Mistress Regina
Regina Resnik is a renowned opera singer. She was an iconic star at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House.
Her career has seen her take on a variety of challenging roles. She was praised for her ability to bring new dimensions to each role.
The Story
Mistress Regina is an intriguing figure, having endured some tough times throughout her life. She always felt unnoticed by her parents and felt outshone by her older sister Elaine, growing up.
She has suffered from her own personal issues such as alcoholism and an addiction to morphine, yet has managed to remain afloat and become an incredibly successful businesswoman.
She had always imagined finding a husband who would cherish and protect her, but never expected someone as beautiful as George Bligh. Even though he was an accomplished diplomat, his heart still belonged to men, which quickly won over the heart of this young girl. With him by her side, she found true love – both physically and emotionally.
Ultimately, she married him and they went on to have their son Henry. Unfortunately, after some time had passed, she felt unsatisfied with her life, struggling constantly between wanting to please her husband and not getting too close to him.
Her life took an abrupt turn when she became pregnant with Henry. Initially, she felt deeply unhappy and wanted to leave, but due to the baby, it wasn’t possible. Although she tried leaving him and moving on with life, he wasn’t ready yet so she ultimately chose to remain and make the most of everything.
She eventually divorced George and relocated to Sydney, where she reunited with an old friend Richard. Though she intended to live life on her own as she had in the past, just before leaving she receives a letter from Sir telling her that she cannot remain alone anymore and pledging his help in taking good care of her.
She then goes to visit Sarah who is feeling neglected by George. To comfort her, Regina offers to take back the baby that George gave her back and promise him what is owed to her. Unfortunately, Sarah believes George used it as a way of keeping her quiet and in check; unfortunately for her, Richard shoots her dead as he believes Regina was acting as a double agent for him to prevent Jack from being brought back to the hospital.
The Music
Regina Resnik, a mezzo-soprano opera singer and stage director best known for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth with the New Opera Company of New York under Fritz Busch in 1942, began her career at the Metropolitan Opera as a mezzo-soprano after briefly singing Lady Macbeth with them during World War II. Following this brief period as a soprano, Resnik transitioned into mezzo-soprano roles at various opera houses across the US for over three decades.
Her musical collaborations with Bernstein, Solti, Karajan, Klemperer, Reiner and Rostropovich earned her international renown as an accomplished master of the art. In addition to her role as a leading singer, she directed numerous productions and was highly praised for her teaching abilities.
Throughout her career, she performed in some of the world’s renowned theaters, such as the Metropolitan Opera and Covent Garden. Additionally, she directed twelve operas, along with numerous plays and musical comedies.
She was a major force in the operatic revival movement of the 1950s and 1960s, introducing new audiences to classic works like La clemenza di Tito and Dona Nobis Pacem. Additionally, she specialized in roles previously thought impossible for a mezzo-soprano such as Leonora in Il Trovatore and Marina in Boris Godunov.
Her repertoire included works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Strauss, Giuseppe Verdi and Carlo Maria Giulini. With its dark, rich tone, she was perfectly suited for leading roles.
She was born in the Bronx and educated at Hunter College before attending the New York City Opera’s conservatory. In 1944, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Leonora in Il Trovatore.
By the mid-1950s, she had transitioned into a mezzo-soprano and sang in over 300 performances at The Metropolitan Opera, including leading roles such as Lady Macbeth and Carmen.
As a mezzo-soprano, she performed in numerous European opera houses and sang in some of the most significant contemporary American operas. She was an innovator in modern music and wrote her own operas, including Covert or Convert?, an autobiographical piece based on her experiences with an anti-folk group.
The Performance
Resnik was a master of comedy, bringing life and laughs to her roles in Boyz n the Hood, Jerry Maguire, TV’s American Crime and If Beale Street Could Talk. Her latest directorial effort The Leftovers may finally give her the recognition she’s always deserved.
Sometimes, the best performances are those that go overlooked. Regina King’s role as Ray in The Leftovers is one such case – she takes over the film and leaves a trail of intense emotion behind her with an inspiring performance that leaves viewers with tears in their eyes.
She has been a pioneer in fusing performance art with technology, integrating the Internet and interactive social software installations into her work. Her works combine digital media with traditional text transcribed into textiles, creating an unparalleled fusion of art and science.
Her works have been showcased internationally in windows, museums and public spaces. She published the book “The Artist is Present,” which has been translated into multiple languages. Additionally, she taught masterclasses at Bauhaus Dessau in Germany and curated an exhibition for the Bauhaus Museum in Berlin.
One of her most renowned performances was Hermes’ Mistress, which took 35 days to complete. In this work, Frank sat for 777 hours in various museums “harvesting” information from the Internet and writing it out alphabetically on an island-like red dress.
She stitched a spiral of alphabet beads with words that meant something to her, while wearing a scarlet dress as “an homage to the color of the sea,” red-lacquered nails and ruby lips for an alluring performance.
Exit Art/The First World in 1994 featured this piece, which later traveled to numerous museums around the globe. Now part of several institutions’ permanent collections, it remains on view to this day.
Resnik’s other notable opera roles included Klytemnestra in Elektra, Lady Bracknell in Falstaff and the Countess in The Queen of Spades. In her later years she also directed twelve opera productions around the world.
The Appearance
Regina is dressed in a white skirt with wide hems and pleats. Her hair is twisted into two braids, which she has tied with ribbons. She has a perfume bottle in her drawer, drawn from under old rags. With her little finger, she rubs a few drops of perfume in the narrow strip of her bare scalp.
Her face is not bad, a slight frown, a bit of a smile, and she looks at herself in the mirror on the back of her wardrobe’s door. She feels the same way she always does when she’s at home, a sense of peace and contentment that her life is going well.
In her mind, she imagines herself twirling her skirt around her, her feet in the floor, a waltz. Her body is a little stiff, but she feels better and more alive than she has in days. She knows she has not slept for a week, that she must have had something to eat, but she is afraid of being sent away again.
She tries not to think about Basilio. But his big, strong arms, and how he grew in bulk, and the fact that he had bitten her legs while she was holding him tight: these thoughts are always there, even when she is alone. She keeps thinking about it, her blouse rubbing a little erratically in her hands, and the Nino Marcelo squirming his way into her room, trying to seduce her with a kiss, with the tremulous, feverishly sputtering “fuck, fuck.”
He spits out the spittle on the floor just washed and walks back into his room. He has spent his lust too soon.
At the other end of the house, in the patio, is a wattle shed and under it, a large pile of firewood. The black cat crouching in the space between the woodpile and some kerosene cans is not the one she thought she saw in her first weeks at the house, but rather a scraggy stray, much of its body hairless. She calls “scat!” and then, “mish!”, and “phooey!”, but the cat just stares at her.