Best known for her extraordinary beauty, her equally extraordinary
singing voice (she could go from the deep alto to the high soprano
range in the same role) and for creating the female lead roles in two
classic Broadway plays directed by her husband, Albert Marre: Lalume in
"Kismet" (1953) and Aldonza/Dulcinea in "Man of La Mancha" (1966). Alas
for film audiences, when the films of both plays were made, the roles
went not to Diener, but to Dolores Gray and Sophia Loren,
respectively.