Description:
In Marcia Lieberman's remarkable photographs, opera singers are not onstage, but they're not entirely off, either. She shot them in their dressing rooms during performances--costumed, wigged, and massively made-up, immersed in the characters they were in the midst of playing. Often extreme close-ups, the photos ruthlessly illuminate pores, nostrils, and fake jewelry. When Divas Confess fulfills its tabloid title only in a metaphoric way. There are no confessions here--the divas, male and female, are not quoted at all. And the epigrammatic morsels of text by music critic Paul Griffiths are beside the point. But the photos draw us into a strange intimacy with their subjects, as if proximity will allow us to enter their skin, even as the singers remain veiled by layers of makeup. Unfailingly vibrant before the camera, they also wear the faces of their characters, behind which they are remote and elusive. Lieberman's subjects, about 60 of them, range from famous to relatively unknown. The most delicious shots are the most artificial, like James Morris as Boris Godunov, with his blue-tinted eyebrows, beard, and hairpiece plainly glued on. Samuel Ramey as Mefistofele wears red paint with his features outlined in black, like a character out of Kabuki. Felicity Palmer in La Fille du Régiment is admirably lordly despite an orange wig, costume pearls, and maquillage so heavy her eyes are barely visible. Not all the pictures are so theatrical. Dawn Upshaw as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro gives a straightforward, amiable portrait; Placido Domingo in Un Ballo in Maschera poses graciously, looking more like a king than like someone who plays one. Tacky trappings and unflattering light in these photos only set off the singers' commitment to the worlds they are creating. Campiness gives way to Lieberman's love for the mysterious alchemy of the stage, which radiates from these pages. --David Olivenbaum
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