GMHC Presents:
Ira Siff
Ira Siff is a native New Yorker who spent the better part of his adolescence
on the standing-room line of the Metropolitan Opera worshipping the great singers
of the time. While working toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Cooper Union, Mr. Siff
began to study voice, and in 1970 made his debut as a tenor, creating roles for
composer Al Carmines. After a decade of productions at Circle in the Square,
Playwrights Horizons, The New York Shakespeare Festival, among others, Mr. Siff
became a popular cabaret performer in New York, combining music with parody. In
1980 he founded La Gran Scena Opera Co., and has spent the past fifteen years
leading the company in performances in New York and on tour, as well as performing
administrative and artistic duties on the home front. Mr. Siff is a full-time
vocal coach in New York and also works with singers privately in the preparation
of roles and audition material. As Vera Galupe-Borszkh, Ira Siff has also appeared
in his Second Annual Farewell Recitals in New York, London and Ireland, in several
galas at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall; and on the Donahue Show on TV. He has
received two MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets) Awards, and is particularly
happy and proud that Gran Scena can count among its fans some of the very same
opera stars for whom this show is a tribute. Mr. Siff made his debut in the
Metropolitan Opera House where, as Vera Galupe-Borzskh, he entertained the
Metropolitan Opera Club at their 100th Anniversary Dinner. After this, he
performed Vera's Second Annual Farewell Recital in London's Covent Garden
Festival. Last July Mr. Siff took Vera's Tenth Annual Farewell Recital to
the Verbier Festival. He has also appeared with Opera Francais twice, guesting
as Vera in Orfee aux Enféres and Les Mammelles de Téresias at Lincoln Center
under the baton of Yves Abel.
Vera Galupe-Borszkh
"She defies description, crushes competition, transcends taste.
In short, a born Diva!"
This quote from a recent review of Galupe-Borszkh's triumph
in Traviata sums up the sentiments of a generation of opera
lovers, spellbound by the awesome, yet modest, Russian
soprano. She was born in Cernomorskoye, just across from
the Karkinitskiy Bay from Odessa. For seven years little
Verina swam the bay daily, to and from each voice lesson. This
may account for her phenomenal breath control. After singing
with various regional Slavic opera companies the young Vera
Borszkh decided to go to Italy. She was weary of singing Aida
in languages with no vowels. On her way to Rome she supported
herself by performing wherever there was an offer, gaining
particular attention as Bess in a production of Porgy and Bess
sung in Serbo-Croation (Pirogi and Bess). Arriving in Rome, the
young soprano met and later married the much older bel canto
expert Manuel Galupe, rumored to have been the last living
castrato ("I loved what was left of him") Galupe died on their
honeymoon, but Vera — now Mme. Galupe-Borszkh — found the doors
of every major opera house open to her after her Mad Scene from
Lucia at Galupe's funeral. But it was Borszkh's startling underwater
Tosca at the baths of Caracalla which put her on the map. Defecting
from the USSR and moving to New York ("I am a defective Russian"),
the diva founded La Gran Scena. For the past years she had led the
troupe in more than three hundred and fifty performances. The video
La Gran Scena Live In Munich is a favorite with opera lovers. Not
one for pop "crossover" recordings, nor jet-setting, Mme. Galupe-Borszkh
is one of the old school of singing actresses. In fact she may be
the only one still registered at that school. As one critic described
the "traumatic" soprano: "She reminds one of Maria Callas, but with
Renata Tebaldi's hair!".
Maestro Sergio Zawa
Ira Siff is accompanied as Madame Vera by Lucy Arner, Music Director
of The Annual Farewell Recitals. Lucy is an Assistant Conductor at the
Metropolitan Opera, and cover conductor at New York City Opera. She will
be making debuts as conductor this coming season for New Zealand's Canterbury
Opera, and at Mexico City's prestigious Palacio de Bellas Artes. Lucy is
also Artistic Director of New York Chamber Opera.
© 2005 Gay Men's Health Crisis |
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