So it begins…….

I am very excited.

I have wanted these areas of “ego” to have a meaning. It is always fun having a place for your fans to go to hear behind the scenes excitement, or just to feel a certain closeness or accessiblity with a favorite. That is what, I assume the success of blogs are all about. The thrill of authorship and seeing your words in print.

Here now, one can read in the section called, “The Algonquin Table” the first “stories” from many wonderful and knowledgable people who perform, critique, and are long time fans, my favorite kinds about their memories of the opera. I hope to add to this ongoing and update constantly. For now enjoy, and remember, to make your own opera memories!

These are the first.

Heading to Paris.

Is like being a jewel in a grand velvet box for only the greatest pieces. What a little gioello. This, La Scala, Rome, Rio,,Met of course, and the wonderful old Petruzzelli in Bari before they burned it to the ground. Loved looking out into the theater while singing. You can feel the great souls that have sung there.

This theater too is beautiful and I loved the feeling, the public being absolutely amazing. The Colon di Buenos Aires

or this one, kind of special and “home” to me.

and for fun, a vision of the Old Met…..I wish I had sung there~

Fantastic imagination and a careless, innocence, everything was possible.

Alive.

Tuxedo’s were starched and complete with dress vest,and a bow tied, actually tied….. women wore gowns to dine and The Copacabana and the Stork Club and the nightclub scene thrived in total elegance.

Fast forward, I guess we must…..we “dine” at diners. or restaurants, and if you are lucky, some family dinners. Elegant? The soul of the people retain some of it.

I love this foto, it is slightly risque’, yet the lady is magnificent, so at home in her own skin and so comfortable with self. A perfect Zaza.

Okay, so I follow the soaps. I have been blessed to know a lot of accomplished people on them, in front of the camera and behind.
This one, Genie Francis, along with the glorious Erika Slezak and Tony Geary, and Kassie Depaiva mean the most to me.

“Laura” as played by Genie Francis on GH was the reason I started watching soaps. They married Laura to a blue eyed, Blonde haired Kin Shriner who played “Scotty” and I swear I looked for my Scotty. He was something to behold, and they were young perfection. Then in walked Tony Geary as Luke. Their chemistry was off the charts.

Yes, on that November day in Los Angeles,when they had thirty million people, just as wild as me, tuned in to make it the most watched show in the history of daytime serials- it was also the year I came to New York to join the Met. Nov.16 they married. Nov. 22……. I arrived in New York,in a blistering snow storm. Knowing no one, really.

I watched the daytime lineup growing up….they were like family. God bless this talented actress who filled up many lonely days for a young fresh kid from Los Angeles just out of High School.
She is a fabulous actress and made it look too easy. Finally, as Etta James sang so well, “At Last” she got her Golden Lady for her mantel. You deserve it dear heart. Brava and thanks!

I remember this foto. The paparrazzi had taken a shine to me and camped outside the Della Ville Hotel where I stayed while in Rome.
This was a posed shoot for the Italian periodical OGGI and the guy was great. I had such fun.

Mark Verzatt gave this to me opening night Tosca in Cinncinati…..still howling.

Her life was so devoted to opera. Daughter of a stage manager at Covent Garden, she grew up around it all. Ponselle adored her. Rethberg was in the theater every night she could be to hear her. “Sad and determined, with an easy laugh hard won” is the way her friends describe her. What a voice. Mom always sounded like her to me, and she understood her better than anyone. Love this gift she had, and it was no joke to her.Would they have understood her today?

Sitting in my home, staring up at a sky full of clouds and tempest.

Rained, rains. and will rain…….forecast rains……

I have always loved storms, seemingly the last thing man cannot control. Free.

Rains and rains, clouds flashing by, all very dramatic and arresting.

The rain has left streaking tearstains down the window pane, and multi-colored droplets that bewitch me.

Which drop will beat the other to the bottom of the sill?

Thinking about how much life is made noble by music.

June 9: Mother in Paradise two years now. Too bad they don’t put calls thru…..Hope you feel my missing you.

Listening to Flagstad sing the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde….what a piece of music and what a throat in it’s service.
Voices…..Ponselle, Muzio, Tebaldi.

Why must singers fight for their rightful place front and center?

Opera without voice is a symphony.

Lets be grand for a moment in discourse……let’s say, “The soul of the composer wishes to be expressed, shared if you will…..it takes the direct route by being made accessible by making it a human sound. Each soul that helps the composer share his vision colors it differently. It is so triumphant, really. Sometimes reduced to metronome by lessers.

Not with the greats.

Fascinated,……….., will always beguile me.

On a rainy New York afternoon, bewitched, bothered and happily bewildered by it all.

To sing with a voice like Luciano Pavarotti is lucky of course, but I used to call him that for fun. The best seat in the house. The sound is so beautiful. He has also proved to be one of my favorite people and best of friends.

Love to you, dear heart, great legend. True friend.

When I was a younger gal, around 9 or 10 I met a curley haired boy with a face like a young Ty Power, and we used to dream about being a “team” in music. He drew this to signify the importance of the one note in recordings. The lady is not small. Must she be? They want us to have have the voice of a Stradivarius in the body of a ukelele. Makes me wonder, not all bad, right?

The old saying is, atrociously, that the opera is never over until the fat lady sings. In today’s Hollywood-ization of this splendid, magical world of music and words, they don’t want fat people.
So, I guess, bring a pillow, because it ain’t over till she sings and she ain’t there! LOL. Not a new concept, at best. This too, shall pass…..the mirror. Nothing bad about a little reinvention.
A blog to talk about life, and different views of opera. Mine is decidedly an old fashioned window. oh well.