If I remember correctly, you told me Ted Puffer gave Dolora Zajick her start.

Terry Gross is usually an excellent interviewer, but today she was in over her head.

Zajick, however, was delightful.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2014/03/19/291410969/dolora-zajick-singing-is-connected-to-the-body

As always, all my best to you both….

Cliffo’

 
Cliffo, Darling!
 
What an astounding memory you have!
 
Yes, Ted Puffer did give Dolora her earliest nurturing and instilled in her the importance of learning the correct singing and spoken pronunciation in all the languages. She went to him at my suggestion (probably in Spring of 1976) after I heard her sing at a get-together at Winnie’s place in Reno.
 
Back then, Dolora was earning extra money to put herself through school at UNR by cleaning houses (including Winnie’s). The other piece of advice I gave her once I heard her “horn” was to become an alto because sopranos are a dime a dozen.
 
The ear for language is something one either has or doesn’t from birth and, I guess, can’t be learned. Johnny Depp has it as well as the ability to get the finest nuance of dialect. His Spanish in Don Juan de Marcos is every bit as perfect as his Scottish when he portrayed Peter Pan author, J.M. Barre, in Finding Neverland.
 
The other night Richard and I flipped past PBS when they aired Angela Gheorghiu singing the “Don’t Force Me Louie” aria from Traviata. Either she has a tin ear for the nuances of Italian or her coaches sucked. (I switched to a re-run of Big Bang Theory within four bars as it was too painful to hear.)
 
Again, thanks for thinking of your OLD pal from so many eons ago. As Alberta Hunter said, “This ol’ Jalopy still has more than a few miles left on ‘er!”
 
With all our dearest love,
 
[Richard and] Diana