Today I'm sharing one of my favorite Youtube treasures, a 1963 interview with the divine Swiss soprano Lisa della Casa. My favorite moment is around 0:54, when she apologizes, reaches out of the frame, is handed a lit cigarette, and starts smoking her head off. The interviewer asks her if smoking is bad for her voice, and her answer is absolutely priceless.

And since she doesn't do any actual SINGING in this clip, I'll share a recording of her singing Strauss's *Four Last Songs* with Karl Böhm and the Vienna Phil. Their recording is my favorite, it has a lightness and buoyancy that's absent from the languid, droopy recordings of other singers and conductors.