parterre box

Rodgers and Hammerstein is as far as Aprile Millo is willing to cross over at Carnegie Hall, and that’s what led to the rift between her and promoter Ron Delsener — and to the cancellation of the October 14 event. La Millo tells her side of the story: NYT.

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Sister Sieglinde summarizes the roiling controversy so far in her Diary, and the most recent whisper La Cieca has heard is, “if that rock promoter wanted Avril Lavigne, he should have hired Avril Lavigne; Aprile is an opera singer.” Among the rumors La Cieca doesn’t believe: Millo is afraid to sing high notes. [Duh, she just did Fanciulla!] The concert wasn’t selling. [Well, everybody La Cieca knows was planning to be there, and a month before the date practically nothing is already sold out. Note, for example, that a Met performance of Manon starring Renee Fleming only a week from [...]

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La Cieca just heard this on opera-l just now, and checked the Ron Delsener Presents web site, which states, yes, “this show has been canceled.” No idea why, but La Cieca will ask around. Update: a source close to the Delsener organization has told La Cieca that the promoter and the artist had “artistic differences,” which could mean just about anything, but LC’s educated guess is that the sticking point was repertoire. What La Cieca does know is that this all happened very suddenly; as of Sunday Millo was discussing the upcoming recital with great anticipation without so much as [...]

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Starting tonight on “Unnatural Acts of Opera,” something of a departure, in more ways that one. To begin with, it’s La Cieca’s first snippet show, featuring individual scenes and arias instead of the more familiar whole acts. The other strange part about this show is that it features the type of singer La Cieca doesn’t rant about all that much, i.e., the “Stimmdiva.” So it’s a whole show of voluptuous vocalism, featuring sopranos Ghena Dimitrova and Alessandra Marc in selections from Verdi, Puccini, Strauss, Ponchielli, Barber and more! Unnatural Acts of Opera.

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“Tell me, Roberto, does this costume make my manly butt look big?” Speaking of which, has Anthony Tommasini started writing under an assumed name?

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A close reading of Paul Kellogg‘s announcement of his resignation from the NYCO suggests to La Cieca that there’s some kind of major bad news that’s being kept secret here. I’m thinking that maybe it’s yet another setback in building that new opera house. To be perfectly frank, La Cieca has come to the conclusion that this edifice is not going to arise at the old Red Cross HQ any more than it is at Ground Zero. The most likely address for the new NYCO, she thinks, will be near the bridge on Old Basmany Street.

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Which mega-manager went on a quest to fleece other agents of the most glittering stars on their rosters, but managed to sign only one medium-major name — a soprano whose star vehicle at a swanky summer festival was almost immediately scuttled in favor of a Gilbert and Sullivan revival? (A pity this soprano’s repertoire doesn’t include “Poor Wand’ring One!”)

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