Cyntha Erivo

“Aretha” soars along a vast and soulful life

Some lives are neat and fun-sized; they can easily be condensed into a movie or less.
Then there are the grand exceptions: Starting at 9 p.m. Sunday (March 21), the National Geographic Channe;’s four-night, eight-hour mini-series (shown here) will view the overflowing life of the late Aretha Franklin.
“Aretha had such … a long career,” writer-producer Suzan-Lori Parks told the Television Critics Association, She had “a beautiful life, full of peaks and valleys that we can only imagine living.”
Her music reflected that range. She went from gospel to jazz, then was dubbed “the queen of soul.” She rocked; she dabbled in disco. And when Luciano Pavarotti turned ill, she sang opera at the Grammys. Read more…