On this day in 1978 the Metropolitan Opera presented a new production of Massenet’s Thaïs.
To celebrate Valerie Masterson‘s turning 85 tomorrow, Trove Thursday offers a second annual birthday salute to the English soprano.
Sonya Yoncheva’s first-ever Princess Romazov was one of this summer’s casualties but Trove Thursday steps up with a rare 1960 in-house pirate of Giordano’s Fedora starring Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe di Stefano and Tito Gobbi along with a pair of Tebaldi-di Stefano Puccini highlights from the early 1950s.
An old clip, but worth repeating: Gina Lollobrigida plays Lina Cavalieri plays Floria Tosca in La donna più bella del mondo.
BTW, this film is called La donna più bella del mondo, and it’s very loosely suggested by certain events and characters in the life and legend of Lina Cavalieri. (In other words, it’s utter and pure fiction.) But anyway, la Cavalieri is portrayed by Gina Lollbrigida, who certainly lives up to the title “The Most…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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