The picture dates from 1926. My mother, Alma Lubin, a recent graduate of Smith College, is in Florence, standing on the broad front steps of the palace of Baron Paolo Mantica, an important journalist and political commentator. The stylish woman in the light summer dress greeting her is the Baron’s wife, Margit Mantica, nee Veszi, […]

Before you meet Chico, let me introduce his hostess, Ella Lee, the American soprano. She was part of the extraordinary group of Black singers who electrified the world of opera in the 1960s- Leontyne Price, of course, George Shirley, Martina Arroyo, Grace Bumbry, Simon Estes, Shirley Verrett, Reri Grist, Betty Allen, Veronica Tyler, Gloria Davy, […]

When the celebrity photographer Herman Mishkin took this picture in the 1920s, Rosa Ponselle was the reigning diva of the Metropolitan Opera and widely regarded as the greatest soprano of her time. He used a low camera angle to emphasize her supremacy. Every detail of the shot reinforces our notion of what stardom is, or […]

I’m one of the lucky few who actually saw Maria Callas perform – a Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera in 1965, her next to last performance there- and I’ve never forgotten it. She transformed the theater into a sacred space. My history with Callas began during my teenage years in the 1950s. My father’s position […]