Divamensch

My brother Howard alerted me to two celebrity deaths, one person I didn't know, one I did. The unknown person (for me) was Jimmy Cliff (age 81). I'll quote the jam-packed first sentence of his NY Times obit: "Jimmy Cliff, a onetime choirboy who emerged from the rough quarters of Kingston, Jamaica, riding a rebel spirit and a fierce sense of social justice to help make the supple, bobbing sounds of reggae a global phenomenon with songs like 'You Can Get It If You Really Want'

This week we're looking at another recent hot word: Diva: brat Mensch: bratwurst Here's a handful of CNN broadcasters discussing the term "brat" and the then-current holder of the title of most brat, Kamala Harris. The brat discussion starts at around 3:55. But to me, the Wisconsin boy, the letters B-R-A-T mean one thing and one thing only:

I never heard of these ladies but their shared obit caught my eye on the Times. This was the first time I remember seeing a dual obit, people who died on the same day. Alice and Ellen Kessler were identical twins, German singers and dancers, sometime actresses (can we just say "entertainers?") who were a big deal in the 60s. They died at the age of 89 vis assisted suicide. Ellen had recently suffered a serious stroke and they went public with their intention to end their live

Liz, Dale, Jere, and I heard Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in a concert at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a one-night performance of the complete published music for solo piano by Maurice Ravel. I've been to or participated in hundreds of chamber music concerts over the years but I'd never heard of a chamber music concert with two intermissions! It was one of the greatest concerts I've ever heard. Jere used to tease me about this - - I used to say this more often and he'd sa

Courtesy of Howard: Blondie and Debbie Harry helped usher in a pop-punk invasion that became an unlikely cash cow for a music industry needing a restart in the 1970s. Their songs alternated between high energy “punk” and 50s, Ronettes-style urban pop. Harry had a great sideways snarl when she sang, emitting a clear, siren piercing voice and a sex appeal that only hinted at what a true badass she was. She wrote or co-wrote much of the band's material. I was lucky to see them i

Hello my friends. I just reached a nice milestone on my website - - I posted my 800th review. I launched my site in the spring of 2017. I had many reviews in my archive, somewhere just under 250. The first review posted on the site was a review of The Present, a Broadway Chekhov adaptation starring Cate Blanchett. https://www.divamensch.com/the-present So with my review of The New Decameron I'm now at a total of 800 reviews in my archives. Pretty amazing. Thanks for sharing

I have two weeks to occupy in November before starting a new series in December. I'm doing a mini series on hot words of the moment. First up is "demure." Diva: demure being a hot word Mensch: the actual meaning of the word It cracked me up how this old school word became such a cultural trend. It seems like it's used in a somewhat shady way, more like "ladylike" or "madame," both of which imply a woman of a certain age who's remarkably mild-mannered and somewhat fossilized i

Liz and I saw The New Decameron: Songwriters in Lockdown at the Triad on Nov 17, 2025. Liz's husband Tom Toce was one of the three songwriters featured. He had a Zoom pseudo support group during the dark days of Covid with two other songwriters, John Forster and Hillary Rollins. They thought they should collaborate on a project, it would help get them get through lockdown. John set the tone by performing his song "The Zoom Song," which won the 2023 Manhattan Association of C

Barbara, Dale, Jere and I heard the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on Nov 15, 2025. It was a program with a focus on the viola, probably my favorite of the string instruments. The players were Stella Chen and Alexander Sitkoventsy on violin, Matthew Lipman and Paul Neubauer on viola, and Jonathan Swensen on cello. Four of the five pieces on the program were for all five players, an ensemble called a "viola quintet," aka a string quartet plus an extra viola. It's a ri

Fanny is one of the bands in Rock and Roll Woman that I had never heard of. Here's what my brother Howard wrote about them (thanks, Howard): Women representation in rock and roll, even in the 60s was usually only evident in lead or “back-up singer”. Maybe keyboards here and there. Fanny came along in 1969 as a female five piece, fronted by two Filipino sisters, Jean and June Millington. Heavy, bluesy rock, their cover of George Harrison’s (and Cream’s) Badge was maybe their

Karen and I saw *The Queen of Versailles* on Nov 11, 2025. It's a new musical with music by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Lindsey Ferrentino. It's based on the 2012 documentary about Jackie Siegel, wife of David Siegel, Florida's self-declared Timeshare King. He was rolling in (rancid) dough in the aughts and decided to build Jackie a replica of Versailles outside of Orlando. They kept adding to it over the years, stopped building when the market crashed in 2008, got a gover

The final pair in our Grammys series! The Grammys ceremony in February of this year honored the music recorded in 2024. The winner for Best Rock Performance was The Beatles for "Now and Then." Diva: winning the Grammy Mensch: John and George unable to attend the ceremony Call this blasphemy, go ahead - - I don't think it's a very good song! I think releasing the recording and giving it the Grammy is a major nostalgia trip. The Emperor's New Clothes, if you will. I'm not buyin

I saw Heartbeat Opera's Orgy and Bess on Nov 7, 2025. Heartbeat is a scrappy chamber opera company here in town, I've seen a handful of their shows. Last year I saw their production of Salome which was scored for eight clarinet players and two percussionists. A fascinating experiment but not really a viable choice. Their scaled down Faust last spring was much more successful. They do a drag extravaganza every year, a mashup of opera excerpts and pop references, heavy on th

I heard Sybarite5 at Music Mondays on Nov 3, 2025. They're a string quintet - - two violins, viola, cello, and bass. I heard them in an online concert during lockdown n 2020. I just read that review and I appeared to enjoy the 2020 concert more than this latest one. Maybe I was more eager for a satisfying cultural experience? Or maybe it was just better. They opened with "Movement and Locations" by The Punch Brothers. It had a great energy but the cello solo at the beginning

I had a tribute to Wanda Jackson a few weeks ago. My brother Howard has a signed picture of her in his locker at work! I told him, "That's not Wanda Jackson, that's Lynn Redgrave in a bad wig." Bless her heart. Or in this case, rest her soul! OK now for this week's fierce rock and roll woman: the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, an American treasure. One of a kind, the world would not be the same without her. Can we all agree that this was one of the greatest moments in televi

I was saddened to read in The Times about the death of actor Diane Ladd at the age of 89. She had three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress. First for playing Flo in Alice Doesn't Live Her Anymore. She really knew how to give A Performance, just what you want in a supporting actor. Here she is off the freaking rails in Wild At Heart. And doing something more measured and understated in Rambling Rose. The Times said she and her daughter Laura Dern were the first (ma

The 2023 Grammy for Best Pop Dance Recording went to Kylie Minogue for "Padam Padam." Diva: Minogue "Padam Padam" Mensch: Piaf "Padam Padam" I know, Edith Piaf is no one's idea of a mensch but Minogue and her team doing a song called "Padam Padam" seemed to imply a wink, a nudge, and a tip of the hat to the song by the same name by Miss Piaf. The unwritten (unintended?) tribute to Piaf is a mensch move.

I was saddened this morning to read about the death of Maria Riva. She died last week at the age of 100. She was an actress and producer but best known as the only child of Marlene Dietrich. I always describe Dietrich as "my first movie star" - - the Milwaukee PBS station used to show a week of old movies starring the same person in summer afternoons and I was maybe 12 or 13 when they showed a week of Dietrich movies. I was a goner. Riva wrote a startling biography of her mot

I saw a new production of Bellini's La Sonnambula at the Met on Oct 29, 2025. Bellini is one of the major masters of what's called bel canto, an opera style from the early 19th century - - the term literally translates as "beautiful singing," and while that's central to its identity, bel canto operas are also a deeply Romantic expression of all the big emotions. Audiences love these operas for their mixture of display and drama. This was the first Met production directed by

I heard Dreamers' Circus at Music Mondays on Oct 27, 2025. They're a trio that plays arrangements of Nordic folk music and original pieces. The three members are: Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen: he primarily plays the violin, played the piano a bit as well. Ale Carr: he had the most versatility - - he played guitar, violin, clog fiddle (more about that in a bit), bowed harp (more about that, too), Nordic cittern (ditto), and he also sang. Nikolaj Busk: he played piano, accordion, al