First there was Florence Foster Jenkins, and in her wake followed Vassilka Petrova and Sylvia Sawyer. Then came Olive Middleton, and hot upon her sling-back heels Mari Lyn. And then, it seems, the line of high-caliber singing ladies dwindled… until, of course, the recent advent of Angel Taormina.

In fact, La Cieca has unearthed the soprano who was the stopgap in this lacuna, an artist who might best be described as the missing link between Vera Galupe-Borszkh and Mrs. Slocombe. Ladies and gentleman, I give you Amira Kamel.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/c5xaZUUsY68" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

More of Mme. Kamel’s oeuvre may be glimpsed on YouTube.