We heard him in recital once in Miami – a humble, gentle, courteous, and generous man with a magic touch but still unable to use his right hand due to focal dystonia, a disability caused by the rigors of a much-too-busy playing schedule. Fleisher played the entire repertory of piano for the left hand, taught, conducted well into his 80’s, and even concertized after a late-career recovery of the use of his right hand. Leon Fleisher could out play any other pianist ever even without a usable right hand.
She sang for close to fifty years. At first, her mid-weight lyric voice allowed her to dominate a portion of the Italian repertory. She was a lovely Susanna and Nanetta, a superb Micaela, and later in her career she took on with success heavier roles: Desdemona and Tatiana. As a student in New York and later while living and working there Mirella Freni broke my heart as Mimi in the Zeffirelli production of La boheme.
Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”
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