Fred Plotkin, a pleasure activist and passionate Italy and culinary expert, speaks each Friday with leading people in the arts
Ermonela Jaho will be starring in La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera starting January 5, 2023
FRED PLOTKIN is one of America’s foremost experts on opera and has distinguished himself in many fields as a writer, speaker, consultant and as a compelling teacher. He is an expert on everything Italian, the person other so-called Italy experts turn to for definitive information. Fred discovered the concept of "The Renaissance Man" as a small child and has devoted himself to pursuing that ideal as the central role of his life. In a “Public Lives” profile in The New York Times on August 30, 2002, Plotkin was described as "one of those New York word-of-mouth legends, known by the cognoscenti for his renaissance mastery of two seemingly separate disciplines: music and the food of Italy." In the same publication, on May 11, 2006, it was written that "Fred is a New Yorker, but has the soul of an Italian."
Hello, Fred. Enjoyed your interview with Ermonela Jaho and I am looking forward to hearing/seeing you at the upcoming Bjorling conference. I wanted to make you aware of a new Maria Callas release by the Canadian label High Definition Tape Transfers (HDTT--highdeftapetransfers.ca), of Callas' concert in Copenhagen on June 9, 1963, offered in a variety of hi-def download formats as well as on conventional CD, based on a new high resolution transfer of the original tape, lovingly restored. It also includes four bonus tracks from the preceding concert in Paris on June 5. Feel free to contact me for further information (jhaleyesq@gmail.com). Thanks, John