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• One Per Person

A `Jewish' Mimi

• Not Good Holidays
• 10 Person Minimum

DELIVERY
AVAILABLE

L

I

24555 W. 12 MILE

Just west of Telegraph • Southfield

LET US CATER YOUR NEXT AFFAIR

• Baked Potato • Rice Pilaf • Honey Glazed Carrots • Corn-Off-The-Cob •BA

THE INTELLIGENT CHICKEN

WHERE SMART PEO EAT

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•

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4

loft opp

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20.4z
(serves

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•
I 5 chicken breasts
Medium side dishes
• 5
5 rolls

0
04

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-0

I

1

coupon per

visit. No

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•

Evires 10/31/00

After 3:00

0

prn.

exceptions.

ft. ft. ft.i .ft

(248) 855-4455

10/13
2000

88

ft.

32431 Northwestern Hwy. (between 14 & Middlebelt, Farmington Hills)
M-F: 11 am-8:30 pm; Sat: 11 am-3 pm

Cole Slaw • Garden Salad • Chicken Noodle Soup • Rice Pilaf

CS

•

p

Inese Galante sings a lead role in
Puccini's "La Boheme."

in
, who scars open
l teB
cciGnia ,sar;a
neuse
to open
Michigan Opera Theatre's 2000-
2001 season, was in superb voice
during an interview in her downtown
Detroit hotel. And she didn't even sing.
The outspoken and charming
Galante, who is Jewish, will alternate in
the role of the frail seamstress Mimi,
one of opera's most pitiful heroines.
Relaxing between rehearsals,
Galante, a native of Riga, Latvia, rem-
inisced how, as a child, she fantasized
her future opera stardom. She also
boasted of being a devout socialist,
told how she went to college to
become a pharmacist, revealed how
her parents really wanted her to be a
doctor and intoned that Detroit
reminds her of Siberia.
In her first visit to the Motor City as
she makes her MOT debut, Galante
chided Detroit for being "sort of a dead
town, like parts of Siberia," but she's
making friends the longer she stays and
is getting to enjoy the city more.
She also doesn't like alternating as
Mimi, whom she will play for only
three performances, the Sunday mati-
nees of Oct. 15 and 22 and the
evening of Oct. 20. "I don't like par-
ticipating in two casts and I will never
do it again," she said. "It's expensive
for everyone and boring."
Life has been anything but boring
for Galante, who declined to give her
age, but who has a daughter in her
20s and a mother in her 70s. She has
sung in opera houses around the
world, and has achieved the distinc-

tion of being first soloist at the
National State Opera of Latvia.
Galante's father (her maiden name
was Gordina) was an engineer and an
ardent communist in a nation over-
run by the Russians at the end of
World War II. "He was active in the
Communist Party, and he was very
idealistic and romantic," she said.
The family was not very religious,
but we celebrated the Jewish holidays
and our parents made sure my sister
and I learned all of the Jewish tradi-
tions," she added. With a populatiOn
of about 1 million, Riga had only one
synagogue.
Galante started singing folk songs at
the age of 3, accompanied by her moth-
er on the piano and harmonica. When
she grew older, she composed short
opera pieces and sang them as she stood
in the living room by herself, pretend-
ing to be on an opera stage.
She then studied singing at a music
school in Riga, even though her parents
wanted her to be a doctor, "just like
typical Jewish parents," she added.
To appease them, she attended a
small college in Latvia and became a
pharmacist, working in drugstores to
make ends meet. "I worked until the
age of 25, then I was overcome by the
urge to make singing my career," she
reflected.
"My first opera was La Traviata and
I believe I was successful. I also have
sung La Boheme many times, so my
appearance here in Detroit is so natu-
ral for me. I always enjoy playing
Mimi."

