Diva: The New Generation

According to Matheopoulos (Diva: Great Sopranos and Mezzos Discuss their Art), the 1990s has been a ""bumper decade"" for high-quality female singers. In this intriguing book she interviews 14 sopranos, including Barbara Bonney, Renee Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu, Galina Gorchakova, Catherine Malfitano and Carol Vaness, and seven mezzos, including Cecilia Bartoli, Olga Borodina and Jennifer Larmore. Weaving their comments together with her own perceptive observations, she lets them describe their training; their vocal strengths and weaknesses; their career plans; the demands of their roles; their relationships with conductors, directors and other singers; and the work of balancing professional and private lives. Some of the most revealing statements have to do with the singers' insights into the personalities of the characters they play. For example, Bonney views Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier as a spoiled brat who will eventually lose Octavian; Vaness notes that while Verdi's ladies tend to be rather uncomplicated, Bonney tries to make them more so, for example, making Desdemona a fighter, not just a victim; Dolora Zajick learned how to portray Lady Macbeth from watching Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. Matheopoulos's aim is to show that while contemporary female singers from around the world have as much glamour as the divas of the past, they are also intelligent, self-aware and imbued with a good measure of common sense. If these savvy ladies are typical, she proves that today's divas are indeed ""artists first and divas second."" Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)