The Right District for Divas

Famed soprano Catherine Malfitano has reportedly sold her Laight Street duplex, netting $2.6 million, according to a report earlier this month from the New York Observer.

The story was almost as impressive as the pedigree of the reporter who wrote it: Chloe Malle. She is the daughter of the late, great French director Louis Malle and Candice Bergen. Malle told her readers that the delicious duplex in question had three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, double-height windows and a wood-burning fireplace. The whole thing sounded about as dramatic as the performances that have made Malfitano a co-star of Placido Domingo. But the former "Salome" star and her husband, fellow performer Steven Holowid, have said goodbye to their Tribeca loft.

All this made me wonder: What was such a fierce and fabulous soprano doing that far downtown anyway?