Diana used to say that, more often than not, you need 10-20 years to become an “overnight success.”
A few years ago when the TV was on tuned to the PBS “Classic Arts Showcse” 24/7 loop, as a performance of an aria was ending, Diana awakened me after I’d nodded off by asking, “Is that Frederica von Stade singing?”
She didn’t have her glasses on so, since the piece was almost over, i waited the few seconds until the credit was shown and, indeed, it was von Stade. My answer was, “How did you know?”
She replied, “I coached her for Voyage to the Moon before the tour began.”
This exchange slipped my memory until this past October (2016) when i was looking through old programs Diana had stored in order to refresh my memory to write the conclusion of Diana’s piece about her days with the Boston Opera. A few listed some of the smaller roles including one played by “Frederica.” (No last name was used ... years earlier than Cher or Madonna. Then again, after a quick google search and a little arithmetic, i note she was only 14 years old.)
By the time the piece was finished and posted, my memory again went into “sieve-draining mode” until this morning when cleaning out old unread e-mail where this item had not yet been deleted.
This time, rather than plow through all the programs, I located Diana’s Hallmark Date Book from 1959. (She kept handwritten calendars from 1954 to 2013.) The entry for 25 March shows a lesson she gave at Longy School at 6 PM.
July 2017