Last year’s The Battle of Versailles was a revelation, treating the world of high fashion as seriously as combat, and in the process teaching me something about an art form I’d always regarded as frivolous.

Here’s a piece of good news: apparently Versailles did so well that it’s now the basis for an entire series. For its first sequel, The Battle of the Divas by Albert Reyes, the topic is opera, a form I’ve never considered frivolous so much as impenetrable. But in Reyes’ hands, the lifelong feud between Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi becomes gripping, a tale of self-mastery, success and setback, and hitting those high notes.

Also cattiness. So much cattiness. It’s good that Divas is leaning into what made Versailles so playable.

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