Confession Time:
Wherein I Tell of
My Former Life upon
the Wicked Stage...
...and all the adventures thereon and therefrom, etc. etc. etc.
I have mentioned before that I want to make miniature of costumes and concert gowns I have worn in performances for dolls I have gathered for that purpose. I have not, however, written in much detail about that particular part of my life so I thought I would do so at this point in the enterprise! Just to keep your attention, here follow some highlights.
I have spoken to Luciano Pavaroti. I have walked in front of Placido Domingo and said "Excuse me!" as he smiled at me—be still, my heart. I have stood backstage waiting to go on—beside José Carreras who was observing the action. Yep, all three of the Three Tenors!
I have used the dressing room formerly occupied by Maria Callas, the famous soprano, at the Ópera de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
But the coup d'étage with which I am most happy? I made my operatic debut as Alisa in the Seattle Opera production in 1972 of Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti the companion to the other woman in the show, who was playing Lucia (the star, natch) Beverly Sills singing about six measures of duet with her at the end of her first aria.
I got to do two more shows with her along the way—La traviata, playing Annina, her maid, tucking her into bed in the last scene of the show—just before she got up to sing her last high note of joy before dying and collapsing in a graceful heap on the floor while her Alfredo, whose name escapes me and I can't put my hand on the program at the moment, stands by helplessly until she falls then rushes to her clasping her now lifeless body to his chest and the curtain comes down—also in Seattle. The last time I worked with Ms. Sills was as the slave girl Myrtale in Thaïs, Ms. Sills playing the lead rôle—of course—as Thaïs, a courtesan who becomes a nun in the last act.
My most exciting performance? I performed the role of Lady Macbeth in Giuseppe Verdi's version of Shake-speare's wonderful play in Mexico at Bellas Artes, their incredible opera house with the Tiffany glass fire curtain—breath-taking. The last of the two performances was broadcast on national TV, but I didn't wonder if they made a recording till very long after the fact—too late to find out, because earth-quakes, etc. They had not appeared to be preparing to record so I just assumed not and let it go.
The only time anything was videoed I was in where one might recognize me, they shot me when I began my bit but panned past me to the star couple making their entrance—the subject of my three or four lines before I finished them.
I was singing in Russian, the opera being War and Peace by Prokofiev, which I don't know how to write in Russian!
However, here it is from Wikipedia: Война и мир (Voyna i mir).
Singing Russian is one thing—it's a lovely language to sing!—speaking it is quite another. It's difficult to learn for people who use the latin alphabet and grow up speaking English and hearing (also speaking a little) Spanish as I did.
In addition to the Russian, I've sung in English and Spanish of course, as well as ten more languages—including Sanskrit (Satyagraha—an opera about Gandhi) which, like Russian (plus Czech and Hun-garian), I learned strictly by ear.
French is probably the language I like best to sing in because it fits my mouth really well. I've sung the most in German, because I've done 27 complete Ring cycles in addition to other opera performances in German.
Need I mention Italian? If you listened to the Three Tenors linked above, you heard the language in which opera (an Italian word meaning "work" as in a work of art) was first written. After all, they invented it!
Now that I have completely gone off the dollies as subject and into the broad expanse of my musical life, I will explain how these two subjects are tied together into Dolly Diva Designs...but maybe the blog name makes the connection self-explanatory?
As I mentioned, I did all those Wagner Rings, about 14 in German and 13 in English, plus perfor-mances of the individual Ring operas: Die Walküre (Seattle Opera, 5; San Francisco Opera, 5; and Portland Opera [OR], 5) and Götterdämmerung (San Diego, 5). In case not, here is the connection.
As a singer, I have also done concerts on stage, but also on radio but of course, I didn't have to worry about dresses for the radio only audiences! However, some of my concert appearances were recorded and broadcast later.
Nevertheless, I have a bunch of concert dresses to miniaturize, plus my original valkyrie outfit—when they retired the production, Seattle Opera costume department gave me my costume—so I have the original materials to use for a mini version! Is that cool or what!
I have rambled on quite enough. Please forgive me. But at least now you know why I am calling this blog "Dolly Diva Designs"—no?
I have mentioned before that I want to make miniature of costumes and concert gowns I have worn in performances for dolls I have gathered for that purpose. I have not, however, written in much detail about that particular part of my life so I thought I would do so at this point in the enterprise! Just to keep your attention, here follow some highlights.
I have spoken to Luciano Pavaroti. I have walked in front of Placido Domingo and said "Excuse me!" as he smiled at me—be still, my heart. I have stood backstage waiting to go on—beside José Carreras who was observing the action. Yep, all three of the Three Tenors!
I have used the dressing room formerly occupied by Maria Callas, the famous soprano, at the Ópera de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
But the coup d'étage with which I am most happy? I made my operatic debut as Alisa in the Seattle Opera production in 1972 of Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti the companion to the other woman in the show, who was playing Lucia (the star, natch) Beverly Sills singing about six measures of duet with her at the end of her first aria.
I got to do two more shows with her along the way—La traviata, playing Annina, her maid, tucking her into bed in the last scene of the show—just before she got up to sing her last high note of joy before dying and collapsing in a graceful heap on the floor while her Alfredo, whose name escapes me and I can't put my hand on the program at the moment, stands by helplessly until she falls then rushes to her clasping her now lifeless body to his chest and the curtain comes down—also in Seattle. The last time I worked with Ms. Sills was as the slave girl Myrtale in Thaïs, Ms. Sills playing the lead rôle—of course—as Thaïs, a courtesan who becomes a nun in the last act.
My most exciting performance? I performed the role of Lady Macbeth in Giuseppe Verdi's version of Shake-speare's wonderful play in Mexico at Bellas Artes, their incredible opera house with the Tiffany glass fire curtain—breath-taking. The last of the two performances was broadcast on national TV, but I didn't wonder if they made a recording till very long after the fact—too late to find out, because earth-quakes, etc. They had not appeared to be preparing to record so I just assumed not and let it go.
The only time anything was videoed I was in where one might recognize me, they shot me when I began my bit but panned past me to the star couple making their entrance—the subject of my three or four lines before I finished them.
I was singing in Russian, the opera being War and Peace by Prokofiev, which I don't know how to write in Russian!
However, here it is from Wikipedia: Война и мир (Voyna i mir).
Singing Russian is one thing—it's a lovely language to sing!—speaking it is quite another. It's difficult to learn for people who use the latin alphabet and grow up speaking English and hearing (also speaking a little) Spanish as I did.
In addition to the Russian, I've sung in English and Spanish of course, as well as ten more languages—including Sanskrit (Satyagraha—an opera about Gandhi) which, like Russian (plus Czech and Hun-garian), I learned strictly by ear.
French is probably the language I like best to sing in because it fits my mouth really well. I've sung the most in German, because I've done 27 complete Ring cycles in addition to other opera performances in German.
Need I mention Italian? If you listened to the Three Tenors linked above, you heard the language in which opera (an Italian word meaning "work" as in a work of art) was first written. After all, they invented it!
Now that I have completely gone off the dollies as subject and into the broad expanse of my musical life, I will explain how these two subjects are tied together into Dolly Diva Designs...but maybe the blog name makes the connection self-explanatory?
As I mentioned, I did all those Wagner Rings, about 14 in German and 13 in English, plus perfor-mances of the individual Ring operas: Die Walküre (Seattle Opera, 5; San Francisco Opera, 5; and Portland Opera [OR], 5) and Götterdämmerung (San Diego, 5). In case not, here is the connection.
As a singer, I have also done concerts on stage, but also on radio but of course, I didn't have to worry about dresses for the radio only audiences! However, some of my concert appearances were recorded and broadcast later.
Nevertheless, I have a bunch of concert dresses to miniaturize, plus my original valkyrie outfit—when they retired the production, Seattle Opera costume department gave me my costume—so I have the original materials to use for a mini version! Is that cool or what!
I have rambled on quite enough. Please forgive me. But at least now you know why I am calling this blog "Dolly Diva Designs"—no?
posted by Broad Spectrum @ 8:53 PM
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