Eileen Farrell died last Saturday. (Eileen Farrell, Soprano With a Populist Bent, Dies at 82) She was the prototypical operatic soprano of my early childhood. Of course, I never heard her in opera; I heard her on TV, especially Ed Sullivan and other shows. By the time I was a “serious musician,” she had more or less given up her performing career and was teaching at Indiana University School of Music, where her language was notorious for being so blue it would make a truck driver blush. Today’s young divas aren’t so down to earth as Farrell–they’re too interested in jetting all over the world. Farrell herself admitted that her career was secondary to her life and family. Last night on the radio I heard one of her recordings of a pop song, and it was amazing.