Tony Bennett was taught bel canto at the Lee Strasberg School in New York: But he had no intention of becoming an opera singer. Rather, …
Victoria de los Ángeles: An angelic voice (2.)
Continued from part one In his biography of Victoria de los Ángeles, Peter Roberts explains the great contrast between the worlds from which the singer …
Victoria de los Ángeles: An angelic voice (1.)
Part one There are two great Spanish opera singers of the 20th century: Montserrat Caballé (1933 – 2018) and Victoria de los Ángeles (1923 – …
The Walnut: Survivor of the ice age
There was an extremely diverse walnut flora on earth for over 63 million years. Today, however, most of these species are missing and from a …
Rudolf Caracciola: Pioneer of motorsport
In 1923, the young racing driver Rudolf Caracciola was faced with a difficult decision: He had to choose between a racing career and studying at …
Hazelnut: Million-year-old staple food
Technically, the hazelnut belongs to the birch genus: the hazelnut bush, on which the hazelnut fruit grows, was long regarded in folk belief as a …
Giuseppe di Stefano: Serving the Opera
It was not a singing teacher, nor an opera director nor even a family member who discovered the extraordinary vocal talent of the Sicilian-born Giuseppe …
Maria Callas: She brought opera into the modern age
In 2023, the one and only Maria Callas would have turned one hundred: To this day, musicologists, opera critics and fans alike struggle to classify …
Ken Adam: The Touch of Utopia
Without his work, the first James Bond films would have been no more than “average spy thrillers,”: Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels provided the basis …
Ingrid Bergman: She created her own image (2.)
Continued from part one “I created my own image because I refused to change my name and my hairstyle,” Ingrid Bergman said in a 1972 …