Divamensch

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