Pictures on the wall

Talk about name dropping! I always enjoy looking at old photos of famous people. But when I was in Evans Mirageas' office at Cincinnati Opera the other day, it was hard not to stare at a couple of photos of him with superstars James Levine and Luciano Pavarotti. Of course, it turns out these guys are Mirageas' old buds.

A lot of his friendships -- La Renee, Cecilia, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna, Sir Georg Solti, et al -- are from when Mirageas was an executive for Decca Records. In his office there's a photo of him with Levine, brother Tom Levine (an artist) and Mirageas' partner, from a recording session of "a crazy recording, this forgettable piece by Verdi called "The Hymn to the Nations," he says.

Then there was the time Mirageas asked Jimmy if he'd play piano (a little Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti?) for a recording with Cecilia Bartoli. "He said, 'Aren’t you smart, you need a real opera pianist for these pieces.' So we made a recording," Evans says.

Levine was, at the time,conducting a new production of the Ring in Bayreuth. So Cecilia went to Bayreuth, and they made the record in "a wonderful old 18th-century jewel box of an opera house" in Bayreuth. Jimmy conducted "Rheingold" Monday night and on Tueday, played Donizetti songs in the little theater.

Photos: Evans caught in a rainstorm in Bayreuth (notice Levine did not offer him his towel) and with Pavarotti in Milan.

For more name-dropping, click here.