Return from the Plaza
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 nap prior to the performance, or maybe because her seat for this opening night was in the plaza, watching on the big screen video, or, as we have come to call it, the Plazatron.
First things first: quite unlike most free events in New York, and on the Upper West Side in particular, the crowd was mostly very well mannered, attentive and appreciative. The weather, La Cieca must say, was simply superb, with just the hint of a cool autumnal breeze. The much-ballyhooed Red Carpet was somewhat underwhelming, hidden as it was over near Damrosch Park. La Cieca did catch a glimpse of Jude Law in the flesh, looking very dapper in black tie, and on the Plazatron, she noticed our own Dawn Fatale looking very boyish indeed against a backdrop of social xrays.
About the performance proper La Cieca can’t really say anything because our own JJ will review a later performance, but she will note that the Plaza crowd was treated to an intermission feature showing director Anthony Minghella and the cast in rehearsal. Minghella talks too much, La Cieca thinks, and in the video one could sense that Marcello Giordani and Dwayne Croft were getting a bit impatient with all the chitchat. Speaking of which, Giordani looks great these days, slim and dashing in his Navy whites, and Croft has evolved into a very sexy daddy type — particularly since this production makes no effort to disguise his mostly-bald pate. You know how La Cieca goes for the tete de peau look!
As La Cieca was preparing her podcast this evening she was listening to the second Met Radio broadcast on Sirius, a 1971 Rigoletto, and she sees the ante has been upped: she’ll have to redouble her efforts to bring you the best in Unnatural Acts of Opera.
dear la Cieca, please try to move heaven and earth to see if you can find some sort of schedule for the archive performances on Sirrius, your loyal clientele will be forever grateful and will worship at the altar of Baal in your honor.
Yes, PLEASE get us a schedule! Also, evidently it ain’t gonna be 24 hrs. of b’casts….but some filler too. The RIGOLETTO was 2/10/73 and early this morning there was the Kirsten/Bjoerling 1949 MANON LESCAUST. Keep ‘em comin’! Also, Sirius is having SERIOUS problems with internet listeners log-in problems. They say it should be fixed sometime today…..but don’t hold your breath!
I still can’t hear a f’ing thing from the internet radio stream. On top of that, I skipped the Plazatron happening last night so that I could tend to my partner and his flu. But Gioconda tonight!!!
A modest proposal (and perhaps incredibly naïve too): why don’t we all swamp Sirius Customer Service with the same question regarding the schedule? We can say we’ve been enjoying the new channel immensely, but we are in two minds as to whether to subscribe to Sirius because of the lack of scheduling information.
Like operaman50 said, though, no bated breath please. I did write Sirius last week asking if Channel 85 would be available in Canada, but apart from the automated e-mail acknowledging receipt of my message, I have yet to hear back from them.
Maybe paying subscribers have more clout, I wonder. (You would think they would try to lure new customers with good customer support, no?)
Chalkenteros, I believe the Gioconda broadcast will be next Saturday and not tonight. Incidentally, a quick check of the live broadcasts schedule tells me that we won’t get to hear Giordani as Enzo. Pity. That’s the one I would have liked to tape.
Ok, I called Sirius this morning shortly after 9am. I only had to wait on hold for about 5 minutes. Not bad. But when I explained that I was unable to access Sirius Internet Radio, the customer service rep. said that I should just keep trying and that it was totally theirn own fault. No time frame for when their own programming “upgrade” would be complete. Loyal, paying customers should just “hang in there.” Sux.
I had the same experience on the phone — only they said they hoped to have the log-in problems fixed late today or tomorrow. Just for everyone’s information, I believe the following is true: if you’ve subscribed ($12.99/month) and have bought the little car unit — and home-kit….you are also signed up for free internet access. I don’t know if others have had reception problems (through their antennae hook-up) like I have. They say weather, clouds, airplains etc. can effect it. Last night was perfect, until the Humming Chorus — then I had loads of dropouts. I hope that the internet reception will be better — but a friend tells me that can have drop outs occasionally too.
And yes, lets hope for a schedule of archived b’casts SOON!!
Oh, so the reception is not as reliable as Martha would have us believe in that little video. How epouvantable. The Internet streaming has been amazing, but it has dropped out a few times too. Worse, my browser crashed last night – good thing it was during one of the intermission interviews (though I was enjoying it).
If anyone here is connected to the Met or Sirius, it might be worth mentioning that Sirius’ responsiveness to queries about the Met channel has been very disappointing.
Bravo. After all sorts of difficulties yesterday connecting on the web and today registering my new radio,I’m finally hooked up to the Met. Listening now to the 1974 I Vespri with Caballe, Gedda & Milnes. I guess this is going to be a matter of you turn it on and get whatever they are playing.
Was I the only one who got a little schaudenfraudesque giggle at the expense of that Blathering Puccini Biographer being cut short in mid-sentance by Margaret Juntwait? By the way, Does she have an officially sanctioned nickname or anything? If not, I nominate “Peg o’the airwaves.”
I’ve been listening to channel 85 on and off all day, and it seems like they play about 45 minutes of random arias/catanas/leider between broadcasts, not all of it Met related. So if you turn in and here Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, don’t be alarmed.