2010. Amazing. New decade begins.
When I was in high school, the thought of the Millennium was of a far off date, from my graduation in 1976 from Hollywood High, I would joke to my friends, “Can you imagine what the world will be like?” Here we are already a decade in. Preparing to bring in the new year, and reflecting as I always do on the events of the year and the friends and family I surround myself with… feeling very blessed.

A couple of dear friends crossed over and I will raise a cup of kindness yet in their memory at Midnight…..dear Dolores Sutton and Geri Tallone.

May God bless this marvelous country, this amazing world we love in. May we learn Peace is the only alternative, and acceptance and compassion is the only solution. May our brave brothers and sisters be brought home safely from the wars, and may all those who cry out in torment and need have a hand that lifts them from their misery. We do hear, we are here, here with you we are.

Thank you for the little victories this year, so important, and for which I am full of gratitude. One step at a time, moving forward, serving music, loving and living and giving.

Happy New Year, and as Tiny Tim intones, “God bless us everyone”……… Amen.

All you need is love by the way. This great youtube video speaks, or rather sings for itself….

“Profonda and Infinita!!”
A little animated Tebaldi wishes Christmas Greetings complete with puppy….and leads you to her superb web site and the amazing news that it looks like New York will get to show it’s love again for the great Tebaldi as the magnificent Tebaldi Exhibit, seen all over the world, finally comes to New York. If only to the hear her blessed voice singing a real Butterfly, “Vogliatemi bene!…” with Carlo Bergonzi…. go see for yourselves the happy, not to be missed news.

Spread the word where you can….. cut and paste these in your browser window….. and go!!!!

As of now, It has been moved to this date 18 or 19 of Settembre to 31 Ottobre 2010. The exhibit will be displayed at the Casa Italiana/ Italiano Institute of Culture on Park Avenue.
Riccardo Muti will speak about Renata and the exhibit at a press conference the 15 Marzo 2010 at the Institute of Italian Culture, among other things I imagine. Please keep checking back at the Tebaldi official web site for further updates on this thrilling news. Be ready to support this great event……

“http://194.184.205.10/tebaldi_natale/tebaldi_natale.html”

and her website…..

“http://www.renatatebaldi.eu/index.php?/it/Latest/”

Nella Repubblica, Italian newspaper…… click….

Repubblica-domenica_1_nov_Tebaldi_parte_prima
Repubblica-domenica_1_nov_Tebaldi_parte_seconda

What a whirlwind little trio of months this has been. Four months ago, and fifty-five pounds fatter, not moving well, back in crisis, and health at risk, life was passing quickly. How merciful God can be. Working hard to push past the stubborn remains of an “isolationist” fat, and winning. The music playing for this period, “Bach’s Sleeper’s Awake….” Planning for the New Year’s, and then so many interesting ideas. Must complete the transformation and then be about my real business, making music.

2010, twenty-ten, amazing. Morning breaks across a wintry New York sky. “Habe dank”, oh yes, “Habe dank!”

The “Elegie of Massenet” with Lynn Harrell, cello and Lucy Arner, piano

“Ne poi krasavitza…” Rachmaninoff with Lynn Harrell, cello and Lucy Arner, piano

“Villa Triste” with accordionist Mary Lou Vetere

“Laggiu del Soledad” from Puccini’s masterpiece, “La Fanciulla del West” with Lucy Arner, piano

Some memories and photos, so thrilled and proud.

Debut: June 1984 Ernani Central Park
Debut: Dec. 3, 1984 in house Met Opera Simon Boccanegra
Ernani, Elvira
Don Carlo, Elisabetta
Aida, Aida
Il Trovatore, Leonora
Otello, Desdemona
Turandot, Liu
Luisa Miller, Luisa
Andrea Chenier, Maddalena
Un Ballo in Maschera, Amelia
I Lombardi, Giselda
Mefistofole, Margarita, Helene
Tosca, Tosca
La Gioconda, Gioconda

Il Trovatore, debut for role at Vienna State Oper 1988
Aida debut for role Salt Lake City, 1980
Ernani debut for role 1982-83 Teatro alla Scala, Milan
Andrea Chenier- debut for role in Santiago Chile, 1985
Mefistofole- debut in role- Lyric Opera of Chicago 1991
I Lombardi- concert staging role debut- Opera Orchestra of New York 1987
Tosca – role debut- Teatro Liecu- Barcelona – 1997
La Forza del Destino- Bavarian State Theater- Munich- 1992
Simon Boccanegra, Don Carlo, Turandot, Luisa Miller, Otello and Un Ballo in Maschera
and Mefistofole as Helene and Margharita, all for the Met Opera for role debut.

Opera Orchestra-
William Tell, Lombardi, La Battaglia di Legnano, Andrea Chenier, Il Pirata
La Wally, Adriana Lecouvreur, La Gioconda, La Fanciulla del West

No need to eat it, it just looks so pretty, I left it to other people, but how very thoughtful….. 25 years……

Beauty of a theater with a thorough and excellent staff, thanks to them. Almost midnight, “mezzanotte”…… tired and very happy…….”Habe dank!!!”

What a genuine pleasure to do this….. So many fabulous people and music, hard to take it all in.

This charming chat with City Arts journalist Eli Jacobson was very enjoyable and he is quite knowledgeable.

Still completely nothing from the Times.

Do they not care about an organization of 40 years doing a great and courageous thing to “tread water” in bad financial oceans?

Little over two weeks and counting. So very thrilled to make music with so wonderful a group that has come to celebrate with me.

http://cityarts.info/?p=419

What might have been if there were never the fight about Sabine Meier? Mrs. Salzburger gave me this type written paper, and I was to report to do a test disc of three or four arias for DG. How I wish that had come to fruition.

How proud I was to return home telling everyone how Von Karajan had accepted my talent and wanted to work with me. They had heard about it and I basked in the afterglow for a little while. I will never forget him or that whole tour of Germany and Austria. Thanks to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf…. He would remember me when Jessye Norman became ill for a Ballo at the end of his life. Mrs. Pavarotti called me saying Rudi Balmer had called her looking for me. He had not forgotten. What music we could have made.

Refining the program, something I love to do. God how I love music.

A dear friend of mine is facing mortality. In the wee small hours of some morning, at God’s calling, they will cross over and stand before God.

Another new friend, a talented man of art and emotion in colors, died suddenly of a heart attack. His portrait of me is a marvel of captured being. I was so honored and proud.

During this week, I have labored keeping emotions in check and preparing for the recital for Eve Queler. I am struck by how much music is my salvation.

Nothing tops it in my life. It is a gift from God. How grateful I am to have it in my life.

In deep gratitude and remembrance, I keep a somber vigil…..

I miss you so much, and the greatness you give to the world. The gold in that throat ….. Bravo, dear Luciano!!!

We are all sending white light and healing energy to you……. we love you.

“Old-school diva Aprile Millo celebrates her 25-year partnership with Opera Orchestra of New York on Nov. 17 with a solo recital at Frederic P. Rose Hall. The soprano, perhaps the world”s foremost stylist of Italian romantic vocal music, always draws an audience of hard-core cognoscenti, who are practically an opera in themselves.” Mr. James Jorden, for the New York Post’s “Fall Arts Preview”.

The world of music lost a great lady yesterday in the crossing of Hildegard Behrens, a voice and person of honest and beautiful intensity. To her millions of fans all over the world, and to her dear friends and family, my prayers, my solace, solidarity and heart are with you.

The iconic, amazing soap opera GUIDING LIGHT filmed it’s last episodes today. Something very important is slipping away as well.

Replacing it, as if it ever could, will be……wait for it…..You guessed it. A GAME show.

Reality TV snuffs out yet another creative outlet. The age of Andy Warhol fifteen minute celebrities who are famous because they are famous, not because of any real gifts, has reached it’s zenith.

Gone today was one of the best of the fun escapes, one of the best of the american telenovelas….. so important in giving a little mirror to our times.

Are they trying to kill them all?

If so why?

There are loyal fans who tune in regularly. In an age of millions of outlets and channels this number of “faithful” to any show is important. Is their any gratitude for all the long suffering fans? Where do they get their pay-off?

AMC, with Susan Lucci is moved to LA and that means OLTL, with super star Erika Slezak and a great cast of real actors, and all my great friends, at least get a bigger studio,for that I am grateful, but AMC moving to LA? Hope they give them a real chance…..

OLTL, GH, ATWT, and GL were my stories, my chance to escape for a little while. With the loss of GL and only because of Crystal Chappell returning to play Carly, I will start watching DAYS OF OUR LIVES…. that is the only good news to be able to follow this great and talented lady to another soap and root for an amazing character brought to life and given magic by this amazing actress.

I am gonna let it shine, folks. For me, that fabulous show deserted by CBS and a Proctor and Gamble label in search of it’s soul, will live on triumphantly.

Just when we need stories of people, and family, and unity and a place to show the “morals” and the “prejudices” of our times played out with their stunning effects and repercussions on so many, they go and literally TANK a show… one of the most involving, one of the best written and one that always took arm loads of awards home. People just recently, in a phenomena really, were starting to tune in to the show that dared to present TWO FEMALES who fell in love slowly, OTALIA the couple Olivia and Natalia, deliciously played by Crystal Chappell and Jessica Leccia.

No gratuitous groping, but a LOVE story that took almost a full year to reveal. Now what?

It was a great civics lesson, a place to learn about people and their interactions in a “safe” environment and fanciful stories to escape the horrors of war and hatred and murder and mayhem that makes up the world today, and that’s just the nightly news!!!. We get that even if we don’t want it.

A place for the lonely to have friends, those in NEED of romance to feel as if they have access to it, and forget for a while “our” difficult lives.

It takes it’s leave in the same month that the last real “non agenda” reporter took his leave. Walter Cronkite actually just collected the stories, the events and TOLD THEM TO US.
No slants, no left wing, right wing propaganda. He got us information and let us make up our own minds. How rare is that…… and how sad it doesn’t exist today. So much real is leaving being replaces by the “reality” show mentality which is all PLANNED.

My good friend, the Princess Verne’s daughter, gorgeous Leslie O’Hara shined on “Guiding Light” in the late sixties and early seventies…. God bless her and them both, lights in my life.

I refuse to say good bye… thank you for your great talent, professionalism, smarts, loyalty, and ability to make us care. The formidable cast and expert crew that offered such fabulous support and all the writers over the years that offered stories of families, and generations of families, like in real life, not just “pretty” and “youth” like most do now. You will never be forgot…..

Job well done. You deserved better than you got, as you gave you all.

Shame on those without imagination that let a 72 year old friend slip away like this.

Guiding Light…… we will keep watch for you, and remember you, and like family, there will always be a place at “our” table for you.

One day this glorious flag will fly over a country that treats everyone the same. Why not today? Click and support if you can. Bigotry and prejudice should face consequences.

“In 29 states, you can be fired solely because you’re gay – and if you’re transgender, that’s 38 states. It’s outrageous, and it’s unacceptable.

The good news is that we are closer than ever to moving the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and providing workplace protections for our entire community.
We have a President who supports a fully-inclusive ENDA. We have legislation in the House that already has more than 150 co-sponsors. And today, for the first time ever, we have a fully-inclusive bill in the Senate! We need your help to continue building support for ENDA on Capitol Hill. Send a message to your senators today – tell them to cosponsor ENDA!

Today, Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) have introduced a fully-inclusive version of ENDA in the Senate that could put an end to this bitter injustice. And there’s more you can do to help.

Last week, HRC launched a national, grassroots campaign called “No Excuses” to demand action from Congress on key issues of equality, including ENDA. Designed to take advantage of the congressional summer recess, when members are in their local offices and meeting with constituents, “No Excuses” gives you the perfect opportunity to meet directly with lawmakers and push for federal legislative change. Sign up to get involved in the “No Excuses” campaign.

Thousands of hardworking lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans have lost their livelihoods simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Right now, we have an opportunity, like never before, to make sure this kind of discrimination is no longer legal.

Your senators need to know that even one more job lost to prejudice is too many. Please, write them now!
Warmly,

Joe Solmonese
President”

Take action today:http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=571

And the postcard with the OONY press insert. Only 1200 or so seats, should be a great way to celebrate!!!!!

News is coming about a thrilling night for me. I am using this summer to try to find a healthy person to go forward, a more acceptable modern version of this old fashioned girl. We have lots of the NEW to keep everyone hopping, I hope to keep an exponent of the “old-fashioned operatic religion” in front of the audience as well. Balance. That is the key challenge and delightful promise.

Hope to see everyone who loves the music and opera as I do and celebrate together.

A really lovely and gentle man. Educated, curious about everyone and everything in the arts, a keen and masterful eye. Just to listen to him sing all by himself, without any backup or instruments. He was bursting with creation and music. A real performer.

Had the “IT” special gift from 5 years old on. Burning talent like that that young. Talent. Off the charts brilliant. A loyal friend to so many people I know. Haunted. Lonely in the non cliche true meaning of that word.

I found him delightful, quick witted, very sexy, no kidding, virile and charismatic. A thoughtful host, a prankster, gleeful and full of fun but never at anyone’s expense. An authentic child of “pan”, open, accepting. Loved his music, enjoyed his mini=operas that were his story telling in videos which transformed an entire medium.

I was so looking forward to his return to a sold out 50 concerts show in London and now…. this.

Silence.

Not from the parasites, no, or the given bad taste in several Los Angeles based nobodies with shows, no they will try and attract the light all they can with stories. But the real fans, the ones that never turned their backs. THOSE fans will turn up in every corner of the world and remember and mourn.

His body transferred from helicopter barely gone three hours made me sob.

Here was this great young man, recluse, alone mostly, inaccessible being roughly transferred to a gurney by a bunch of strangers who probably would never have known him in life. Death an equalizer, now must crack another threshold for the autopsy will be today.

What did do this to him? Sure we want to know. I hope it was a cardiac problem rather than a sensational drug interaction or abuse. Elvis endured that craziness in his final days, and so many other great performers. Wish they knew how much joy they gave above all. How many people grew up listening and enjoying their great talents.

I really do hope their is comfort and solace for his dear family, his young children and his legions of friends and fans. And only oceans of light, gardens of light, and love for him.

Rest in peace and bask in the warmest and greatest spotlight you will ever know, the eternal light of love and peace.