Coloratura Soprano and Cabaret Star Violetta Villas Dies at 73

"She was a coloratura soprano who spurned opera for popular music, a Polish singer who became a cabaret star in Las Vegas, an artist trapped for years behind the Iron Curtain when she flew home to tend to her dying mother. Violetta Villas, 73, died Dec. 5 at her home in Lewin Klodzki, a village in southern Poland, local police spokesman Pawel Petrykowski told the Associated Press. Prosecutors have ordered an autopsy to determine the cause of death, he said Tuesday." [Source]