parterre box presents La Cieca

Thanks to High C’s for this excellent topic suggestion.

La Cieca thanks cher Charles for sending this “funniest, most withering description of singers ever written” from James M. Cain’s Mildred Pierce.

[Mildred has learned of of her estranged daughter Veda’s success as a singer and decides to effect a reconciliation with her by approaching Mr. Treviso, Veda’s conductor, mentor and teacher.]

“This is not a question of money.”

“No, by God, sure is not. You go to zoo, hey? See little snake? Is come from India, is all red, yellow, black, very pretty little snake. You take home, hey? Make little pet, like puppy dog? No - you got more sense. I tell you, is same with this Veda. You buy ticket, you look at little snake, but you no take home. No.”

“Are you insinuating that my daughter is a snake?”

“No - is a coloratura soprano, is much worse. A little snake, love mamma, do what papa tells maybe, but a coloratura soprano loves nobody but own goddamn self. Is son-bitch-bast’, worse than all a snake in a world. Madame, you leave this girl alone.”

As Mildred sat blinking, trying to get adjusted to the wholly unexpected turn the interview had taken, Mr. Treviso took another turn around the room, then apparently became more interested in his subject than he had intended. He sat down now, tapped her knee again, said:” This girl, she is coloratura, inside, outside, all over.”  (more…)

La Cieca offers her own personal salute to a very special holiday with an edition of Unnatural Acts of Opera featuring Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia. In this legendary April 20, 1965 performance, the eponymous antiheroine is Montserrat Caballé.

Lucrezia Borgia (Prologue)

“Houston Grand Opera has appointed Laura Canning to run its young-artist training program, Houston Grand Opera Studio, effective Aug. 1. She follows General Director and CEO Anthony Freud from the Welsh National Opera, where she has been artistic administrator for the last ten years.” [via musicalamerica.com]

And who the fuck, you may ask, is Laura Canning?  Well, a quick Google search turned up this tidbit illustrating her prowess as a vocal mentor:

Laura Canning, artistic administrator for the Welsh National Opera, agrees that Paul [Potts] is right to be resting his voice.

“I am really pleased to see that he is taking this whole thing seriously and looking after himself,” she said.

“Paul has got very strong vocal cords, which is why it is so important to look after them.”

. . . . And she is delighted about his meteoric rise to fame.

“No matter what people think about shows like Britain’s Got Talent, it is fantastic that opera is being brought to a whole new audience and the fact he is from Wales makes it even better,” said Laura.

A very young Anna Moffo sings La sonnambula.

First the bad news, or anyway the bad news for us New Yorkers. Why the hell should Seattle Opera get Mariusz Kwiecien in Puritani, whereas we get — whatever his name was?

Now the good news, though Seattle may think otherwise: Nick Scholl is moving to New York! (The photo’s a detail of an image from Trrill’s MySpace.)

Conductor Franz Welser-Moest (not pictured) has backed out of two performances of Die Fledermaus at the Zurich Opera, complaining that he was “unhappy” with the staging by Michael Sturminger. One innovation in this production is the inclusion of several vampires among Orlovsky’s retinue, which of course means that good old Frosch has lots of funny business with crosses and garlic and stuff. Other than this bit of whimsy, the show seems not to be up to much: according to the Wiener Zeitung, “Charme, Erotik und das Doppelbödige sind der Königin der Operetten restlos ausgetrieben.”

The performances Welser-Moest has canceled, May 17 and June 20, are scheduled to be videotaped for future DVD release with Ralf Weikert filling in as conductor. Welser-Moest will become music director of the Vienna State Opera beginning in the 2010-11 season. [via International Herald Tribune]