December 2019. Duo Almeh Luz recorded its first album: “Les Chemins de l’Amour”. The CD will be released in May 2020. www.carlamaffioletti.com www.almehluz.com

January 15, 2020. Great news for the fans who are in Maastricht for the André Rieu concerts!!! Carla and Jutta announced a performance / meet and greet / signing session in Maastricht on Sunday July 12th 2020. Location: Cellebroederskapel. Time 3-4 PM. Buy tickets on https://www.ticketkantoor.nl/shop/almeh-maastricht The concert has been postponed to July 4, 2021. To follow Carla’s career, go to her website. https://www.carlamaffioletti.com/calendar/

Click HERE to go to Carla Maffioletti, page 7. And click HERE to start all over with page 1.

April 2020. Carla Maffioletti gave “Breathe and Greet” Opera Singer Exercises on every Sunday afternoon during 20 minutes. Live from her living room in Limburg, the Netherlands! To make our lungs expand, calm and feel strong! Thank you Carla!

Attention to the fans who will be in Maastricht in July! (All concerts canceled, also Almeh Luz). Duo Almeh Luz. Presentation of the new album/signing session. Carla Maffioletti and Jutta Maria Böhnert, organize a performance/meet and greet/signing session on Sunday July 12, 2020, from 3 - 4 PM in the “Cellebroederskapel”, Maastricht. To buy tickets, click https://www.ticketkantoor.nl/shop/almeh-maastricht

April 21st 2020: All André Rieu concerts in July in Maastricht canceled due to worldwide Corona Virus.

May 2020. New CD and fun videos by Carla and Jutta. All ALMEH LUZ concerts in the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and the UK have been canceled too, due to the corona virus. After the “Breath and Meet” exercises on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, Carla and Jutta treated the fans to other very funny videos. They created an inventive way to present every musical track of their new CD “Les Chemins de l'Amour” (the paths of love). The album is available on www.almehluz.com on CD and MP3 Download. For fun and to promote the new album, they created 11 ALMEH COOK videos: cooking combined with music. 11 Recipes for 11 songs, one recipe for each song on the album, flavour and temperament related, straight from their kitchen in Limburg, the Netherlands. You will be able to find the cooking sessions, and the sound tracks at Almeh Luz Instagram Account and on YouTube. On the AlmehLuz website under “blog” you may find the recipes. Here we post “ALMEH COOK” recipe 1: the drunken chicken. The song is “El Vito”. Enjoy!!

Sound track: 1.El Vito 2. Les Berceaux 3. Les Chemins de l’Amour 4. En Jerez de la Frontera 5. Ala 6.Thy hand Belinda, when I’m laid in earth 7. Modinha 8. Alfonsina y el Mar 9. Je ne t’aime pas 10. Surabaya Johnny 11. Azulao.

May 2020. NEW!! SPIA LIVE: Live online concerts and events with ticket sale, bringing joy to a worldwide audience and valuing the performers. Carla Maffioletti on Instagram: “COVID-19 changed the world. We are forced to rethink our lives, reinvent ways to create and survive. The way we are dealing with culture and social media change. That’s why I created the SPIA (Spy) platform of Live Broadcast with ticket sale, to promote a high quality performance for a worldwide audience. SPIA Live is a web keyhole to bring joy to our fans and a way to support Art and it’s Artists. Do you like to know how it works? Click on www.carlamaffioletti.com/spialive to go to my website for more information. There are 3 ticket options. We will start a series of 5 live broadcasts in 2020 via a secret YouTube link. The first one will take place on June 21, at 16 h / 4 PM (Amsterdam time is Greenwich Mean Time + 2 (GMT+2). Mark your calendar!”

June 21, 2020. The first SPIALIVE online concert has taken place and was a big success. The second will be aired on the secret YouTube link on Sunday July 12th 2020, 3 pm Amsterdam time, with a special guest: the Belgian accordion virtuoso Ludo Mariën. So buy your ticket to experience a new kind of house-performance: Serenata na Varanda. https://www.carlamaffioletti.com/spialive/

Photo below by Sonja Harper, USA.

Because of the Italian songs, the final toast was with limoncello. Ruud and Ineke were in Maastricht and watched from the hotel room. The third SPIA LIVE concert is on August 23, 2020, with special guest: Enzo Kok, violinist.

August 23, 2020, the third SPIALIVE concert took place, with guest performers Enzo Kok, violin and Constant Notten, piano. Next on-line concert: Sept. 22, 2020.

SpiaLive the 4th concert on October 11th 2020, at 16.00 GMT (Amsterdam time + 2) will have a Franz Schubert repertoire, performed by the duo Almeh Luz (Carla Maffioletti and Jutta Maria Böhnert).

Introduction by Carla Maffioletti about the repertoire of the 3rd SpiaLive concert

October 2020: Introduction to the LIED afternoon (compositions by Franz Schubert), on Sunday Oct.11th 2020. Carla Maffioletti tells a little about the content of each individual song of the repertoire. Duration of the video: 19 minutes. Don’t forget the coffee with liquor and whipped cream! Mmmmmm.

October 11th 2020. Carla and Jutta, congratulations with the 4th SPIALIVE on-line concert. The Schubert repertoire was of course in German language, since Schubert is a German composer. In general Dutch people know the German music, but the only Schubert songs we knew were “Heiden Röslein” (Heather Rose) and “Ständchen” (Serenade). So we have learned a lot. The fun with these concerts is the ending with a toast. Carla and Jutta usually choose the theme and this time it was: coffee, liquor and whipped cream. Cheers ladies! To a successful future of the duo Almeh Luz!

November 22, 2020. Dear Spies, We are happy to announce our Spia Live 5 which will be divided in 4 meetings on the 4 Sundays of Advent! 15 minutes of Christmas music!!! At 5 PM CET, 4 PM UK and Portugal, 1 PM Brazil, USA 11 AM. November 29 - Adeste Fidelis, O come all ye faithful. December 6 - O Christmas tree. December 13 - Dreaming of a White Christmas. December 20 - Silent Night, Noite Feliz, Stille Nacht. Looking forward to really seeing you, via Zoom, for the first time in Spia Live!!! Reserve your place!!!! www.carlamaffioletti.com/spialive

December 21st, 2020. Thank you Carla and Jutta for your wonderful SPIALIVE concert series and the last four short Advent concerts in December. It was so nice to see you and the fans all over the world on our computer screen, and to hear Carla’s mother sing from Brazil. Thanks for the great video compilation. You girls are fantastic to manage the technical skills!! Thanks that we were allowed to be your spies and we wish you a merry Christmas and a corona-free 2021. Stay safe and healthy.

Order Carla’s and Jutta’s newest Almeh Luz Christmas CD on their website: https://www.carlamaffioletti.com/christmas-shop/

March 31, 2021. The Limburger, by Peter v.d. Berg. Translation by John de Jong. INTERVIEW WITH CARLA MAFFIOLETTI. She composed her own Opera “Pássaro do Paraïso” (Bird of Paradise). With André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra, soprano Carla Maffioletti (41) was already on many large stages all over the world. The Brazilian singer wants to recapture that place with the opera 'Pássaro do Paraïso' written by her. "For me, composing is like mathematics. How do I convert the melody in my head into sheet music on paper." Carla Maffioletti proudly gloats as she slides the inch-thick notebook to the other side of the table. Pássaro do Paraïso is written on it in large letters. The Portuguese words, freely translated, mean bird of paradise. Dozens of pages full of staves with sheet music. The opera which the classically trained singer worked almost daily on with heart and soul in recent months, at home in the Limburg village of “Horn”. She calls it one of the best moments of her life. The creative process has now been completed. The musical piece is ready to be performed in the autumn in theaters. She is going to do this with the Limburg conductor Martijn Pepels and his chamber orchestra "Heritage Sinfonietta." "I have been working on the composition every morning for the past few months. I started the overture years ago. I never had time to continue on. To write music you have to have a lot of quiet. I compare it to mathematics. The melody is in your head, but then you also have to get it on paper. Now it's finally finished. A dream has become reality. It has always been a wish as a composer to make a piece of music. I'm very happy with it." Bird of Paradise. Pássaro do Paraïso is a 45-minute composition. It is a fable story in three parts about the bird of paradise, the macaw and the multicolored cockatoo. The Brazilian Amazon plays a leading role in the opera. Carla Maffioletti – born in Brazil, where her family still lives – also sings about the legends and mythology of the traditional Indians of the area. "Somehow many artists care about the fate of nature. We need to protect the natural environment. I feel powerless when I see how many trees in the rain forests are being cut down. We have to do something about that. With art and music I want to inspire people to a better world with more sensitivity. I think the corona pandemic has caused us to lose our souls a little bit. You can get that back with love, inspiration and solidarity. Say everything that makes us human." The work was created for two sopranos and a baritone. If the corona measures are relaxed and performance is again possible, the opera should become a family party. In addition to Carla Maffioletti, a role has been placed aside for her partner Jutta Maria Böhnert. The musical performance is also intended to appear on stage in Brazil. Then her 46-year-old brother Fabio will also be a part of the production as a baritone. The rapper, as Nitro Di, is a well-known artist in the hip-hop scene in his home country. "I'm really looking forward to that moment," Carla Maffioletti says. "Music is in our family. My last album also features my mother Leda. And I always wanted to do something with my brother Fabio. Hopefully that is all going to be working out now." Brass world. She is also very pleased with her collaboration with Martijn Pepels, a well-known name in the brass band/instrument world. "He invited me. It is not so easy to make arrangements for an entire orchestra. And then we also have to take into account that it all can be performed corona-safe on stage." In principle, the premiere of the opera should take place on 12 October 2021 in theater "De Oranjerie" in Roermond (Limburg, NL). Carla Maffioletti is looking for sponsors who want to financially support the project. "It's quite an expensive production with costumes and video footage and a decent orchestra. There are 25 people on stage, all professional musicians. We would like to go on tour after the premiere. In that respect, we surely could use some help." Chaos. She hopes that the Covid-19 pandemic will soon come to an end. Brazil is one of the worst affected countries. "The entire country is in chaos. A lot of people die and the panic creates a very high emotional burden. Fortunately, my family is healthy. I miss them so much. I see them via Skype/facetime, but I have not visited in two years." That is why she is currently concentrating entirely on her creative activities. A life without music is unthinkable for Carla Maffioletti. With her partner Jutta she has been giving online concerts at home. "On the veranda. People could see us on the Internet via a live stream, while the neighbors could watch live over the fence. The real applause created the necessary atmosphere. That was a nice thing to do." She looks back on a beautiful time with André Rieu and his orchestra. "I'm grateful for that. Now I can go on my own creative way. That's good, too. The fans of yesteryear continue to follow me now that I'm in the middle of a solo career. In fact, I think they've come closer to me. I'm in smaller venues, so direct contact has increased." Future Carla Maffioletti met her partner during the opera La Bohème. "We fell in love and came together. Even musically they are perfectly matched. I don't have a defined plan for the future anymore. Life takes me where it needs to be. That's how I am these days." She is looking forward to the moment that when the music which is in her head can actually be performed. "It's going to be very exciting. How will the public react? Would they like it? It's such a shame that we still have to wait. I want to rehearse, sing with a real orchestra. I can visualize the scenes in front of me. It's going to be a memorable moment."

In May 2024 Carla Maffioletti happened to be in The Hague, our hometown, and we met. We gave her my book about 25 years of fan friendships “Music connects people”.