It looks like the NYCO is going to one-up Gelb’s Met by nabbing Kristin Chenoweth first. The Broadway divette is in talks to star as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance for a 16-performance stint at the State Theater in March 2007.
On dit that America’s leading verista, Aprile Millo, will sing her first Manon Lescaut in the fall of 2006. La Cieca is not at liberty to divulge the venue, other than to say that it will not be in New York City.
Rumor has it that the process of replacing James Levine as conductor for the Met’s spring season is already in full swing, under the close direction of Maestro Levine himself. Expect to see Maurizio Benini leading Don Pasquale. Asher Fisch will likely helm both Parsifal and Lohengrin; presumably his own scheduled performances of Rigoletto will be delegated elsewhere. For Fidelio, La Cieca hears that Paul Nadler will be in for the entire run. No word yet on who will conduct the Volpe Farewell Gala, but so long as the ticket sales don’t suffer, Uncle Joe will muddle through somehow.
According to an article in the New York Times, James Levine will cancel all his remaining Met performances this season, including a tour to Japan. He is scheduled to have surgery to repair and injured rotator cuff on March 20. House management is currently scrambling to find replacements for Levine’s characteristically heavy workload: preparation of a new production and nine performances of Don Pasquale, six performances each of Lohengrin and Fidelio, and three of Parsifal. His Japan performances included four each of Don Giovanni and Die Walkuere, plus a Renee Fleming concert. Joe Volpe’s reaction to the news: “My hope is that it won’t affect ticket sales.”
Unnatural Acts of Opera presents a tribute to soprano Anna Moffo, who died Thursday night.
Tenor troubles continue: Neil Shicoff is out of the Monday prima of the Met’s Luisa Miller. As at the dress rehearsal, Eduardo Villa will jump in. Veronica Villaroel has of course replaced Barbara Frittoli for most of the run; however, the final two performances still list the ubiquitous TBA in the role of Luisa. La Cieca now predicts that March 22 will mark the debut of Bridget Paolucci‘s one-woman show.
La Cieca has just heard that Neil Shicoff has canceled the dress rehearsal of Luisa Miller at the Met; Eduardo Villa (cover for the run) will do it. And La Cieca has heard further that Sergio Blazquez, scheduled to make his NYCO debut in La boheme in April, is having visa problems, so Gerard Powers will likely do all nine performances. In less Rodolfocentric news, our own JJ‘s review of the Met’s Forza is online at Gay City News: “On May 20, Joseph Volpe will celebrate his retirement as general manager of the Metropolitan Opera with a lavish gala performance. [...]
Our editor JJ‘s article introducing La traviata is now available on the New York City Opera’s website. La Cieca is so cheered by this good news that she can, for the moment, refrain from ranting at length about the de-retirement of the egregious Dr. Miller, whose production of L’elisir d’amore will rear its ugly head at the State Theater in the spring of 2007. (Medical doctor, performer, art historian, stage director, dramaturg, junk sculptor, and now congenital liar — is there anything that polymath can’t do?) There, aren’t you glad she didn’t go on at length?
So here we are at the final act of Giordano’s Fedora, and all those nasty little secrets everyone’s been telling throughout the opera are about to be exposed! Marcella Pobbe stars as the mysterious Princess Fedora Romazoff in a performance from the Teatro La Fenice, February 9, 1968. And as a bonus, YouTube video of the final scene of this opera starring Renata Scotto and Placido Domingo. Unnatural Acts of Opera
Cher Public