Ira Siff to Perform as Legendary Diva Madame Vera

Galupe-Borszkh at Middlebury College Center for the Arts

Parodying the tradition of the grand opera diva,

Ira Siff will appear on Monday, April 27 at 8 p.m. in the Middlebury

College Center for the Arts Concert Hall as the legendary Madame

Vera Galupe-Borszkh, performing her “annual farewell recital.”

Accompanying Siff will be Maestro Folinari-Soave-Coglioni (Ross

Barentyne) on piano.

In a review of Siff’s performance, The Village Voice

commented, “If you think opera is just a lot of screaming,

then…it’s time to learn that you were right all along. The beloved

transvestite diva’s “annual farewell recital” will confirm

all your worst suspicions about the art of the coloratura, with

her wigs piled as high and as wildly off kilter as her top notes.

The other good news is that Madame Vera (in reality Mr. Ira Siff)

does her burlesquing of opera knowingly and sympathetically, from

deep inside the form. Musicologists, peasants, and real-life Met

divas laugh at her together.”

“Time” also offered an affectionate description

of Madame Vera, “Wearing a colossal red fright wig and more

lipstick than Lucille Ball, she commands the stage like Bette

Midler on Benzedrine, casting her stratospheric soprano to the

bleachers as it veers between ear-splitting fortissimos and never-ending

pianissimos.”

Siff is the artistic director of La Gran Scena Opera

Company, with whom he usually performs. He launched the company

in 1981 and, since then, they have performed extensively in theatres

and cities around the world, from New York and Belfast to Rio

de Janeiro. The Company has appeared at the Teatro Municipal in

Caracas, the Munich Theater Festival, London’s Bloomsbury Theatre,

the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and many other locations.

Siff’s Middlebury performance is taking place in

conjunction with a course titled Humor in Art currently being

offered jointly by the College’s history and history of art departments.

Prices for tickets to Siff’s performances often range from $15-$35.

Tickets for his appearance at the Center for the Arts are free

but are required. Tickets are available in advance at the Center

for the Arts box office at 802-443-6433.