Julia Migenes has returned to the Odyssey, after a nine-year interlude, with her hilarious one-person show, Diva on the Verge. The new version is shorter and is performed without an intermission, but it still retains its humor and irreverence where the world of opera is concerned.
Migenes, a small, lithe woman with a mop of curly red hair, is no stranger to opera, having once sung as a soprano with major companies in the USA and abroad. She has used her experiences in such operas as Lucia di Lammermoor, Carmen and Turandot to poke fun at those and other works. To do it, she combines slapstick with satire -- think Carol Burnett crossed with Victor Borge.
Migenes' favorite operatic targets are divas, "Prussian" directors and the silent-movie style of acting. She also has great fun in describing the absurd storylines of most operas -- and the way they love to kill off the heroine, either by poisoning, stabbing, hanging or tuberculosis. "It's always the woman who must die, never the man," she points out.
Working in a comedic tradition that was launched by Wagnerian tenor Walter Slezak back in the 1930s -- "Bring on the Swans" was the name of his autobiography -- Migenes also shows off her still-impressive vocal skills. Backed up by pianist Victoria Kirsch, she sings at least half a dozen different arias, plus a long and lilting Spanish love song.
You don't have to love, or even know, opera to enjoy this immensely entertaining and beguiling tour de force.
