Antonina Jadwiga "Nina" Siemaszko (born July 14, 1970) is an American film and television actress.

Life and career

Siemaszko was born in Chicago. Her father, Konstanty, was a Polish-born Roman Catholic who was a fighter in the Polish Underground, and who survived the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Her mother, Collette McAllister, was English. Her brothers are Casey Siemaszko, an actor, and Corky Siemaszko, a reporter and writer for the New York Daily News. She attended the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University in Chicago, which her brother Casey also attended.

Her first feature film was in the 1986 comedy movie One More Saturday Night as Karen Lundahl. Her other well-known role in the 1980s was the 1988 comedy film License to Drive, as Les's smart twin sister, Natalie Anderson. She has starred in many TV movies, especially ten Mystery Woman TV movies, the latest of which is Mystery Woman: In the Shadows.

She appeared in the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs as an undercover cop, although her scene was cut; it is available in the deleted scene section on the Reservoir Dogs 10th Anniversary-Special Edition DVD.

Reik is the debut eponymous album from Mexican pop group Reik, released on May 24, 2005 through Sony Music. The album features the singles "Yo Quisiera", "Qué Vida La Mía", "Noviembre Sin Ti", "Niña" and "Levemente". The song "Noviembre Sin Ti" is also featured on the compilation album Now Esto Es Musica! Latino, while "Levemente" is featured on Now Esto Es Musica! Latino 2.

Track listing

Production credits

Nina, o sia La pazza per amore (Nina, or the Girl Driven Mad by Love) is an opera, described as a commedia in prosa ed in verso per musica, in two acts by Giovanni Paisiello to an Italian libretto by Giambattista (also Giovanni Battista) Lorenzi after Giuseppe Carpani's translation of Benoît-Joseph Marsollier's Nina, ou La folle par amour, set by Nicolas Dalayrac in 1786.

The work is a sentimental comedy with set numbers, recitative and spoken dialog. It is set in Italy in the 18th century.

Nina was first performed in a one act version at the Teatro del Reale Sito di Belvedere in Caserta, San Leucio on 25 June 1789. A revised two-act work was presented at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples in the autumn of 1790.

Roles

Discography

Nina is a Nina Simone tribute album recorded by Xiu Xiu. It was released on Graveface Records on December 3, 2013 to generally favorable reviews.

Recording

The idea for the album came while Jamie Stewart was on tour with Swans.Nina was recorded in a day. The album features Jamie Stewart's voice, Ches Smith on drums, Tim Berne and Tony Malaby on saxophones, Andrea Parkins on accordion, and Mary Halvorson on guitar. The latter four had experience in avant jazz. The album reimagines rather than recreates Nina Simone's songs. It was released on Graveface Records on December 3, 2013.

Reception

Nina received a "generally favorable" score of 65 (out of 100) from the ratings aggregator Metacritic. Nate Chinen from The New York Times described the album as accentuating Simone's "spooky, unsettling side". He adds that Stewart's vocals add to the "psychodrama" in "Four Women" and "the wildness" in "Wild Is the Wild". Chinen thought the art rock Nina Simone covers field was already crowded before Nina. Heather Phares of AllMusic considered Stewart's stylistic choices "provocative" and the album Stewart's "most avant-garde ... in years". She added that the album considered the "more progressive aspects" of Simone's music. Kyle Fowle of Slant Magazine thought the album to be Xiu Xiu's "most ambitious ... in years". He thought Stewart's vocal style was out of place on "Don't Explain" and "Just Say I Love Him". Billy Hamilton of Under the Radar wrote that Simone would approve of the album. Mark Richardson of Pitchfork noted a mystical connection between Xiu Xiu and Simone as artists who perform raw emotions, but described the album as a "wasted opportunity" and "weirdly conservative". For this, he blamed Stewart's vocals for being "theatrical" and insincere. Richardson praised the album's selection of songs covered.