Seven decades of difference in age doesn’t stand in the way of a charming interview between Marta Eggerth and Zachary Woolfe on the occasion of her viewing her 1932 film Das Blaue vom Himmel for the very first time. (Prepare to be verklempt.) [New York Observer]
La Cieca invites the cher public to act as blue-ribbon panel in selecting the singers to be included in the “Greatest Diva” study. Voting after the jump. Read more »
La Cieca was delighted, amused and infuriated (three of her favorite emotions) when she read yet another wonderful piece over at The Awl yesterday, a statistical analysis determining The Greatest Diva of the Past 25 Years. This treatise, by one Jay Caspian Kang, was limited in scope to ladies inhabiting the realm of popular music, so your doyenne was inspired to have a similar study done in our own field of Opera Diva. Now, in order to get the scientific ball rolling, she’s going to seek your assistance, cher public. Read more »
Legendary diva Martina Arroyo chats with Our Own JJ about learning, teaching and The Odd Couple. [New York Post]
Our Own JJ (not pictured) interviews the legendary Charles Busch and goes on to muse on drag (not in drag, on drag) at the new joint venture Thirteen/Capital.
An elegantly beturbaned Miss Leontyne Price offers an object lesson in The Art of the Diva Interview.
You can pull the fork out of Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh, because, believe it or not, she’s still not done. How, you ask, can that be? Well, according to an email received by La Cieca this morning, In the tradition of many great divas who pack it in, only to unpack, Madame Vera emerged from retirement last summer for a recital at Tanglewood at the invitation of Maestro James Levine. Her artistry was greeted with the kind of ecstatic response that only encourages divas of a certain age. Thus emboldened, the legendary “traumatic soprano” indulged a whim (and who better to [...]
The scene: a university voice studio’s master class. The guest: Carol Vaness. The diva/pedagogue opines that a young singer is “pressing on the sound.” Y.S.: [thinks for a moment] You know, you’re right! C.V.: [unsmiling] Of course I’m right. I’m famous.
Cher Public