No, that is not Kevin Williamson, pictured above. It is Hilde Zadek, the fabled soprano who died earlier this year at 101. I have a little piece on the homepage about her today. It tells some things that no one has known about her, until now.
It was an eventful, extraordinary life, Hilde’s. One of the pivots occurred in 1934, when she was 16. (This part has long been known.) She was a schoolgirl in Germany and one of her classmates said, “Es stinkt nach Juden” — “It reeks of Jews.” Hilde punched the girl in the mouth, knocking out her front teeth. Hilde had to get out of town — indeed, out of the country. She went to Palestine.
There, she studied with another refugee — an older one — Rose Pauly, the eminent soprano from Hungary.
Anyway, there’s more . . .
In my piece, I do not link to any of Zadek’s singing. So, here is a little sampler: in Mozart; in Wagner; and in Verdi — her “Libera me” (which ends the Requiem) with Karajan.
Now, what about Kevin? He did some singing earlier in his life — but now he mainly sings on his keyboard (his computer keyboard). His new book is The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics. An independent thinker — someone willing to stand apart from the crowd, or the mob — is a rare gem. Kevin is one.
We talk about his book on Q&A, here. We also talk about conservatism, liberalism, libertarianism, and maybe a few other isms, both salutary and not. And we spend some time on cars, music, novels — some of “life its ownself” (h/t Dan Jenkins).
Have a good day, with Hilde, Kevin, and others who cross your path.