LA DIVINA

In her latest laminating of a celebrity lily, Edwards (The Grimadlis of Monaco; Wallis, etc.) carefully avoids naming names in this blowzy fictional take on the doomed diva, Maria Callas, whose sensational opera career had all too short a lease of 12 years. A railroad apartment in the Bronx was an unlikely nest for a famous soprano, but it was there that the young Athena Varosoupolos first heard a record of Aida and learned piano. In 1939, though, unhappy mother Kuri, with Athena and voluptuous Aunt Seraphina, returned to her native Athens, leaving Athena's gentle, failed father in New York. It is while living at the house of that elderly and kind charmer Uncle Spiro that Athena is ``discovered''—but then Athens suffers during invasions of WW II; Seraphina is destroyed in spirit; and Athena's coach is killed as a spy. Athena's career takes off after the war, and in Italy, under the wing of a Famous Conductor, she scores in La Gioconda, where ``her voice lunged thrillingly to an A flat...before she fell dead in a heap.'' There's a marriage to banker Roberto—her future manager, but, alas, homosexual. Then enter Mano Zakarias, a shipping magnate—short, tough; he will marry a Famous Widow. The now Famous Athena is a staple on Mano's yacht with celebs like Coward, Dietrich, et al. Athena waits for marriage with Mano, but there's the horrible news of his marriage to the Widow. After a screaming breakdown, Athena will proclaim, head high, ``I am still...la Divina!'' There's more about high living than about high notes here- -though we doubt Noel Coward ever could say, ``Frankly, I'm grateful to whomever placed you beside me.'' Still, with all the glitter, drama, and naughty bits, frankly, whom cares?