August 2006
Or, what it would look like if Lucy Ricardo and the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League did a production of La gioconda. (Actually the video is from the Liceu in 1978, but it does like the sets were paid for with a postdated check.)
Speaking of the Ynimitable Yma, La Cieca was just sent a track from the Queen of Exotica’s 1971 acid-rock classic “Miracles!” You only think you know Camp until you experience “Let Me Hear You.”
An image La Cieca herself would have been proud to Photoshop, along with a skeptical take on the Met Opera’s new advertising blitz, over at Gawker.
La Cieca has been experimenting with animation software, as well as harvesting some choice sound bites from YouTube videos.
A Very Special Guest Diva introduces La Cieca’s latest podcast, Verdi’s Aida as performed at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden on 12 April 1973. And the performance is pretty special, too: Gilda Cruz-Romo as Aida, Carlo Bergonzi as Radames, Mignon Dunn as Amneris, Gian Piero Mastromei as Amonasro . . . and Kiri te Kanawa…
You may recall, cher public, that last December La Cieca had some rather unhappy holiday tidings for a pair of Met sopranos. Well, it looks like history is repeating itself. La Cieca hears that two Met sopranos, both in the same Fach (though a different Fach from the two divas discussed in the December item),…
Among the celebs at the opening of Brecht’s Mother Courage presented by the Public Theater, glimpsed were Renee Fleming (who perhaps should have been reminded that she was on hand to see Mother Courage, not to be Mother Courage) , and the perennial Jessye Norman, whose transformation into Star Jones is now complete.
Not many people know this, but soprano Virginia Zeani was actually born in Brooklyn under the name “Amy Camus.”
Isn’t that Angela Gheorghiu on the cover of the New York magazine fall fashion issue?
“Among the distinguished Camp alumni are opera and concert soprano Jessye Norman, ‘Roseanne’ star Sara Gilbert, actor Tom Hulce, ‘Cathy’ creator Cathy Guisewite, vocalist Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, and CBS News Correspondent Mike Wallace.” (Well, actually that paragraph is from a news article about Interlochen, but it certainly sounds like it belongs…
La Cieca has decided to do as the (other) young people are doing and so she has joined MySpace. Won’t you visit her there?
Years ago, Diva Past (whose career, by that point, was really done) canceled a prima donna gig at a major American opera house. Diva Present won overnight stardom when she substituted. Now, years later, Diva Present has booked a return to both venue and role of her triumph. At the moment, though, her schedule is…
La Cieca has just completed the pilot for her very own (online) video series, playing Veejay in her own idiosyncratic way. Admittedly she is no Caskader, but she thinks you will agree that her presenting style is very animated. As always, La Cieca craves your comments and suggestions.
But no matter how “gaia” La Cieca became, she would never be “piu fulgida” than this.
In her never-ceasing quest for greater convenience and maximum gadget-intensivity, La Cieca has updated the user interface for her podcasts. Now she can insert one podcast directly into the homepage like so . . . powered by ODEO All you need do is click on the “play” button and crank up your speakers. (This is…
Which soprano’s sudden cancellation of all her future engagements thankfully has nothing to do with illness, and everything to do with, well, spite? She was in love, and he she loved proved bad, and did forsake her. For his secretary. Since the songbird’s soon-to-be-ex-husband still has an interest in her future revenue stream, she has…
More Met news, this time something certain and soon. The Metropolitan Opera will hold its first ever “Open House” on Friday, September 22. The all-day event will include: the final dress rehearsal of the new Anthony Minghella/James Levine production of Madama Butterfly starring Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, Marcello Giordani, Dwayne Croft and Maria Zifchak a panel discussion…
As La Cieca hinted about six months ago, Anna Netrebko‘s Violetta will hit the Met boards during the 2010-11 season in the Willy Decker production from Salzburg. In the production (also on video from DGG), the miniskirted and hyperactive Netrebko is joined by Rolando Villazon.
La Cieca hears that the new regime at the Metropolitan Opera (or the MET Opera, as it will henceforth be called) is moving forward with the recording of selected 2006-2007 live performances, to be sold via download on the “iTunes” model. An agreement reached a couple of weeks ago with the American Federation of Musicians…
“I’ve had more affairs with homosexuals than you can count,” says Julia Migenes, who stars in the upcoming PBS telecast of Angels in America with music by Peter Eötvös. In this adaptation of Tony Kushner‘s play, la Migenes “plays a pill-popping Mormon married to a closeted gay man, as well as the spirit of the…
“After I went through two X-ray machines and a metal detector, and then a hand-held metal detector, my carry-on luggage was gone through. A young woman took my shampoo, make-up, make-up remover, hair spray, a bottle of Scotch, contact lens solution and a prescription medication.” — The New York Times, August 12, 2006.
Our old, old, old friend Enzo Bordello has been laying low for the last year or so, but he seems to be sniffing about the web again in search of the latest operatic news. He’s uncovered quite a trove over at Brad Wilber‘s Met Futures page. Enzo’s sum-up: Maria Guleghina‘s star appears to be on…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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