Maureen Herself

Maureen McGovern was a secretary when she was hired by Russ Regan to sing the theme from the movie The Poseidon Adventure in 1973. It was a #1 hit. The following year, McGovern sang the theme from The Towering Inferno, "We May Never Love Like This Again," which was not a hit, though it did win an Academy Award. McGovern went on to other movie themes, then distanced herself from such work, appearing on Broadway in The Pirates of Penzance. She built a reputation as a sophisticated pop singer to the point that she was able to headline at Carnegie Hall by the '90s, singing show music and standards by George Gershwin and other songwriters

Ever since the operas of Handel started to return to the stage in the 1920s, Giulio Cesare has been one of the pieces held in high regard. Always known by name through the most famous of Cleopatra’s arias (”V’adoro, pupille” and “Piangerò la sorte mia”) and often produced successfully in Germany, it has gathered a reputation as the best of the composer’s operas-the reasons for which can now be verified by anyone who acquires RCA Victor’s current release of the highly successful New York City Opera production.