Backstage drama! The veteran prima donna suspects a conniving newcomer of trying to upstage her — both onstage and off! No, it’s not All About Eve, but almost! Now, on the parterre podcast “Unnatural Acts of Opera,” the Prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos from the Salzburg Festival 1954. Lisa della Casa, Hilde Gueden and Irmgard Seefried are the triumphant triumvirate heading the cast, with Karl Boehm conducting. Following the Prologue, a bonus from La Cieca: more della Casa, singing more Strauss, natuerlich! Hear this podcast now at Unnatural Acts of Opera.
After a service interruption that lost all her files (grrrrr!) La Cieca has restored and restarted her Web radio show Il Gran Teatro della Cieca. Included in this rotation are the Macbeth and Turandot from her podcast, plus complete performances of L’incoronazione di Poppea, Samson et Dalila and Jenufa. Thank you for your patience, and now, please feel free to tune in.
Music fans of all orientations, gay, straight and bi (oops, the Times says you don’t exist, my mistake), well, anyway, music fans around the world finally have news worth talking about. No, we’re not talking about Alberto Vilar, but you’re getting warm. Which is to say, it’s good news.
Sir Elton John and George Michael have kissed and made up. The feud is over! (La Cieca will pause a moment so you can collect yourself.) There, deep breath. La Cieca’s sisters-under-the-skin The 3 AM Girls report that Elton has been phoning (and, surely, emailing and texting and bluetoothing) for weeks, but George has been refusing to pick up or click or whatever. But the duelling divos finally met for a meal prepared by Gordon Ramsay, the Brit chef who yells abuse at everyone on that reality show. Elton has even granted George permission to anthologize their duet “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” whose lyrics have furnished innumerable moments of delightful double-entendre these many years.
A witness to the rapprochement reported, “… George and Elton spent much of the time creased up laughing as they reminded each other of hilarious stories from their past.” La Cieca is not sure what “creased up” means, and she’s not sure she wants to know.
Everyone’s favorite Kiwi songbird, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, is being sued by an Australian promoter because she didn’t show for a series of crossover concerts. The diva was to appear opposite Oz pop star John “The Voice” Farnham, whom she found overly chatty onstage. Says Farnham, “[Dame Kiri] is probably not used to an audience being so demonstrative and demands absolute silence when she works.” La Cieca would make a joke here, but surely you’re way ahead of her. Moment-by-moment coverage of this case can be found at the NZ news site Stuff.
For the first “regular” show of “Unnatural Acts of Opera,” La Cieca presents Shirley Verrett in Act One of Verdi’s Macbeth in a live (and lively!) performance from La Scala, the opening night of the 1975 season. This was surely one of the greatest nights of Verrett’s career, when Kunst and Stimm met in perfect conjunction. And this is by no means a one-woman show — in the title role we will hear Piero Cappuccilli. Rounding out the cast are Franco Tagliavini as Macduff and Nicolai Ghiaurov as Banquo. This live performance was led by Claudio Abbado. For more details [...]
It has come to La Cieca’s attention that not everyone listens to music on an Ipod, or, for that matter, wants to. Chacun a son gout, as she always says. To accomodate those of you who want to listen to “Unnatural Acts of Opera” over your computer’s speakers, she’s added a new gizmo to the site, a simple “play” button that broadcasts especially for you. (No more coming in at the midpoint of Nabucco and trying to guess just who that is singing Fenena!) To try the new on-demand show, just go to Unnatural Acts of Opera and scroll down [...]
Cher Public