Word: divas
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Leontyne can sometimes play the grand diva sprinkling her conversation with Italianisms, rolling her r's across the room. After taking a college course in elementary French, Brother George recalls, she suddenly stopped spelling her name Leontine, replacing the i with the y that she still uses. Says a friend: "Sometimes she can be all mink and ermine, and the next minute she'll be plain old southern Mississippi." But the southern Mississippi usually pops out first. After her Met debut she encountered Metropolitan General Manager Rudolf Bing backstage. He asked how she was. "Mr. Bing," said Leontyne...
...Careless Diva. The girl in the case was Turkish Opera Singer Ayhan Aydan, now a plumpish, red-haired 36. In 1951, just after her divorce from Ankara State Orchestra Conductor Ferit Alnar, Ayhan caught the eye of Menderes at a luncheon party. She was then a svelte 27, he a handsome and roving-eyed 52. In no time at all Premier Menderes was such a frequent caller at the singer's apartment that other tenants grew grumpily accustomed to being stopped and searched by bodyguards. Ayhan's apartment was kept plentifully stocked with Menderes' favorite Black...
...father. Restlessly roaming the house, her husband. Pianist Richard Bonynge. sweated out every note. He had his own lament: "We have as bad reputations as ballet dancers' mothers.'' He meant himself and all the other incarnations of that fabled musical folk figure, the opera diva's husband...
...Meneghini, the building-materials millionaire who, legend has it, built Maria Callas. Even Meneghini has his critics, who claim that he stripped Callas of every cent she made and prodded her into her notorious tigress behavior. But whatever a husband's shortcomings, the care and feeding of a diva is no easy task. One veteran recalls his routine before each performance: "I keep all windows shut, even in summer. I also make sure my wife eats no soups, pasta or heavy foods. I avoid smoking and refrain from doing or saying anything that could upset her. We even stop...
...heel-kicking, finger-feathering gestures of Little Mary (Eileen Brennan), tires out before Yellow Feather, the Indian heavy, finally has the heroine strapped to a conifer and the No. i Ranger comes singing to the rescue. Nonetheless, there are plenty of fine moments along the way: an ex-diva of Germanic origin sings of her native burg (In Izzenschnooken on the Lovely Essen-zook Zee). A soubrette who wishes she were an unvirtued spy sings her unashamed worship of Mata Hari...