JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO GO BACK TO THE OPERA... Is it a diva? Is it a drag queen? Is it serious? And can it sing? The answers are Yes, Yes, Not Very Often, Most Definitely.

‘It’ is Mme Vera Galupe-Borszkh, a Slavic singer past her prime and out of her league. She is known in the real world as Ira Siff, artistic director of an all-male opera troupe from New York who skew the classics and prove that loving opera and laughing at it are not necessarily incompatible. Ball gowns? Danny La Rue, eat your heart out! Lipstick?? Lucille Ball, you have a lot to learn! Burlesque??? Mel Brooks and the Marx Brothers, move over!

But behind the falsies and the falsetto lies serious musicianship, and the appeal of La Gran Scena goes well beyond the usual drag show. Siff himself studied to become a tenor in the bel canto style, and all the members of the troupe have operatic careers outside their Gran Scena connections.

"Behind the sophisticated satire, real voices are at work"

THE NEW YORK TIMES