Anna Russell, who performed that wonderful parody of Wagner's RING, had died. Here is a link to the obituary in the New York Times (I haven't seen any obits in UK or European papers yet, but apparently her death has also been reported in the Australian press.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/obituaries/20russell.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
"I'm not making this up, you know!"
"of course, Gutrune is the only woman Siegfried's ever met who hasn't been his aunt".
My favourite lines from her RING parody.
