“Strong feeling, uncompromising frankness” – Marina Warner. A world-famous opera star experiences all the pain and the passion of womanhood that she sings about in her beloved arias. A modern morality tale exploring the complexities of motherhood, femininity and fame, originally published in The Four Marys, a quartet of edgy contemporary novellas drawing on Celtic history and folklore.
Big dreams, dashed hopes and romance are at the heart of this biography of Norma and George Pocaterra. The story begins in 1903 when George Pocaterra left Italy and came to the Canadian Rockies with hopes of striking it rich. George is best known for establishing the Buffalo Head Ranch in the foothills of Alberta. He developed a close friendship with members of the Stoney Indians, and was one of the first non-Natives to explore much of what is now called Kananaskis Country. In 1933, he returned to Italy, where he met and fell in love with Norma Piper, a young Calgary singer who had moved to Italy to study opera. They eventually married, and George took over the management of Norma's rising operatic career. World War II forced a return to Canada in 1939. In Calgary, Norma became part of the local music scene, giving concerts and teaching singing at Mount Royal College. In 1955, she started her own studio and over the next 25 years became one of Calgary's most loved music teachers. George, meanwhile, continued with his coal-mining ventures, although he suffered bitter disappointments. Drawing on personal diaries and correspondence, the authors have created an intimate portrait of these remarkable Albertans who became, each in their own way, legends in their lifetimes.
Maria Callas (1923–77) was the greatest opera diva of all time. Despite a career that remains unmatched by any prima donna, much of her life was overshadowed by her fiery relationship with Aristotle Onassis, who broke her heart when he left her for Jacqueline Kennedy, and her legendary tantrums on and off the stage. However, little is known about the woman behind the diva. She was a girl brought up between New York and Greece, who was forced to sing by her emotionally abusive mother and who left her family behind in Greece for an international career. Feted by royalty and Hollywood stars, she fought sexism to rise to the top, but there was one thing she wanted but could not have – a happy private life. In Cast a Diva, bestselling author Lyndsy Spence draws on previously unseen documents to reveal the raw, tragic story of a true icon.
Murder, Music and Sexual Obsession in New Orleans. Beautiful and talented, Belinda wants to be a star. But fame can be dangerous. A deranged stalker is obsessed with her. He'll do anything to have her: blackmail, kidnapping, even murder. One year post-Katrina, NOPD Detective Frank Renzi battles drug-dealing gangs who roam the city. Soon Renzi has another problem. When Belinda rejects the deranged stalker, he kidnaps her. Will Renzi find the feisty flutist in time? Praise for DIVA "Fleet takes us inside the head of an obsessed stalker as he lusts after his victim." - Tom Bryson, Too Smart To Die "A very suspenseful book!" - Feathered Quill Book Reviews "Fleet subtitles Diva, a novel of suspense. That's an understatement!" - Jan Herman, Arts Journal
Why do some restaurant brands succeed while most disappear even before the main course is served? Is there a market at all for luxury dining? Should you scale up your concept or limit your ambition? Should you seek private equity investment or is it better to grow slow and steady? How much does PR help? What alchemical andaz of location, food, service and financial planning makes for a perfect recipe? In India’s cut-throat restaurant industry, fame and fortune rest on a knife’s edge. Over the past two decades, the sector has seen an unprecedented boom – with the introduction of experiential restaurants, global cuisines and modern Indian food, and chefs seeking to establish credible ventures to serve consumers more open to culinary diversity than ever before. But behind all the glamour, there lies a cautionary tale: restaurants are a tough business in a market characterized by high costs, an unclear regulatory framework and fickle consumers who often prize discounts over quality. And while the last few years have seen private equity investment enter the space, there have been few notable exits, and returns on investment remain nebulous even as restaurants struggle with slim profit margins and high mortality rates. In Business on a Platter, Anoothi Vishal dives deep into the complex business of restaurants and takes a hard look at where it’s all headed. Building on her observations of the sector over two decades, she analyses stories of survival, failure and turnarounds, while also tracing the history of food retail from Mughal India to the newest brands pushing the envelope. Incisive and percipient, this book is the ultimate guide to the business of food in India.
While undergoing routine surgery to remove a benign tumor, Ruby Elzy died. She was only thirty-five. Had she lived, she would have been one of the first Black artists to appear in grand opera. Although now in the shadows, she was a shining star in her day. She entertained Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House. She was Paul Robeson's leading lady in the movie version of The Emperor Jones. She starred in Birth of the Blues opposite Bing Crosby and Mary Martin. She sang at Harlem's Apollo Theater and in the Hollywood Bowl. Her remarkable soprano voice was known to millions over the radio. She was personally chosen by George Gershwin to create one of the leading roles in his masterpiece, that of Serena in the original production of Porgy and Bess. Her signature song was the vocally demanding “My Man's Gone Now.” From obscurity she had risen to great heights. Ruby Pearl Elzy (1908-1943) was born in abject poverty in Pontotoc, Mississippi. Her father abandoned the family when she was five, leaving her mother, a strong, devout woman, to raise four small children. Ruby first sang publicly at the age of four and even in childhood dreamed of a career on the stage. Good fortune struck when a visiting professor, overwhelmed upon hearing her beautiful voice at Rust College in Mississippi, arranged for her to study music at Ohio State University. Later, on a Rosenwald Fellowship, she enrolled at the Juilliard School in New York City. After more than eight hundred performances in Porgy and Bess, she set her sights on a huge goal, to sing in grand opera. She was at the peak of her form. While she was preparing for her debut in the title role of Verdi's Aida, tragedy struck. During her brief career, Ruby Elzy was in the top tier of American sopranos and a precursor who paved a way for Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, and other black divas of the operatic stage. This biography acknowledges her exceptional talent, recognizes her contribution to American music, and tells her tragic yet inspiring story.
Here’s an exploration of the complex issues faced by Indian women at the workplace, such as dealing with family pressures, gender perceptions, the glass ceiling, leadership challenges and bringing up children while also excelling in their careers. With insights from renowned and successful women like film director Farah Khan, food writer Karen Anand, actor Lillette Dubey, boxer M.C. Mary Kom, journalist Sharda Ugra, corporate head honchos Devita Saraf, Nisaba Godrej, Aruna Jayanthi, Manisha Girotra and Mallika Srinivasan, casting director Shanoo Sharma and banker Pankajam Sridevi, among others, this book will help the contemporary Indian woman negotiate the professional world.
A comprehensive biography of the life and career of American star of stage and film musicals, Ethel Merman, that chronicles her childhood, family, early film appearances, and success in the entertainment industry.
In her reassessment of Amy Lowell as a major figure in the modern American poetry movement, Melissa Bradshaw uses theories of the diva and female celebrity to account for Lowell's extraordinary literary influence in the early twentieth century and her equally extraordinary disappearance from American letters after her death. Recognizing Amy Lowell as a literary diva, Bradshaw shows, accounts for her commitment to her art, her extravagant self-promotion and self-presentation, and her fame, which was of a kind no longer associated with poets. It also explains the devaluation of Lowell's poetry and criticism, since a woman's diva status is always short-lived and the accomplishments of celebrity women are typically dismissed and trivialized. In restoring Lowell to her place within the American poetic renaissance of the nineteen-teens and twenties, Bradshaw also recovers a vibrant moment in popular culture when poetry enjoyed mainstream popularity, audiences packed poetry readings, and readers avidly followed the honors, exploits, and feuds of their favorite poets in the literary columns of daily newspapers. Drawing on a rich array of letters, memoirs, newspapers, and periodicals, but eschewing the biographical interpretations of her poetry that have often characterized criticism on Lowell, Bradshaw gives us an Amy Lowell who could not be further removed from the lonely victim of ill-health and obesity who appears in earlier book-length studies. Amy Lowell as diva poet takes her rightful place as a powerful writer of modernist verse who achieved her personal and professional goals without capitulating to heteronormative ideals of how a woman should act, think, or appear.
