The Last Prima Donnas

"The Last Prima Donnas" is a compilation of interviews that the author conducted with the divas themselves. In some cases, the author had more than one occasion to meet with the singers, and was even friends with a few. The majority of singers represented were born before World War I and were active in the 1920's to 1950's. Several worked with the composers themselves. Many names are not as well known to us in 2010 as they were in their day. If you think somebody deserves to have been included who was not, remember that these were all women who were interviewed directly by the author. This is a book that you buy for content. I bought one that must have been a library book that was less than $3.00 before shipping and I am quite satisfied.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT MY EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS, IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT -DON'T READ IT. How can a black MAN, an ultra talented and ambitious one, be inspired by a bunch of white divas raised in a racist time period? Because those caucasian divas had soul, heart, and love, and having known some of them I felt significantly less racism from them than from these current sexless locusts i.e. money/contract/paper pushing creeps today that don't care one bit about voices, personality, beauty, Art nor Opera, and would be hard pressed to distinguish talent from a plate of mountain hick feces. Oh yes, let it be known. I hate them and like Ursuleac a "violent" protest could 'never be too violent" in her and "my humble opinion." They need to go, but what is so bad is that they sit at the internet and on wikipedia protecting certain opera singers, deifying them because they are dead and people praised them. "O yes, I am great because of Callas", and if they loved Callas so much she wouldn't have committed suicide with that miserable life of hers. She was a joke in her own time so PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOU MOUTH IS. They vainly try protect European history and old vocal technique (about which they apparently know nothing), when actually they are destroying it. Again, trying to protect what goes into history. CHILD PLEASE!!!!!! WIKIPEDIA OR NO OTHER PEDIA WILL EVER ACHIEVE ANYTHING FOR ANYBODY!!!!! OK DUMMIES!!!! It does not take a genius to see that YOU have ruined opera - yes, white folk ruined opera. Though I am truly and proudly of African descent, there is more European-ality and respect for that culture in my ingrown toenail than they have in their whole bodies and their entire lives. If you want to know opera, don't trust the color of ones skin PLEASE!!!!! I truly love opera, I sing, I am educated in it, I LIVE IT, and if - like me - you love opera, you automatically hate what has been done to it. But unlike the Forrest Gumps with law degrees that took it to its grave, I am doing something about it. In retrospect its a shame that a black man has to revive a so called white art from. But that proves my point. OPERA HAS NO RACIAL IDENTITY. So, get over it. I AIN'T GOING NOWHERE!!!! I am married to this art form, like Alvin Ailey was married to dance, and people will know THAT BLACK IS BACK - TRUST ME!!!! La Scuderi - the time has come my dear!!!!

I found this to be a very interesting, moving, hauntingly sad and fascinating book giving a good view into the lives of some of Operas Great Singers through personal interviews. I highly recommend this book to lovers of Great Singing. It clearly shows the difference between Opera as it was performed and the way it is to day and why many people to day see it as a dying art ruled by the directors and not the singers who make the Opera.

Lanfranco Rasponi in his book, The Last Prima Donnas, compiles a series of interviews spanning fifty years with some of the most legendary divas to grace the operatic stage. This book is easily the most comprehensive, engaging, and just downright fascinating piece of work concerning opera out there. Such grand old dames as Eva Turner, Lily Pons and even Maria Callas expound intelligently and lucidly upon their careers and colleagues, the past, present and future of opera and many other subjects concerning their art and lives. It's an absolute must-read for anyone who's ever been enchanted by the sounds of opera, for it is the story of opera told through the eyes of some of its greatest and most colorful interpreters