Opera Tampa Singer Vanessa Rodriguez reveals the four parts of the body to “place” the voice. Plus, she shows how to hit those high notes with no microphone. “It’s the Tweety Bird end of the spectrum,” says Vanessa Rodriguez. We’d asked her to explain what she meant when she told us she was a coloratura... Continue Reading →
The Precocious Host Who’s the Most
Seth Black-Diamond and the new Straz web series, Milkshakes & Opera On January 12, Opera Tampa launched its first-ever web series geared towards kids. The idea? Take a well-loved local 11-year-old performer, give him a hosting gig and sit him across from equally well-loved opera conductors to gab about opera and drink milkshakes donated by... Continue Reading →
School-Girl Crush
The Straz Center’s 96-year-old volunteer extraordinaire, Margaret Goodson, dishes on her love of Forever Plaid. There are certain things people just know about Tampa: Cigars. Cuban sandwiches. Sports. Magic Mike. And Margaret Goodson. If a place is lucky, it will have one spectacular person so ingrained in its culture and identity that you can’t separate... Continue Reading →
Would You Look at that View?
Astronaut Terry Virts and the Sunrise Over Earth from Space Enya’s lilting, lovely Gaelic song “Storms in Africa” drifts in a slow, spiraling melody—perfect for floating in a clear bubble in space while watching the sun spill molten light across the Earth’s bold blue horizon and into the infinite blackness of space. From this bubble,... Continue Reading →
Bloody Hell, Mate
British Actors and Why We Love Them Is it the accent? Perhaps some Stockholm Syndrome-like attachment to the crown? Aristocracy nostalgia? Probably the accent. Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth in Netflix's The Crown. But that doesn’t explain Charlie Chaplin, now does it? Or British siren Vivien Leigh, who played both Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois,... Continue Reading →