June 24–30, 2016

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content and execute the content and the cov-ers,” she said, also mentioning that she has always loved writing.

Hall truly believes that there is nothing in the New York tri-state area market (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) like BELLA mag-azine. And even though she thought that it might take her and the team between 5 and 20 years to truly succeed, she was willing to take that chance.

As it turns out, she was right. Now, five years down the road, BELLA is due to launch in Los Angeles in September.

The plan was always to go national with a bunch of regionals, so that following the Los Angeles edition launch in 2016, Miami will be next in 2017. Then Dallas, Washington, and Chicago—essentially every major market, since the message works everywhere, according to Hall. Most of the content will be the same, apart from possibly the cover photo’s and the street style photo-editorials.

“I think that that’s why BELLA has done so well, because our tag line is ‘beauty defined by you.’ So we want the readers to define beauty in their own lives,” she said.

The Beauty in Her LifeWhile she is partial to taking extra care of her hair, in terms of personal style, Hall prefers to be defined by all things that are beautiful in her life—her family and her positive outlook. She and her husband, who is a partner in the busi-ness, have three children and are living close to her mother-in-law, without whom she sus-pects that raising three children would have been a much greater challenge.

“It takes a village,” Hall said, about raising a family, with a laugh that ended on a note of cheerful nervousness, alluding to the chal-lenges faced by any working mother seeking to attain that elusive work-life balance.

In terms of her own fashion sense and style, Hall credits her mother for instilling in her the idea that one must look one’s best at all times. Her mother was strict about what she was allowed to wear, with jeans and T-shirts being out of the question. Unsurprisingly, Hall was voted Best Dressed in high school, and while she admits to now wearing jeans on weekends, the style etiquette has stayed with her.

“I think fashion is not about a product or a brand, but it’s about your eye. It’s all about

being able to put it together, and a lot of women struggle with that. So in BELLA we try to put together looks that are affordable yet still aspi-rational—so that you can recreate a look that doesn’t break the bank,” she said.

Hall points out that New York is a city full of women who wear just about every style, which is also why she feels, “You really can’t put the New York woman in one spot.”

There is, of course, also the unavoidable truth that having a celebrity on the cover of a mag-azine sells. This is no different in the case of BELLA, although Hall emphasizes that the images are not photo-shopped to the extent that they are in other magazines.

There is no shortage of famous faces who have been supportive since the launch of BELLA. In fact, Hall is amazed by the support from celeb-rities, and is quick to point out that BELLA has grown through the kindness of others. Talk-ing with Hall for any amount of time, it imme-diately becomes obvious that she has the kind of personality that attracts others to join her in her vision.

The first cover was Denise Richards, and since then, Jessica Alba, Taraji P. Henson, Rob Lowe, Olivia Munn, and Maria Shriver are among the many celebrities who have either graced the cover or have been featured in the magazine. The current May/June issue features actress Jaime Pressly with minimal make-up and a down-to-earth attitude that undoubt-edly resonates with the BELLA reader.

What Really MattersApart from the aesthetic beauty, what Hall is really interested in celebrating is the inner

It’s about having a dream and having the guts to follow that dream.Courtenay Hall

beauty, something that is a result of living a good life, which should also make room for giving back.

“What’s more beautiful than helping some-body else?” said Hall.

In terms of form, the magazine has the usual sections: features on celebrities, style, health, travel, dining, beauty products, and philan-thropy. The real difference is in the overall message.

“I think that what makes BELLA very dif-ferent is that we are tackling beauty in such a new way,” Hall said, adding that not everyone is going to be “model-beautiful” and it is unre-alistic for women to be constantly reminded of that, because we all look different.

“It doesn’t really matter what you look like, if the main things aren’t there for you. I think that women need to find that in their own lives and I don’t think it should be dictated,” she said.

While the magazine continues to grow, Hall has also taken on new roles. Since 2015, Hall has also been in front of the camera as special style correspondent for “Celebrity Page TV,” which allows her to spread the word about the brand.

At the core of Hall’s accomplishments there is more than just a belief in her own vision. She mentioned that although not many people speak about God, her belief plays a huge role in her life, and also fuels her belief in herself.

“I owe everything to His grace, because this shouldn’t have been a success—as everyone has reminded me many times,” Hall said. Follow-ing that, what inspires her is making a differ-ence through her message and by example.

“I don’t want to leave this Earth and not have put out my message. I want it to be positive and upbeat, and I want women to feel that you can be told ‘No’ or you could be told ‘You’re crazy, you can’t launch a magazine,’ but it can hap-pen if you really believe in yourself. It’s about having a dream and having the guts to follow that dream,” she said.

Decca Records Shows Its Commitment to Vocal ArtBy Barry Bassis

“The Decca Sound: 55 Great Vocal Recitals” is a deluxe box set that presents many of the lead-ing singers of classical music recorded between 1950 and 2010.

The collection comprises only studio record-ings, and the sound quality (even from the mono era) is excellent.

Each CD has a reproduction of the origi-nal album cover, and Decca generously adds bonuses that give a fuller picture of each art-ist. For example, the Gérard Souzay CD has his 1956 LP “French Operatic Arias” plus a delight-ful group of songs by Gabriel Fauré.

The charming Jennifer Vyvyan “Mozart and Haydn Recital” (1957) is supplemented by two scenes from Benjamin Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw,” a role that the singer originated, with the composer conducting.

Régine Crespin’s 1957 recital of songs by Schumann, Wolf, Debussy, and Poulenc (1967) is filled out with opera arias.

The set includes debut recitals by such spec-tacular talents as Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Angela Gheorghiu, and Cecilia Bartoli. Some of the most familiar singers appear in unexpected ways, such as a duet album by Mirella Freni and Renata Scotto or Kiri Te Kanawa singing art songs.

Listen to the CDs of Robert Merrill and Sher-rill Milnes and ask yourself if there are any bar-itones with voices of this quality singing Ital-ian and French operas today.

Others who defined an era on this collection are Wagnerian soprano Birgit Nilsson and Ital-ian soprano Renata Tebaldi.

Italian tenor Mario Del Monaco overwhelms with his power while Carlo Bergonzi impresses with his style.

The Giuseppe Di Stefano album of arias and Neapolitan songs was recorded in 1958 when the most beautiful tenor voice of the postwar era was already in decline.

There are opera singers whose careers flamed out, such as Elena Souliotis, or went into teach-ing, like Susan Dunn. The recitals here, recorded at the singers’ peak, show what caused the excite-ment when they appeared on the scene.

How often have I put on a recital of a singer whose name was vaguely familiar with the intention of puttering about my apartment and found myself transfixed by the artistry of a Paata Burchuladze or a Paul Schöffler.

Some of the excit-ing recordings are by artists better known in Europe, for example, Maria Chiara and Sylvia Sass.

The set comes with a booklet on glossy paper con-taining a history of Decca’s classical vocal albums by Raymond McGill and track lists and information about each recording, as

well as photos of the artists.For an idea of the importance of some of

these singers, consider their accompanists: pianist Vladimir Ashkenazi with Elisabeth Söderström, Jean-Yves Thibaudet with Bri-gitte Fassbaender, Benjamin Britten perform-ing Schubert’s “Winterreise” with Peter Pears, or conductors like Claudio Abbado with Jonas Kaufmann, Sir Georg Solti with Renée Flem-ing, and Sir Roger Norrington with counter-tenor Andreas Scholl.

The set has quite a bit of variety. In addition to Italian, French, German, and Russian opera arias, there are collections of operetta (Hilde Gueden), Scandinavian songs (Tom Krause and Barbara Bonney), as well as German lieder (Hermann Prey, Hans Hotter, and Lisa Della

Casa) and Russian songs (bass Martti Talvela, who was a towering Boris Godunov at the Met).

Another great bass, Nicolai Ghiaurov, sings Verdi and Mussorgsky while Fernando Corena exemplifies Italian buffa style and Leo Nucci bel canto.

The unforgettable contralto Kathleen Ferrier performs Bach and Handel arias in 1952, one year before she died from cancer. Kirsten Flag-stad sings Wagner and Sibelius toward the end of her long career, while mezzo-sopranos Giul-ietta Simionato, Teresa Berganza, and Huguette Tourangeau are captured at their peak.

Some singers I have seen live are fondly remembered with collections here: native New Yorker Regina Resnik (my first Car-men, albeit in a concert performance), Eng-lish soprano Gwyneth Jones singing Verdi here (“Der Rosenkavalier” when I saw her), or Pilar Lorengar (who in a Lincoln Center concert at one point took out a guitar and accompanied herself while she sang Spanish songs). On this collection, she sings a range of opera arias.

Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja displayed his golden voice in “Simon Boccanegra” at the Met this past season, and Juan Diego Flórez seems to have suc-ceeded Pavarotti as the “king of the high C’s.”

The set is an incredible bargain, selling on Amazon for as little as $2 per disc. Lovers of vocal music should not miss it.

Barry Bassis has been a music, theater, and travel writer for over a decade for various publications.

CD Reviews

The cover of one of the 55 CDs in the boxed set “The Decca Sound: 55 Great Vocal Recitals.”

DECCA DECCA

BELLA began six years ago in Hall’s

living room.

(Bottom left) Courtenay Hall (R) with actress Jaime Pressly at the launch party for Pressly’s May/June 2016 BELLA New York cover in Los Angeles.

Donald Trump (R) looks over photos that will be used for the BELLA New York cover.

COURTESY OF COURTENAY HALL

COURTESY OF COURTENAY HALL

BENJAMIN CHASTEEN/EPOCH TIMES