Was there a lot of prima donna-ish behaviour on the opera set?
I don’t think there’s a more aptly named piece out there than ‘Prima Donna’ if you look at how it’s risen through the ranks. The amount of prima donnas who’ve been involved in this work and who’ve taken the title to heart — perhaps myself included. It’s pretty astounding, and it is a testament to the validity and power of this work that it’s survived so many cooks and didn’t get burnt. It’s a really tough little spitfire of an opera and it brings out the prima donna in all of us, which is always fun. It’s an opera about an opera singer — does its “meta-operatic” aspect bring something out in people? Well, I think whenever you’re dealing with or trying to create or trying to suppress, for that matter, the fire that is a diva, you are conjuring up some pretty reckless spirits. This character, Regine St. Laurent, in the opera she’s an older woman, and she’s at a point in her life when she really has to examine her artistic life, but at the same time, she’s sexually aroused. Opera strugg
