Bell de jour Bell de jour

Next week the Italian soprano Mariella Devia celebrates her 70th birthday so “Trove Thursday” salutes her with one of her earliest New York successes: Delibes’s Lakmé 

Significant mother Significant mother

Fans of divas who sing 19th and 20th century opera may find themselves searching in vain for CDs to buy with this season’s gift cards, since their idols so rarely put out solo recitals these days.

Maxed out Maxed out

Might Max Emanuel Cencic be the countertenor for people who hate countertenors?

Farinelli from heaven Farinelli from heaven

My impossible wish would be to hear one of the great castrati who dominated opera for most of the 18th century.

Belief in a higher power Belief in a higher power

The behavioral phenomenon of limerence has been described as “an involuntary potentially inspiring state of adoration and attachment to a limerent object involving intrusive and obsessive thoughts, feelings and behaviors from euphoria to despair, contingent on perceived emotional reciprocation.”

Wouldn’t it be funny if that was Vivaldi? Wouldn’t it be funny if that was Vivaldi?

“I’ve lived with mendacity!—Why can’t you live with it? Hell, you got to live with it, there’s nothing else to live with except mendacity, is there?”