring "it girl" soprano Anna Netrebko opened last night in....

Oh, all right. Obviously that's not our Anna. In fact it's ecdysiast Dita Von Teese performing her signature "cocktail glass" strip. The model and performer (whose adorably mousy real name is Heather Sweet) has accepted an invitation to attend Vienna's prestigious Opera Ball later this month as the special guest Austrian businessman Richard Lugner. The 75-year-old real estate and construction mogul takes a celebrity to the glamorous gala every year.

Previous guests of "Mörtel" Lugner have included Joan Collins (1993), Ivana Trump (1994), Sophia Loren (1995), Grace Jones (1996), Sarah, Duchess of York (1997), Raquel Welch (1998), Faye Dunaway (1999), Jacqueline Bisset (2000), Farrah Fawcett (2001), Claudia Cardinale (2002), Pamela Anderson (2003), Andie MacDowell (2004), Geri Halliwell (2005), Carmen Electra (2006) and Paris Hilton (2007).

La Von Teese is known as a retro fashion muse and was briefly married to goth rocker Marilyn Manson.

Kiri gets it right

Shirley, no jest!

La Cieca hears that the one and only Miss Shirley Verrett will grace the airwaves this afternoon as an intermission guest during the broadcast of Macbeth.

Do join La Cieca in the comments section of this posting to enjoy this afternoon's broadcast -- especially the words of La Verrett!

Whatever happened to Katia Ricciarelli?

In fact, she became Peggy Lee.

Breakthrough of the century for artistic administrators

The diva hazard bonus: a special above-and-beyond payoff to those who have patiently put up with a colleague's diva antics. La Cieca cannot find any official instance of this bonus in the world of opera, but surely it's an incredible idea.

... Kim Cattrall was such a diva to work with on the Sex and the City movie that her costars are getting a secret bonus for dealing with Kim's prima donna behavior.

An insider tells Star, "Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon are getting a 'hush-hush' bonus for not being divas during filming and as a thank-you for putting up with Kim."

Natalie Déshabillée

La Dessay rehearses the "bathtub scene" from Manon.

Sorry, folks, the video is no longer available for embedding at the request of the uploader, Parsifal1979. You can view it, however, on the YouTube site.

Forced to bend her soul to a sordid role

Pint-sized Broadway dynamo Kristen Chenoweth will make her fully-staged role debut as Cunegonde in Candide at the English National Opera this summer. The Bernstein/Wilbur, Latouche, Parker, Hellman, Sondheim, Bernstein & Wheeler operetta will be performed in the Robert Carsen production previously seen at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris and La Scala, Milan. Performances begin June 23 for a 13-performance run.

According to The Stage, "popular tenor" Toby Spence will take on the title role, with other casting TBA. By an odd coincidence, the ENO are presenting a concert only a few weeks prior to this Candide starring a diva some might consider "dream casting" as The Old Lady. La Cieca supposes we should just dream on!

And will someone please wake La Cieca when the New York City Opera gets around to announcing the casting for their revival of the creaky Harold Prince staging of Candide?

Golden girl

Ageless Reri Grist sings "Somewhere" in a rehearsal for the 19th Annual Gypsy of the Year Competition, celebrated earlier this month. La Grist introduced this song 50 seasons ago when West Side Story premiered on Broadway. She is joined in this clip by Chita Rivera, Carol Lawrence and other members of the original company.

Another song of the season

A concert in Vienna, 2006.

Legends!

"Starring Leona Mitchell (star of the Metropolitan Opera and other major opera houses around the world) and Sarah Rice (the original Johanna in SWEENEY TODD on Broadway), Leona & Sarah, Songs for the Heart & Soul. These two friends join their thrilling voices in an evening of songs, melodie, chanson and an aria or two, with a little gospel/inspirational thrown in for good measure, to uplift the heart and warm the winter-weary spirit. Come be transported and bask in the musical sunshine!

"BCD concerts have been called 'Life-affirming', 'show-stopping', 'Like Babette's feast for the ear' by reviewers and audience members lucky enough to have seen our previous performances. Don't miss out on this heartbreakingly beautiful and thrilling concert."

Weathers man

A reader writes...

Dear La Cieca:

I found your site through a Google search because I am trying to track down contact information for Felicia Weathers. So imagine my pleasure at the clip of "Up, Up and Away"!

In 1969 I had the good fortune to play "Trouble" to Felicia Weathers' "Cio-Cio San" in a production of "Madama Butterfly" at Memphis State University.

I've lost contact with Ms. Weathers and am hoping that, with your encyclopedic knowledge [flattery will get you everywhere - Ed.], you might have a lead or a suggestion as to how I might find her.

I know that she's been in Germany for many years, but I have had no luck in finding contact information or an agent listing. I've tapped numerous resources, including contacts here in Los Angeles and at the Met, but to no avail.

Any assistance you might be able to provide would be greatly ppreciated.

So, how about it, readers? If you have contact information for Ms. Weathers, please email it to La Cieca, who will forward it to The Reader Formerly Known as Trouble.

Don't cry for me, Pensacola

Leocadia Begbick (in the person of Patti Lupone, no less) issues small craft warnings for the Gulf coast. (Just a quick clip from the Mahagonny telecast scheduled for tonight at 9 PM on PBS. Check your local listings, obviously.)


And, of course it's old news by now, but la Lupone will be back on Broadway this March reprising her already classic Mama Rose.

Trouser snake

Maite Beaumont created a sensation as Sesto in Lyric Opera of Chicago's recent Giulio Cesare. She's seen and heard here as Cherubino.

Who can that attractive girl be?

La Cieca would never have thought this would work. And yet...

Surely you chest!

And don't call her Shirley! It's the one and only Ruby Hinds singing the cabaletta to "O mio Fernando" at a tribute to Doris Roberts (yeah, go figure) in Beverly Hills.

Runners-up and their lilting melodies

Excellent lines from some of the many, many "Season Brochures" that didn't make the final five.

Soprano Montserrat Caballe stars as Jeanette, a virginal pony who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious duck. Montserrat Caballe is perhaps best known from TV's Sex & The City where she sang the lilting melody "My Way."

Soprano Diana Damrau stars as Alice, a virginal mortar and pestle who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious desk accessory. Diana Damrau is perhaps best known from TV's The West Wing where she sang the lilting melody "Oops I Did It Again."

Soprano Rosa Ponselle stars as Giuletta, a virginal cattle prod who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious cigar. Rosa Ponselle is perhaps best known from TV's Heroes where she sang the lilting melody "Without a Song."

Soprano Joan Sutherland stars as Hortensia, a virginal abbess who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious food processor. Joan Sutherland is perhaps best known from TV's Miami Vice where she sang the lilting melody "Vesti la giubba."

Dame Gwyneth Jones is perhaps best known from TV's The Life Of Riley where she sang the lilting melody "The Leader Of The Pack."

Hildegard Behrens is perhaps best known from TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer where she sang the lilting melody "How much is that doggy in the window?"

Zinka Milanov is perhaps best known from TV's Everybody Loves Raymond where she sang the lilting melody "Hava Negila."

Victoria de los Angeles is perhaps best known from TV's Fear Factor where she sang the lilting melody "Let's hear it for the boy."

Aprile Millo is perhaps best known from TV's Nanny and the Professor where she sang the lilting melody "I Will Survive."

June Anderson is perhaps best known from TV's Leave It To Beaver where she sang the lilting melody "Love Don't Live Here Anymore."

Ljuba Weltisch is perhaps best known from TV's The Gong Show where she sang the lilting melody "Oompa Loompa Doopity Do."

Dawn Upshaw is perhaps best known from TV's So Graham Norton where she sang the lilting melody "It Sucks to be Me."

Birgit Nilsson is perhaps best known from TV's Grey's Anatomy where she sang the lilting melody "Glitter and be Gay."

Maria Callas is perhaps best known from TV's The Simpsons where she sang the lilting melody "We wish you a Merry Christmas."

Galina Gorchakova is perhaps best known from TV's Ugly Betty where she sang the lilting melody "Super Trouper".

Christine Brewer is perhaps best known from TV's Brothers and Sisters where she sang the lilting melody "Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong."

Leonie Rysanek is perhaps best known from TV's Wife Swap where she sang the lilting melody "Sexy Back."

Cheryl Studer is perhaps best known from TV's My Name is Earl where she sang the lilting melody "Let the Bright Seraphim."

Mara Zampieri is perhaps best known from TV's American Gladiators where she sang the lilting melody "Get your tongue out of my mouth, I am kissing you goodbye."

I love Luisa

After you enjoy tomorrow's Black Friday shopping spree at amazon.com, settle back for a little operatic comfort food: classic Turkey Tetrazzini.

• 6 tablespoons butter
  
• 1/2 pound mushrooms thinly sliced
  
• 1 tablespoon Madeira
  
• 4 tablespoons flour
  
• 1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
  
• 2 to 3 cups cooked turkey, cut into 3/4-inch dice
  
• 1/2 pound linguine cooked to al dente stage
  
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese mixed with 2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
  
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet. When the foaming subsides, add the mushrooms and saute, over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes until the mushrooms have absorbed the butter and are tender. Stir in the Madeira and evaporate over high heat.

In another saucepan heat 3 tablespoons of butter. When foaming subsides, stir in the flour and cook for a minute. Whisk in the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cook, over low heat, for about 5 minutes or until thickened. Remove sauce from heat and stir in the cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Fold in the mushrooms and turkey.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 1 1/2 quart casserole. Layer half of pasta, half of mushroom and turkey mixture and repeat with pasta and turkey mushroom mix. Scatter Parmesan and bread crumbs over the top and dot with remaining tablespoon of butter. Heat for 45 minutes or until heated through, sauce is bubbling and top is browning. If you wish, slide casserole under the broiler for a moment to brown the top.

Recipe from Food Network.

Musa! Diva! Sirena!

La Cieca's all-time favorite soprano, Renata Scotto, in one of her greatest roles, Adriana Lecouvreur -- if you can think of an operatic experience to rival it, La Cieca hopes you will let her know what you're having! La Scotto is heard in her first Adriana Lecouvreur, from San Francisco in 1977, partnered by Elena Obraztsova , Giacomo Aragall and Giuseppe Taddei under the baton of Gianandrea Gavazzeni. The first act of the Cilea weepy is the centerpiece of the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera, but is La Cieca satisfied? Hardly! Bonus features include rare early recordings of Scotto singing Bellini arias (I Capuleti e i Montecchi and I puritani) and your doyenne's admittedly somewhat vague reminiscences of the glory that was San Francisco gay life in the seventies.

Good diva

"And so for you opera trivia lovers out there, you'll be interested to know that the outfit 'Octavian' was wearing for the 2007 Tucker Gala's 'Presentation of the Rose' was actually the outfit the 'Sophie' wore to the theater that night! Diana [Damrau] actually gave me the clothes off her back, right down to her shoes, and THAT, ladies and gentlemen, was my first outfit!"

That's Joyce DiDonato blogging, and this opera trivia lover will check in daily for further updates. The lady writes as well as she sings!

No, but thanks for axing

Playbill Arts reports more intrigue out of San Francisco: Natalie Dessay will not do the Mary Zimmerman production of Lucia di Lammermoor there next summer as originally announced. Oh, don't worry, la Dessay will indeed sing the role, but the SFO is substituting a Graham Vick staging, citing "the physical dimensions of the [Metropolitan Opera] production and extensive rebuilding required to adapt the sets for the War Memorial Opera House." Ah, yes, of course. The extensive rebuilding, that's it.

Enter Madame

One of La Cieca's intricate network of spies has been keeping his ear to the ground in San Francisco where a supernumerary friend whispered to him that "there was concern amongst the SFO backstage ranks that since La Gheorghiu had yet to show up for any La rondine rehearsals, that she may go the route of of her recent Lyric Opera contretemps and be dismissed as a no-show."

Signor Spy assured his super friend that Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna "were merely enjoying a personal idyll in NYC ... that once Mr. Alagna finished up with Pinkerton last Saturday, she (or both) would probably be winging to the West Coast to keep the SFO commitment." He then passed along to La Cieca a report on the soprano's "first rehearsal appearance."

UPDATE: Well, now it seems our original spy has reconsidered the hearsay he shared earlier and asked that the "Super" quotes be removed. Fair enough, La Cieca thinks, since she's not entirely clear on whether Super gave Spy carte blanche to share the "insights" in the first place.

La Cieca does not plan on making a habit of putting the toothpaste back in the tube, but this appears to be a special case. Okay with you, cher public?

Jessye is dressy, but Curtis is pertest

Curtis Rayam as Arnalta in L'incoronazione di Poppea, directed by René Jacobs.

The solution to the "Ernani involami" quiz

All right, cher public, now that the competion is closed, La Cieca will reveal the 20 singers performing the composite "Ernani involami." First, you might want to listen to the original clip one more time. Now, ready? Here are our 20 divas, pictured and named. Just click on the YouTube clip to play.

Happy birthday Barbara Cook!

The legendary lady of musical theater and popular song is 80 years old today!


Ms. Cook celebrates this milestone next month on November 19 and 20 when she appears as a guest artist with the New York Philharmonic.

Santuzza offers a prayer of thanks

"Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense," a specialist on Catholic canon law has explained.

The expert was speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle in the wake of a scandal involving San Francisco's Archbishop George Niederauer and the activist group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. On October 7, Niedarauer delivered the Eucharist to "two men in heavy makeup and nuns' habits."

The Archbishop almost immediately issued a letter of apology to Catholics, but not soon enough to prevent Fox News screaming head Bill O'Reilly from grabbing the opportunity to sneer at San Francisco's "far-left secular progressives who despise the military, traditional values and religion."

Following up on the story, the Chronicle spoke to Rev. Jim Bretzke, professor of moral theology at University of San Francisco, a Jesuit Catholic university.

"The general sacramental principle is that you don't deny the sacrament to someone who requests it," Bretzke explained. "The second principle is that you cannot give communion to someone who has been excommunicated . . . .

"While I can see Bill O'Reilly and others might be offended, the sisters do not meet the criteria the church has for denying Communion. Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense."

Norma Rai

Culminating the month-long Maria Callas mania over at Rai 3, this Saturday the Italian radio network will broadcast a newly restored version ("il cui audio verrà restaurato per l'occasione") of the celebrated June 29, 1955 concert of Bellini's Norma.

Co-starring with La Divina are Mario del Monaco and Ebe Stignani, under the baton of Tullio Serafin. That broadcast should begin at 2:30 PM New York time; everyone else will have to puzzle it out from there.

While this Norma is hardly an "lost performance," currently available dubs of the broadcast are of frustratingly poor quality. Some are pitched incorrectly; others substitute bits of other performances from Callas commercial recordings or other sources. If this Saturday broadcast indeed presents a complete and cleaned-up version, joy will indeed be unconfined.

Oh, and here's a direct link to the Rai 3 player. (La Cieca thanks dear Herman Melville for both the tip and the headline.)

Pop-top frocks

New York-based artist Nikos Floros has created an artistic tribute to La Divina herself from 20 thousand beer and soft drink cans for an art exhibition in Athens.

The exhibition includes a sculptural gown inspired by Maria Callas's costume for Iphigénie en Tauride featuring ring-pulls that become a lace-like collar. A kimono sculpture is inspired by Madama Butterfly.


"Today’s temples are supermarkets, malls and department stores," the artist says. "That's where you exist."

Over a period of five years, Floros purchased more than 200,000 aluminium cans of soft drinks and beer and turned them into large-scale sculptures dedicated to La Divina’s spirit, among other things.

"Opera Sculptured Costumes" is on display at the National Bank of Greece’s Melas Mansion through October 19.

We'll need no castles in Spain

Autumn in New York means many things to many people. To some, it's glittering crowds and shimmering clouds in canyons of steel; others reflect upon upon jaded roués and gay divorcées who lunch at the Ritz. To singers it's the height of the allergy and cancellation season.

But to us, the most echt of all opera lovers, autumn in New York heralds the announcement of "The F. Paul Driscoll Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence." Luminaries receiving this accolade for 2007 include Stephanie Blythe, Olga Borodina, Thomas Hampson, Julius Rudel and "retired soprano legend" Leontyne Price.

TFPDAFOAITFOE, or, to use its perhaps less amusing but certainly cumbersome original title "The Opera News Awards," will hold its annual gala reception and dinner at the Hotel Pierre in New York City on Thursday, January 24, 2008. In what La Cieca applauds as a heart-warming effort at outreach to the lesbian community, the ceremony will boast Sigourney Weaver (above) and Susan Graham (not pictured) as co-hostpersons.

Whatever happened to Marwdew Czgowchwz?

Ever since everyone's favorite apocryphal diva (with the possible minority exception of Lena Geyer), the oracular Oltrano herself, Marwdew Czgowchwz, vanished across the ocean at a time (time out of mind) that was somehow both 1956 and 1975 and yet neither, La Cieca, like all the rest of you, has reread her first copy of James McCourt's novel to tatters, purchased the sempiternally-awaited reissue, and wondered, wondered... well, after all, what's left for her?

Cher public, we're about to find out. This month, Turtle Point Press releases Now Voyagers: Some Divisions of the Saga of Mawrdew Czgowchwz, Oltrano, Authenticated by Persons Represented Therein, Book One: The Night Sea Journey. This flamboyant followup tells the story of the charged atmosphere surrounding the legendary diva (and possible CIA agent) turned psychoanalyst. According to Publishers Weekly, the novel

resurrects the literary, musical and gay scene of 1950s New York. About half relates to Czgowchwz's 1956 trip across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary with her consort, Jacob Beltane, to Ireland, where she is to star in Pilgrim Soul, a Douglas Sirk–like movie about the Irish revolt of 1916. Much of the rest relates to the Gotham-centered peregrinations of Mawrdew's friend, the gay poet S.D.J. Fitzjames O'Maurigan .... The most stylistically astonishing chapters are intermezzos of conversation caught on the wing at Everard's Bath house, the book's pre-Stonewall place to meet and greet in gay New York.

This fall's must-read is now on sale at Amazon.com.

Marked Down Woman

La Cieca's old, old, old friend and role model Charles Busch returns to the boards this month in the New York stage premiere of one of his greatest film triumphs, the eponymous matriarch of Die Mommie Die. Busch (who is of course the author as well) stars as Angela Arden, a legendary screen chanteuse bedeviled by adultery, incest, blackmail, murder and the servant problem.

The play is a send-up of those 1960s horror films (sorry, "psychological thrillers") like Dead Ringer and I Saw What You Did, with the added twist that the plot is "borrowed" from the Oresteia. In other words, this is the funniest version of Elektra you're ever likely to see.

Die Mommie Die opens at New World Stages for a limited run beginning October 10, and for an even more limited time you can purchase tickets for this not-to-be-missed theatrical event for only $35.00! To take advantage of this near-felonious discount, Click Here and enter code DMTMC35. You can also phone 212-239-6200 and mention code DMTMC35.

Mood swings

Only rarely can a writer inspire first violent agreement and then equally fervent disbelief in the space of a couple of short paragraphs, but Kyle MacMillan of the Denver Post can now claim credit for La Cieca's current bipolarity:

Renée Fleming just might be the the world's most undivalike diva. [well, duh!]

Much like, say, Audrey Hepburn, the 48-year-old soprano manages to gracefully balance sophistication and poise with an appealing sense of grounded genuineness. [whaaaaaa...?]

The winner and new diva

La Cieca wasn't "in the house" for the Lucia prima last night like so many of her colleagues; instead she hosted perhaps the most popular of all her online chats thus far. Approximately 120 of you cher public logged in at some point during the night, with 75 or so on average staying for the long haul. Say what you will about Natalie