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.

Backstage a young Callas glances at her evolving self…..love this foto. But I wonder who is the foto on the table in front? Looks like Tebaldi or Simoniato? Why?

The eyes and voice of this man slay me. How friendly and handsome he is.

A true Verdi baritone, one of the absolute rarest. Here vivid and authentic in Verdi’s Macbeth.

The youngest shot I have ever seen of this giant. Mario Del Monaco- Here at his first Tosca I believe in Parma.

The perfect Gerard. Ettore Bastianini.

The chocolate deep voice of bass Cesare Siepi here elegant and athletic in Don Giovanni.

George London supremely expressive Boris.

Boris Christoff pensive and so real it seems as the King of Spain in Don Carlo.

Anita Cerquetti as Norma.

Renata Scotto IS butterfly.

The one and only Ebe Stignani.

and finally two new fotos of the gorgeous towering voice of Renata Tebaldi….. very Hollywoodiana in the first early still, and later fully evolved and fabulous as well, in floating Goddess style.

To hear her voice again gives me great emotion. To see how beautiful she is and remained until the last difficult days. To hear her speak of her momma and her early life. To hear her say to everyone that Tina was the second greatest gift after her voice and family of course, that God ever gave her, touches me greatly. Tina is one of kind and I adore her.

To hear about Toscanini and Del Monaco, her debut in Trieste and her mentioning Quadri, a great maestro with whom I did AIDA in Colorado. What he had forgotten most need to learn.

The little clip of her towering Butterfly of prodigious warmth and the perfect amplitude, it is all just a gift.

I had not seen this before. Paolo Limiti obviously adores her, he can barely stay in his own seat.

How very lovely to spend a little time with this great lady again.

I miss you so much. What a little hello.

This and Magda in one week.

I know what I will give thanks for on Sunday.

It makes such sense. Il Tabarro. Petrella and Gobbi ….have to find the tenor’s name.

Look at this lion on stage. the creation, the presence, the follow through, unapologetic dimension, love him so much. Gian Giacomo Guelfi in Nabucco. Thunder and lightening seem tame next to him.

Look how pretty and modern and ahead of her times. the real Sarah Bernhardt.

My first Mario Cavaradossi….. the impossibly handsome and beautiful voiced Giacomo Aragall…… is he real? How beautiful.

The very young, really handsome and great gentleman, Giuseppe Di Stefano.

Guess who? Stands out even then, first tall lad on the left with great shoulders and eyes. A young God, Franco Corelli.

She is so amazing. I called to tell her how much I enjoyed the filmetto of hers and the little piece of Francesca that she illuminated so gorgeously with her voice and expression at an appearance just recently and we had a fabulous conversation. I will never forget what she said….. she is a beacon.

We talked a bit about the “ballerina” size required of so many voices today….. and she said pay no mind to any talk, or current fads, keep your mind on the important things. The music, and the expression and the privilege you have in being able to serve that. She makes me cry.

“I take your arm and I hold on to it tightly, tightly, and when you sing, we are together upon that stage. I follow you and with a heart full of support, I pray God give you strength and courage, the music is everything….. Bocca lupo in all you do…..sono con te!”

How do you say thank you for something like what she just said. You don’t. You just renew your spirit, keep it humble, and keep on going.

Thank you dear and gracious Lord for so great an artist as this. To take time to impart words of support and encouragement, clarity about certain questions I asked. Admonishments to me about becoming distracted, and renewed concentration, “when you can do what you do, you must!” Aware that the art is entrusted to us, generation to generation and is not some “OLD” or “ludicrous” art but a breathing and amazingly alive means of expression even in today’s artificial times. Not to be insulted by it’s own servants, but cherished and transfigured by our own life histories and sounds and truth, and then, eventually, passed on to others.

And for her shining humanity….. a beacon of truth, and example, and God’s infinite beauty.

Thank you for this great conversation……. I needed it.

So much I would love to hold my Mother and tell her I love her and thank her. Four years ago today.

In her dreams, for three nights, she dreams of a white piece of paper with three lines and then a voice tells her to sing this aria, with the words “Paolo, datemi pace,,,,”. She says magnificently, “I must obey the voice….. and sing this great and powerful phrase from Fracesca Di Rimini….even if it not as I would have done years ago….”

Then she gives at 99 years old a perfect example….. of a heart beating in music full of love for the art, the music and for something more important than ourselves…. my god, thank you for this most amazing servant of yours who continues to astound and beguile and help bring us to the truth.

TRANSLATION: as best I can make out.

“I must give an explanation why I am here tonight in this stupenda room to sing? I must explain why I am here. For three nights I had a strange dream. A piece of white paper, with three black lines.
The first night only this.

The second night immediately again I see the same piece of paper with these words, that I couldn’t see, with a voice that said, “YOU MUST DO THIS!”.

I come to the third night, this same voice, this same paper, comes again to me, and then the voice says, “Remember, you must do this!” and I see the music of Francesca (da Rimini)…. this is a little bit but really in it is all of Francesca.

I thought for a moment and I said “I would adore to do this, but I do not sing anymore…. it’s not as if I am singing all the time…. I don’t sing anymore…. however this voice insists, “YOU must do this, it could be of service to someone…. or something”, exactly what I do not know….. but something, supernatural I am certain,how could it not be, that I thought the third night, rising from sleep, I said, “Paolo, datemi pace….”

Then I understood, it was truly this one unique phrase of Francesca di Rimini, that I loved immensely…. that I found myself in the same position on the couch, that I began little by little to sing softly the stupendous words….”Paolo, datemi pace..”

Then I said, I will do it….I will obey…. because in this case I must obey, this voice that perhaps will not come again to me… and so I ask your pardon, if I today give myself permission to present myself to you all to sing this one phrase from Francesca da Rimini….

It will be what it will be…. but I do with all my heart and for me thanks to God for all that my life that I have known, I ask only to excuse me if it is not like it was….. before…..ten years before……”
(when she was 88!)

I got off the internet and called her immediately to give thanks, what a great and gracious lady and an unforgettable “life force” in the service of music. Truth in music.