Katia Ricciarelli Claims Gambling Keeps Her Calm & Serene

Opera Zenith: Katia Ricciarelli with Plácido Domingo in 1972 when they recorded duets together for RCA.

In a recent telephone interview, soprano Katia Ricciarelli admitted that going to the casino keeps her in a wonderful state, unless she gets asked for an autograph: "'Spero ancora nell'amore e non chiedetemi autografi mentre sono al video poker.' La cantante, ospite del programma radiofonico I Radioattivi, rinnega di avere il vizio del gioco e specifica che è solo un divertimento, perché 'mi dà adrenalina come il gioco ai bambini ma non sono malata, non lo pratico per mesi. Tra tutti i giochi mi diverto solo con il video poker, mi dà calma e serenità ma purtroppo ti vengono a chiedere gli autografi e in quel caso guardo tutti con occhi cerulei.'" [Source] Listen to the full interview, and hear a recording of the soprano's professional debut from 1969, after the jump. 

Learn more about the diva's journey from poverty
to performing on the great opera stages of the
world by purchasing her book here.

"Born at Rovigo, Veneto, to a very poor family; she struggled during her younger years when she studied music. She studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, won several vocal competitions in 1968, and made her professional debut as Mimì in La bohème in Mantua in 1969, followed by a 1970 appearance in Il trovatore in Parma. In the following year, she won RAI's 'Voci Verdiane' award. Between 1972 and 1975, engagements followed in the major European and American opera houses, including Lyric Opera of Chicago (1972); Teatro alla Scala (1973); Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1974); and the Metropolitan Opera in 1975. In 1981, she began a decade-long association with the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, thus broadening her repertoire of Rossini's operas. Beside her many opera performances, she also appeared as Desdemona in Franco Zeffirelli's film version of Verdi's Otello in 1986, alongside Plácido Domingo. In 2005 she won the best actress prize Nastro d'Argento, awarded by the Italian film journalists, for her role in Pupi Avati's La seconda notte di nozze. In 1991 she founded Accademia Lirica di Katia Ricciarelli, and, since 2003, she has been Artistic Director of the annual summer Macerata Opera Festival. In 2006 she participated in the reality show La fattoria (Italian version of The Farm) on Canale 5. In 1986 on her 40th birthday, she married Pippo Baudo, a television personality, and filed for divorce in the summer of 2004." [Source]

World's Best Tenors Captured On Film By Johannes Ifkovits

High C: The cover and back inlay for the book World's Best Tenors captures the artists 
singing the infamous note. (Photo: Johannes Ifkovit)

Opera Rifko Verlag, the publisher that designed the book Die Oper Kocht featuring opera singers in the kitchen cooking, releases a new book dedicated to the greatest kings of the high-C's living today: Die weltbesten Tenöre (World's Best Tenors). The duo team of photographer Johannes Ifkovits and stylist Evelyn Rillé created an essay that highlights 44 opera tenors from around the globe that had time or willingness to participate in the project. The Festival Castell de Peralada featured an exhibition of the book with large images surrounding the grounds of Palau Robert in Barcelona, Spain. Inside the book, portraits of legendary tenors like Plácido Domingo, Vladimir Atlantov, René Kollo stand alongside their hot young counterparts like Pavol Breslik, Giuseppe Filianoti, and Michael Fabiano. The book will soon be available for pre-order here. More photos after the jump. 

(Click to enlarge image)

Strumming His Guitar: Juan Diego Flórez captured by photographer Johannes Ifkovits

Rubber Ducky You're The One: Funny guy Rolando Villazón relaxes in the tub for his portrait by Johannes Ifkovits

Commemorate Leontyne Price And Black History Month With New Book

This Tuesday, February 10, will be the 88th birthday of soprano Leontyne Price. What better way to celebrate this legend than with a colorful new illustrated book honoring her life? Although distributed to a suggested age group of 5-9 years old, this book is a treasure for all ages: "A stunning picture-book biography of iconic African American opera star Leontyne Price. Born in a small town in Mississippi in 1927, the daughter of a midwife and a sawmill worker, Leontyne Price might have grown up singing the blues. But Leontyne had big dreams—and plenty to be thankful for—as she surrounded herself with church hymns and hallelujahs, soaked up opera arias on the radio, and watched the great Marian Anderson grace the stage. While racism made it unlikely that a poor black girl from the South would pursue an opera career, Leontyne’s wondrous voice and unconquerable spirit prevailed. Bursting through the door Marian had cracked open, Leontyne was soon recognized and celebrated for her leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera and around the world—most notably as the majestic Ethiopian princess in Aida, the part she felt she was born to sing. From award-winners Carole Boston Weatherford and Raul Colón comes the story of a little girl from Mississippi who became a beloved star—one whose song soared on the breath of her ancestors and paved the way for those who followed." [Source] It is also a wonderful way to commemorate Black History Month which takes place during February in the United States. Purchase the book by clicking here. Read a New York Times feature on the book, see more illustrations, and get information about Black History Month, after the jump.

Deborah Voigt "Today Show" Appearance Snowed Out. Watch Online!

 Although the media chose to air weather reports about the blizzard Juno that never really happened, Deborah Voigt still appeared on The Today Show to discuss her new book, Call Me Debbie. The video of that appearance is now streamed online. Watch it after the jump.

Deborah Voigt enjoyed music from an early age.

As a little girl, the soprano was spinning around the room to the music of My Fair Lady.

Deborah Voigt Launches Cross-Country Book Tour Extravaganza

With the official release of her new autobiography, Deborah Voigt will be making several appearances across the country beginning with The Today Show at 10 AM EST on January 27. From there she will travel to Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco. New York highlights of the tour include an appearance at 86th Street Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side in conversation with Brian Kellow, the features editor for Opera News magazine, on January 28 and a stop at the Metropolitan Opera Gift Shop on February 5 to sign books. For complete information of appearances, click here. Other recent press for the book, Call Me Debbie, has included an article for People Magazine and The Wall Street Journal. After the book tour, the soprano will be seen on the stage in April for performances at the Michigan Opera Theatre as Hanna Glawari in Lehár's The Merry Widow.

Deborah Voigt Confesses To People About Men, Wine, and Weight

I Am Woman: Deborah Voigt (Photo: Heidi Gutman)

"When Deborah Voigt was fired for being too fat to fit into a (size 12) little black dress for a production of Strauss's Ariadne aug [sic] Naxos at London's Royal Opera House in 2004, public outrage was immediate. 'It's incredible someone can get away with saying those words,' Voigt, 54, tells PEOPLE exclusively. 'It's still open season on overweight women.' Voigt details her lifelong struggles with food in a new memoir, Call Me Debbie (cowritten by former PEOPLE writer Natasha Stoynoff). She writes about her first binge at age 5 (when she slugged back a jar of olives), her late night fast food runs once she got her driver's license, stuffing herself with Pepperidge Farm coconut layer cakes 'until I passed out.' 'At first I'd say 'I'll never go over 180 lbs., then it was 200 lbs.,' she admits. 'It just went up and up and up.' At the same time, she was becoming one of the world's leading opera stars. In that world it was fine, even expected, to be large. But once she became obese, some directors started to comment. 'It was hard being Tosca at 300 lbs.,' she says. 'They're singing about her being so beautiful, and I'm feeling 'I am not and I will never be.'' While the 2004 firing was humiliating, she now understands the decision. 'There's a difference between being a larger-than-life opera singer and what I was, a poster child for food addiction,' she explains. Afterwards, Voigt took the money from the canceled performance and scheduled gastric bypass surgery. 'I had eaten everything there was to eat,' she says. 'How many more binges do you have to have?' She lost over 100 lbs. But soon, there was another struggle. 'My drinking just escalated,' she tells PEOPLE. 'It would be nothing for me to go through two bottles of wine, then my blackout would happen sometime around the third bottle.' Through therapy, she learned about how one addiction can lead to another. Men came next: for a brief time, she even frequented websites for men who wanted 'big gals.' 'The whole idea of being able to attract a man was so new to me,' notes Voigt. 'It was like, 'Could I?' Lo and behold, I could, and it was like feeding the monster.'" [Source]

Pre-Order New Deborah Voigt Confessional Autobiography

Cover Girl: Pre-order a copy of the new book here.

"Internationally beloved opera star Deborah Voigt recounts her harrowing and ultimately successful private battles to overcome the addictions and self-destructive tendencies that nearly destroyed her life. Call Me Debbie is one of the most electrifying performances of Deborah Voigt’s life. The brilliantly gifted opera soprano takes us behind the velvet curtains to tell her compelling story—a tale of success, addiction, music, and faith as dramatic as any role she has performed. For the first time, she talks about the events that led to her dangerous gastric bypass surgery in 2004 and its shocking aftermath: her substantial weight loss coupled with the 'cross addiction' that led to severe alcoholism, frightening all-night blackouts, and suicide attempts. Ultimately, Voigt emerged from the darkness to achieve complete sobriety, thanks to a twelve-step program and a recommitment to her Christian faith. Colored by hilarious anecdotes and juicy gossip that illuminate what really goes on backstage, Voigt paints diverting portraits of the artists with whom she’s worked, her most memorable moments onstage, and her secrets to great singing. She also offers fascinating insight into the roles she’s played and the characters she loves, including Strauss’s Ariadne and Salome, Puccini’s Minnie, and Wagner’s Sieglinde, Isolde, and Brünnhilde, sharing her intense preparation for playing them. Filled with eight pages of color photos, Call Me Debbie is an inspirational story that offers a unique look into the life of a modern artist and a remarkable woman." [Source] And more from the soprano's official website: "In bookstores on January 27, Call Me Debbie: True Confessions of a Down-to-Earth Diva represents one of the most electrifying performances of Voigt’s career. In her strikingly honest memoir, she recounts – with characteristic candor, charisma, and wit – her harrowing and ultimately successful private battles to overcome the addictions and self-destructive tendencies that nearly cut short her life.....Enriched with hilarious anecdotes and juicy backstage gossip, she paints diverting portraits of the artists with whom she’s worked, her most memorable moments onstage, and the secrets of her singing. 'I never imagined myself becoming a world-famous dramatic soprano who’d share the stages of the biggest opera houses in the world with the most celebrated vocalists of our time,' Voigt explains. 'I didn’t yearn to meet presidents, princes, Pavarottis, and Plácidos. As a child, I only knew I loved to sing – I was singing before I was talking.' Voigt will discuss and read from the book in an extensive promotional tour in February (dates/locations TBA). Already known to Twitter fans as a 'dramatic soprano and down-to-earth diva,' Voigt was named as one of the top 25 cultural tweeters to follow by the Los Angeles Times. She offered something of a preview of her memoir in her confessional one-woman show, Voigt Lessons; boding well for Call Me Debbie, at its Glimmerglass Festival premiere, the show was pronounced 'chatty, witty, and sometimes painfully poignant' (New York Times)." [Source]

Barbara Hendricks Biography Finally Reaches American Shores

In November 2010, Barbara Hendricks released her memoirs in France under the title Ma voie - Mémoires. Now for the first time in America, an English translation has been released called Lifting My Voice. Information about the book: "Growing up African American in segregated Arkansas in the 1950s, Barbara Hendricks witnessed firsthand the painful struggle for civil rights. After graduation from the Juilliard School of Music, Hendricks immediately won a number of important international prizes, and began performing in recitals and operas throughout the world. A Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, she is as devoted to humanitarian work as she is to her music. Always the anti-diva, Hendricks is a down-to-earth and straightforward woman, whether singing Mozart or black spirituals. She challenges stereotypes and puts the music first and presents a warm, engaging, and honest self-portrait of one of the great women of music." [Source] The Wall Street Journal offers a review of the Lifting My Voice, along with Jessye Norman's new book Stand Up Straight and Sing!, here. A beautiful photo of Barbara Hendricks at the 65th Cannes Film Festival and a musical selection are after the jump.

Listen To Jessye Norman Discuss "Marvelous Living" On NPR

The soprano signing copies of her book in the Metropolitan Opera gift shop. (Photo: Rex Bonomelli/Facebook)

"When it comes to singers, there have been few voices considered as majestic as soprano Jessye Norman's. The celebrated opera singer from Augusta, GA, has meticulously built a career on her own terms, choosing her projects intelligently and carefully guarding her vocal resources, which have often been described as a force of nature. Now the 68-year-old artist can add author to her list of accomplishments. Norman has written a memoir, Stand Up Straight and Sing! From experiencing racism as a child to watching the fall of the Berlin Wall to her storied opera career, Norman talks with NPR's Rachel Martin about the book, her life and her music with an openness rarely heard before in her interviews." Listen to the audio by clicking here. [Source] Additional audio interviews for WQXR can be heard below:

Mariella Devia Honors Rita Levi-Montalcini (And Women) With Essay

Living In a Man's World: Italian soprano
Mariella Devia talks about succeeding
as a professional woman (Photo: Klangvokal)

Nine great women pay tribute to a 103-year old Italian neurologist and Nobel Prize recipient who passed away last year in a new book titled Rita Levi-Montalcini: Aggiungere Vita Ai Giorni. They discuss their own personal struggles as women and challenges that they had to overcome in their respective professions. Among them is coloratura soprano Mariella Devia. "Il pensiero di Rita Levi-Montalcini è sintetizzato in una sua preziosissima testimonianza, una delle ultime che ci ha lasciato poco prima di morire e che è pubblicata in questo libro insieme ai contributi di altre illustri donne italiane. Nove grandi artiste, scienziate e intellettuali rendono omaggio a Rita Levi-Montalcini raccontando come sono riuscite a vincere le sfide che ogni donna, in tutto il mondo, si trova ad affrontare: superare i pregiudizi, imporsi in ambienti spesso dominati dagli uomini, conciliare il lavoro con gli affetti e la maternità. Riunite in un solo volume, dieci personalità eccezionali, dieci storie uniche per altrettante visioni del mondo da cui emerge un’affascinante concordanza sui valori fondamentali: dedizione al lavoro, passione, impegno e sacrificio, onestà e attenzione agli altri, e soprattutto la forza di rialzarsi sempre dopo le inevitabili sconfitte."

Con i contributi di:
Rita Levi-Montalcini, premio Nobel per la Medicina
Carla Accardi, artista
Biancamaria Bosco Tedeschini Lalli, rettore
Chiara Castellani, chirurgo
Nicoletta Conti, direttrice d’orchestra
Mariella Devia, soprano
Micol Fontana, stilista
Carla Fracci, ballerina
Margherita Hack, astrofisica
Maria Luisa Spaziani, poetessa




[Source]

Recommended Gifts For Reading During the Holiday Season

John Fleming of the St. Petersburg Times offers up two operatically tinged books that would make great gifts this holiday season: "The Wagner books continue to get churned out. The most recent to offer something new is Wagner and the Erotic Impulse by Laurence Dreyfus (Harvard University Press, 266 pages, $27.95). 'What is it in the notes and sounds -- in their melodies, harmony, orchestration, rhythm and texture -- that arouse thoughts of sexual desire?' asks Dreyfus of Wagner's music. Another notable opera book is Garry Wills' meditation on two masters of the stage, Verdi's Shakespeare: Men of the Theater (Viking, 225 pages, $25.95)." [Source]

Two New Books Attempt to "Un-stuff" Opera For Newcomers

"Author Thomson Smillie is no stranger to the Louisville arts scene. For 16 years, he was the General Director of Kentucky Opera and worked in similar capacities for the Opera Company of Boston, the Scottish Opera and the Wexford Festival in Ireland. Smillie's love for opera as an art form runs deep, and his book, How to Listen, Learn, Love Opera, is an engaging and heartfelt effort to share that love with others. That is where this excellent guidebook comes in. Smillie's target is the fledgling fan, someone who has some interest in opera, but might be a bit timid because of her lack of knowledge or – and this is not unimportant – a lack of funds. Not only does he give you a sort of Cliff's Notes guide to the most famous operas from the greatest composers, he also directs you on the penny-pincher's path to finding music, DVDs, and other resources to learn about opera on your own and at your own pace before committing hard-earned cash to an expensive seat at a live performance. Smillie is an unabashed fan of YouTube for finding clips from great singers – past and present – and he will also tell you who, in particular, to look for and in what productions." [Source]

"Weep, Shudder, Die: A Guide to Loving Opera is an insightful and accessible guide to the grand art of opera for both new and longtime fans. For too long opera was relegated to high society and perceived as stuffy and remote. But now that has changed. A new generation of opera lovers has emerged, inviting a wave of extraordinary new productions and revivals the world over. Robert Levine has written an illuminating guide for this growing audience. With his signature wit, he examines the most famous composers and operas, from Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen to Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, giving a sense of each opera's history and celebrating its enduring greatness. Weep, Shudder, Die will inspire anyone who has ever been curious about opera but never knew where to start to discover one of the world's most entertaining and satisfying art forms." [Source]

Obsess Much? Identifying Your Inner Opera Fanatic

"You know the opera fanatic even if you have never attended an opera performance in your life. He or she knows every performance, every singer, every composer, every conductor. The critics... phooey, they know nothing, but the fanatic holds the key to opera knowledge and enjoyment. Only they truly understand the art, and only they truly appreciate the art. In The Opera Fanatic: Ethnography of an Obsession, Claudio E. Benzecry identifies four distinct types of the obsessed attendee: There’s the hero, who believes he is keeping the opera house open and the art itself alive and vital. There’s the addict, who is willing to sacrifice his families, friends, lovers, money, and sanity to attend multiple performances of the same opera, to listen to the records and attend lectures and travel to distant theaters. There’s the nostalgic, for whom everything was better when it was sung by Maria Callas, or Joan Sutherland, or back in 1965, or back when people took pride in knowing about opera. Then there’s the pilgrim, the devoted subject who treats the opera house as a religious temple." [Source]

Book on Deceased Diva Leyla Gencer to Get Italian Printing

"Leyla Gencer - Tutkunun Romanı, Turkish journalist Zeynep Oral’s book chronicling the life of late Turkish opera singer Leyla Gencer, will be published in Italy on May 2. Translated by Alessandra Chiappano from the book’s English version released in 2008, Leyla Gencer - Il Canto e la Passione will be printed by the Milan-based publishing group Mursia. The book, first published in Turkish in 1992, comprises Oral’s conversations with Gencer and many figures from the international art scene who were acquainted with her." [Source]

Franco Zeffirelli Enters The Twilight, Starting With A Book

Zeffirelli at the Metropolitan Opera (1966)

"Right on time to jog these memories, a coffee-table book devoted to the director has been published. Franco Zeffirelli: Complete Works is to ordinary books what Franco Zeffirelli productions are to ordinary productions. It's massively unwieldy, deliriously garish. It's also gorgeous and fascinating. The book's frontispiece is the end of Mr. Zeffirelli's Met production of Don Giovanni, in which the characters, framed by a set of classically receding prosceniums, face an upstage backdrop of clouds seen after a storm. It is spare, muted, lovely, the anti-'Zeffirelli.' But turning the page, you're confronted with the Zeffirelli-est: his 2006 La Scala Aida, its colors saturated and lurid, the gigantic set dwarfing the singer. The book keeps throwing you between these two extremes and opens up

entire decades of his career that have been largely forgotten. His sheer productivity and variety are dizzying: He made 10 productions in 1964, ranging from a lovingly detailed, freshly rethought Renaissance Falstaff to a cool, geometric version of Arthur Miller's After the Fall." [Source]

Manolo Blahnik Footwear Fit for a Diva

"If Manolo has an Achilles’ heel, it is his sweet tooth, and so, consequently, the shoes are confectionary—high-glucose bonbons for the foot. A lover of opera (the more histrionically tortured the diva the better), Manolo naturally bestows upon his shoes their own peculiar music—the rhythmic staccato of stilettos striking parquet, the dry rattle of pearls swinging from the vamps of mules, the breezy rustle of raffia." [Source]

When Joan Crawford Met Rosa Ponselle

(Joan Crawford [l] in her Hollywood glory and Rosa Ponselle [r] in the 1936 MET Carmen.)

What could these two legendary icons possibly have in common? If you're thinking "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" then you might be close. The surprising answer is after the jump.

Mady Mesplé Living With Parkinson's Disease

The soprano in Lucia di Lammermoor

French soprano Mady Mesplé was most popular from 1950 to 1970 singing the title roles in Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) and Lakme (Delibes) as well as Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach) and the Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart). In the mid-90s the soprano developed Parkinson's Disease. She has written a book, La Voix du Corp, about her career and experience living life with the disease. It was released this fall in paperback. She works closely with Association France Parkinson offering her support whenever possible in order to help find a cure for the disease. Throughout her career she recorded exclusively for EMI France. This spring the label will issue a 4-CD box set to commemorate the singer's 80th birthday. Included in the release will be chansons and arias from her complete discography.

More information and photos after the jump.

The World of Gloria Vanderbilt

"Gloria Vanderbilt is many things: an heiress, a painter, a muse, a designer, a model, a writer, an entrepreneur, an actor, a socialite, a survivor and an icon. She brought the Vanderbilt name out of the Gilded Age and into the Digital Age, reinventing herself over and over along the way. Hers is a story of charisma, glamour and heartbreaking loss, told here by Wendy Goodman, who had intimate access to Vanderbilt for this book. 

Palaces of Music: Opera Houses of Europe

Ann Ziff was going to forgo her annual holiday party this year, but when she heard about photographer friend Ahmet Ertug's new book "Palaces of Music: Opera Houses of Europe," she decided it was reason enough to celebrate. "I thought I would combine the two," Ms. Ziff said Tuesday at her Tamsen Z jewelry boutique on the Upper East Side. "It's a chance to see such good people." Friends attending the event included Renée Fleming and Martha Stewart.