VIDEO PODCAST: Slava Ukraini! - recorded on the day Europe woke up to the news that Vladimir Putin's Russian forces had invaded Ukraine. Also features Caitríona O'Leary and Eric Fraad discussing their new film Island of Saints, and pays tribute to Joseph Horovitz, Malcolm Troup and Maria Nockin.
FROM ROME: From December 2009 until March 2023, the late Giuseppe Pennisi sent us regular reports from the Italian opera and classical music scene.
German mezzo-soprano Stella Doufexis was born in Frankfurt on 15 April 1968 to Greek director Stavros Doufexis and a German mother. She studied with Ingrid Figur and Anna Reynolds, but also took part in masterclasses given by Aribert Reimann and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
She sang as an ensemble member with Heidelberg Theatre, and later at the Komische Opera in Berlin. She made various guest appearances, including in Aldeburgh, Antwerp, Barcelona, Bonn, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Glasgow, Halle, Jerusalem, London, Lucerne, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Stuttgart and Washington DC.
She lived in Berlin and was married to conductor Christian Jost. She died in Berlin on 15 December 2015, aged forty-seven, following a long illness.