La Stupenda

We have a centenary to celebrate today - that of "La Stupenda", Dame Joan Sutherland.

The leading soprano of the bel canto style for many decades, she worked with all the best orchestras and conductors (not least her husband Richard Bonynge), performed duets with major operatic superstars like Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne, and was famously directed in an on-screen version of Lucia de Lammamoor by none other than Franco Zefferelli.

We loved our Joan - her Suor Angelica, her Tosca, her Die Fledermaus, her Norma and her Lucia di Lammermoor. We particularly treasure a vinyl album rarity of Miss Sutherland performing Noel Coward songs with the Master himself!

As down-to-earth as a sheep-shearer from the outback of Oz, Dame Joan was never known for her refinement in real life - she famously said "If I weren't reasonably placid, I don`t think I could cope with this sort of life. To be a diva, you've got to be absolutely like a horse."

But what a singer! She was lauded by her contemporaries - Luciano Pavarotti described her as having "the voice of the century", and Monserrat Caballe once said her voice was "like heaven". Joan's was the voice that opened the Sydney Opera House in 1973, and it was from that stage that she announced her retirement in 1990. That was a huge loss to music...

There will certainly never be another Dame Joan Sutherland!

Joan Sutherland - Vissi d'Arte [Puccini - Tosca]

Joan Sutherland - Casta diva [Bellini - Norma]

Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne - Mira, o Norma [Bellini - Norma]

Joan Sutherland and Huguette Tourangeau - Flower Duet [Delibes - Lakmé]

Dame Joan Alston Sutherland OM AC DBE (7th November 1926 – 10th October 2010)

The season wasted

Lo, the summer is dead, the sun is faded,
Even like as a leaf the year is withered,
All the fruits of the day from all her branches
Gathered, neither is any left to gather.
All the flowers are dead, the tender blossoms,
All are taken away; the season wasted,
Like an ember among the fallen ashes.

- from Hendecasyllabics by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Sadly, British Summer Time is over - all the nights will be dark from now until next March.

Sob.

This weekend, I am mostly dressing casual...

...like today's birthday girl, Miss Lilyan Tashman, who was born 130 years ago today!

The dangerous blonde

RIP, Miss Eva Marie Saint, one of the longest-surviving actresses of the "Golden Age" of 1940s-50s Hollywood, who has claimed her place in Fabulon at the remarkable age of 102.

More Eva here.

The Divine Sophia

Many happy returns to the glorious Signorina Sophia Loren, 91 years old today!

Enjoy your jellied eels.

Farewell, the Rajah of Rhinestones

Very sad news - the most glittering of all costume designers, beloved of "our kind of Diva" for generations, Mr Bob Mackie has departed for Fabulon - where, no doubt all the dearly departed doyennes of showbiz will be mobbing him for bugle beads and shimmy frocks for eternity...

He certainly led a charmed life - an outrageously camp man, he made his fortune designing outrageously camp frocks for a pantheon of divas, as well as for numerous Vegas burlesque extravaganzas, and even Carol Burnett's TV show (which was a huge hit in America but never made a dent here in the UK).

His client list reads like a roll-call of Patron Saints here at Dolores Delargo Towers: Judy Garland, Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, Tina Turner, Shirley MacLaine, Mitzi Gaynor, Celia Cruz, Ann-Margret, Agnes Moorehead, Carol Channing, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Chita Rivera, Joan Collins, and many, many more.

Of course, his most enduring - and possibly most outré - of all professional relationships was with Cher. A marriage made in heaven!

"If a woman is going to do an hour and a half onstage, and she’s just in a little black dress, she’d better be Judy Garland. You’re there to see her, you’re not just listening. So there needs to be something visual. At the same time, if you don’t make them look good, you’ve defeated the purpose of putting something on them. It’s all about making them look thinner and taller and fabulous. "

“We live in a jeans and T-shirt world but we all want to live in a palace ... We're not trying to attract the masses here. We're looking for a special person who's looking for something special.”

"I've been called the Sultan of Sequins, the Rajah of Rhinestones and the King of Glitz. I probably have more titles than any other designer."

RIP, Robert Gordon "Bob" Mackie (24th March 1939 – 14th September 2026)

Rubens with jokes

It's the centenary today of the birth of that most beloved of British artists, the wonderful, quirky and humorous Beryl Cook!

Described by Victoria Wood as "Rubens with jokes", Beryl Cook's work was just so instantly recognisable that it is no wonder that the public took to her work in such a big way - whether in greetings cards, calendars or prints. Vulgar, always larger-than-life, and uplifting, Beryl's fat and jolly characters are very British - like a smutty seaside postcard, or a Hattie Jacques innuendo in a Carry On film.

The big, fun-loving characters featured in her work were largely inspired by people in Plymouth's pubs, including the long-gone gay pub the Lockyer Tavern [haunt of the youthful Madam Arcati]. In fact, Beryl was a well-known and admired character on the gay scene in the city over the decades, often popping up in the back bar of The Swallow or in the locally fondly-remembered Mr Harry's nightclub.

There was nobody quite like Beryl! Beryl Cook (10th September 1926 – 28th May 2008)