September 2006
The late Thomas Stewart as Wotan in Herbert von Karajan‘s film of Das Rheingold. La Cieca will present a podcast tribute to Mr. Stewart this weekend.
Announced today: highlights of the archival Met broadcasts to be featured on Sirius during the month of October: Carmen (1/9/37) Papi; Ponselle, Bodanya, Rayner, Huehn Lucia di Lammermoor (2/27/37) Papi; Pons, Jagel, Brownlee, Pinza Die Walküre (12/2/44) Szell; Traubel, Bampton, Thorborg, Melchior, Janssen, Kipnis Roméo et Juliette (2/1/47) Cooper; Sayão, Benzell, Turner, Björling, Brownlee, Moscona…
Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon in the dress rehearsal of Manon at the Los Angeles Opera.
La Cieca is back in her beloved Sunnyside late this evening, even though the Metropolitan Opera opening night began at 6:30. By her watch, the performance of Madama Butterfly ran not quite four hours including intermissions and curtain call. Oddly, though, the evening didn’t seem unnaturally long — maybe because La Cieca enjoyed a disco…
A few tidbits in reference to the impending Sirius broadcasts of the Met Opera. First, La Cieca’s backstage spy reports that the Met has installed literally dozens of permanent microphones in various spots in the auditorium. These mikes are described as being reminiscent of CIA spy equipment, “the kind of technology that kind pick up…
Talking heads Anthony Tommasini and our own little JJ discussed “Opera for the Masses” yesterday afternoon on WNYC’s “Soundcheck.” The station’s website has made available the show for listening or download. (Scroll down to “Opera lives on YouTube” for JJ’s portion of the program.)
La Cieca has just noticed that when you go to the Sirius.com website, the first thing you see is a big splashy ad for the Sirius/Met partnership. Cool, right? Well, here’s more coolness. parterre.com has become an affiliate with Sirius to promote their new channel, and if you click through either of the ads on…
That’s how one industry insider described today’s open dress rehearsal of Madama Butterfly at the Met. “More people than I’ve ever seen in the theater, some of them with tickets scalped from Ebay!” A more measured assessment comes from yet another of La Cieca’s network of operatives: “Well I am happy to say that today’s…
powered by ODEO The undisputed highlight of this track begins at 02:04.
Our own editor JJ will be heard today on WNYC’s chat show Soundcheck, yammering away about the riches of video opera available on YouTube. It’s on 93.9 FM from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. and is also available online. La Cieca’s own bewigged head has been busy too, introducing a 1967 Scotto Butterfly on Unnatural Acts…
Having recovered from today’s five hour dress rehearsal at the Met, La Cieca’s spy Barnaba offers this report: There isn’t much point to doing La Gioconda in this day and age if you haven’t got a cast who can put it over. Wonder of wonders, the Met has dug its ancient (1967) staging out of…
According to our editor JJ, the current NYCO production of Semele “provided a luxe vehicle for the talents of soprano Elizabeth Futral as the mortal princess Semele who becomes the mistress of Jove. Futral is gorgeous enough to tempt the king of the gods, feminine and curvaceous, and she has the personality and wit to…
La Cieca hopes you’re not tired of news about the Met/Sirius Radio partnership, because she has just obtained a schedule of live performances to be broadcast over the satellite service. The first week of the broadcasts will include Madama Butterfly on Monday, September 25 at 6:30 p.m., Idomeno on Thursday the 28th at 7:30 p.m.…
As La Cieca predicted a fortnight ago, the Met Opera today announced a partnership with SIRIUS Satellite Radio to broadcast live and archival Met performances. The series will begin on Monday, September 25th, with a live broadcast of the Met’s opening night gala performance of Madama Butterfly, conducted by Music Director James Levine and directed…
Wow, news gets around fast! Within an hour after La Cieca mentioned in passing the sorry state of the peeling gold-leaf ceiling at the Met, a staffer from the house (requesting anonymity) emailed saying that this particular bit of upkeep is, sadly, not to be included among the “nips and tucks” preliminary to the new…
La Cieca notices that The Met’s website metopera.org has relaunched with an abundance of new content, focusing at the moment on the eagerly-awaited opening night whoop-de-do, but also pointing to the first week’s revivals of Gioconda and Idomeneo.And that’s just the tippity-tip of the iceberg, because deeper in the site there’s a magazine’s worth of…
Avast ye, cher public! La Cieca salutes International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19) with music from The Pirates of Penzance and Maria Stuarda. (Don’t worry, that makes more sense than you would think.)
Now, that’s more like it, La Cieca squealed to herself when she saw this morning’s news about the multi-venue simulcast red-carpet whoop-de-do surrounding the Met’s opening night production of Madama Butterfly. It’s a celebrity-centered universe we live in; no getting around that, so why indeed not promote the Metropolitan Opera as the most glamorous show…
Here’s a YouTube clip of the original telecast of Luisa Miller, complete with the screamed “Brava Maria Callas!” before Renata Scotto‘s first solo. La Cieca is informed that (reasonably enough) this interruption had been edited out of the eagerly-awaited DVD version. Note, too, that the DVD will feature state-of-the-art video and audio restoration, unlike this…
After more than a quarter of a century, Renata Scotto gets the last word over that silly queen who made a career of disrupting her Met performances. The DVD of the “Live from the Met” telecast of Luisa Miller was released today, and is available at Amazon.com at a 30% discount off the list price.…
The Artists Formerly Known As The Love Couple made one of their now-rare duo appearances last weekend singing something called “Come Prima” at a BBC concert in London’s Hyde Park. The poster for the event suggests that Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna are shall we say, growing apart. Why the distance between the once-inseparable team?…
That “Age of the Diva” soprano, Renee Fleming, swept into Los Angeles last weekend to lay down video tracks for her upcoming DVD of Traviata. Los Angeles Opera cleverly captialized on the public’s interest in America’s Sweetheart by selling high-priced tickets to the taping, calling the event a “gala opera performance.” We will of course…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
×
Sign up for Parterre’s free newsletter.
Exclusive opera reviews, commentary, and top reads
delivered to your email weekly…ish.