parterre box

La Cieca hears that Audra McDonald will sing the role of Kitty Oppenheimer when the Met presents John Adams‘ Dr. Atomic in the 2008-2009 season. La McDonald, it will be remembered, premiered Kitty’s aria “Easter Eve, 1945″ in May 2004 with the New York Philharmonic under Adams’ baton. The versatile songstress is currently in Houston preparing for the March 4 prima of a double bill of La Voix humaine and a new one-woman opera by John Michael LaChiusa entitled Send (who are you? I love you).

Glamour diva Marcella Pobbe stars in this week’s podcast of Giordano’s Fedora on Unnatural Acts of Opera. La Cieca is experimenting with a new web-based player for the podcast on the site; the advantage is that you can select either the current show or else any of the archived shows from a pull-down menu. Do let La Cieca know what you think of this new gadget!

Also new is one of the latest Google Video selections, a performance by Edita Gruberova in the finale of Roberto Devereux from Munich in 2005:

Broadway diva Kristin Chenoweth sang for the Met Thursday in a “closed” audition. Does that mean she was behind a screen like the NY Phil does it? Rumor has it La Cheno is up for Samira (the Marilyn Horne role) the revival of Ghosts of Versailles in 2245 or whenever it is. La Cieca thinks, she’s castable as Adele for sure, or maybe a special run of something like La Perichole? Anyway, here’s a number La Cieca is pretty sure Ms. Chenoweth offered yesterday.

Actress/model/skank Carmen Electra will live up to her dual-barrelled operatic name tonight when she attends the Vienna Opera Ball. Curvy Carmen is the date of Viennese entrepreneur/socialite/reality show star Richard Lugner, who annually throws money at a celebrated piece of arm candy in hopes of attracting publicity.

La Electra (oh, La Cieca thinks that is just so much fun to say!) raised eyebrows at a press conference earlier today when she insisted that she intended to remain fully clothed during tonight’s ball, which is the most important event on the Viennese social calendar. The former Playboy covergirl will wear a black and white designer gown to the event, and will at no time during the evening strip out of it.

Lugner first pulled this paparazzi-friendly stunt in 1993, when he squired Joan Collins accompanied him to the ball. In recent years the level of “star” Lugner attracts has spiraled from B-list to D-cup: Grace Jones, Sarah, Duchess of York, Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Farrah Fawcett, Andie MacDowell and, last year, Geri Halliwell.

Viennese grande dame Christl Schoenfelt, who organized the first Opera Ball in 1956, sniffed, “These women are horrible. Their presence damages the event’s distinguished image.” And then Lugner sued her.

In other opera-related news, La Cieca presents a 1986 recital by Carlo Bergonzi and Piero Cappuccilli on the current Unnatural Acts of Opera.

In an article in the LA Times focused mainly on Placido Domingo’s renewal of his contract as general director of Los Angeles Opera, the tenor blames his current bout of tracheitis on his participation in Robert Wilson’s production of Parsifal last fall. Domingo has already nixed his participation in a Wilson Walkuere skedded for Paris in April, but he’s planning on performing Cyrano at the Met on March 8 — barring a fresh attack of Wilsonoma, presumably.

According to Gay City News, our editor JJ loved Angela Gheorghiu’s Violetta, and he was more than a little enthused about Herr Jonas Kaufmann.

Le public have spoken, and they want their video to stream quickly and reliably. So save this bookmark and visit frequently: it’s the parterre box page at Google Video. Here’s a sample of the new content:

So now Google offers a video sharing service too — a little more trouble to upload, but the playback seems to be somewhat smoother than YouTube. This is a Google video; let La Cieca know what you think.

This week on “Unnatural Acts of Opera,” La Cieca presents what you might call an “ultragala” performance of La traviata — the four acts performed by four different celebrated interpreters of the role of Violetta.

For the first act, Anna Moffo is the courtesan, in a 1964 performance from La Scala. Gianni Raimondi is her Alfredo, and Herbert von Karajan conducts.

Before the act, La Cieca welcomes into the studio a legendary lady of the American legitimate theater, Miss Tallulah Bankhead, who favors us with a reading of a scene from the play Camille. Unnatural Acts of Opera

The performance of Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta has attracted the attention of another Violetta of the present (Anna Netrebko), who will likely be a future interpreter of the role here in New York. And at least one Violetta of a past generation is expected to pay a courtesy call: Virginia Zeani has accepted an invitation to one of Gheorghiu’s performances later this month. La Cieca has succumbed to Gheorghiu fever as well, posting clips of her Marguerite on YouTube.