October 2006
. . . though not in that order, actually. Donald Collup presents a brace of his documentary films this weekend featuring two very different divas, Astrid Varnay and Florence Foster Jenkins. La Varnay (the ecstatic part of the bargain) is profiled in “Never Before,” a two-hour video and audio journey through the early years of…
A video of Brad Pitt in wet underpants. Now, you would think that there is no way that such a video would be less than fascinating, right? Well, you’d be wrong, because the video is directed by the only man in the world who could make Brad Pitt in wet underpants look boring. Robert Wilson,…
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, “The male toilets of Australia’s most famous landmark, the Sydney Opera House, has been listed among hot spots for a hook up point for men cruising sex with other men.” Jane Eaglen is going to teach young people how to sing. “By the time her stepfather Herodes starts sucking…
Peter Gelb‘s motto for the week: “Those Swarovski crystals are going on with or without you.” Maria Guleghina sings the first Tosca of the season tomorrow night, jumping in for Andrea Gruber who is under the weather. A report from the dress rehearsal notes that “Gruber had nothing above about an A, Cura was rushing…
Salvatore Licitra, who took a nasty spill Tuesday night on the way to a promo event for his new CD, will sing go on and Canio tonight at the Met. The tenor reportedly tore a couple of tendons in his shoulder and will have to wear a sling during Pagliacci. Some of the staging will…
Fifty parterre box livechatters agree: the first RealNetworks Met Opera streaming broadcast was a sensational success! Listeners compared notes last night during the performance of Rigoletto, a number of them doing an A/B comparison between the Real stream and the Sirius stream. The consensus was that the Real stream offered excellent fidelity and depth of…
La Cieca hosts a chat tonight on the subject of the Met’s season premiere of Rigoletto, which also marks the first RealNetworks free streaming broadcast of a Met performance. (The performance will also be broadcast on Sirius.) The room will open at 7:45 PM.
“There is a noise inside the tabago factory and the revolting cigar-makeress bursts into the stage,” reads the classic fractured English synopsis of Carmen. Now a Korea-based English-language site steps up to the plate with a season preview fetchingly entitled “Glamorous Opera and Moist Aria.” Some highlights: The set of the Roman Theater that reproduce…
Beginning tomorrow night with the season premiere of Rigoletto, the Met will offer weekly free (yes, that’s right, free) streaming broadcasts of opera performances over their website, metopera.org. Further broadcasts through the end of the year will include: Rigoletto (Siurina, Calleja, Pons) Wednesday October 25 Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci (Guleghina, Racette, Licitra) Monday, October 30 Il Barbiere…
Anna Caterina Antonacci is not, in fact, coming to the Met. Admittedly her scheduled debut was Donna Elvira and nothing definite after that, but still, she’s an interesting artist who isn’t heard enough in the U.S., and a few Elviras is better than no Antonacci at all. Apparently Antonacci was bumped in favor of Angela…
Andy‘s take on the Tommasini “lamentation” — The Opera House is Half Full.
The NYT’s ace scribe Bernard “Scoop” Holland breathlessly spills his latest discoveries about that newfangled entertainment called “opera” today. Didja know, for example, that a lot of opera is long and boring, but there’s this one opera called Cavalleria rusticana that’s not as long as most (” it’s the only opera I know that may…
From today’s NYT “Dearth of Divas” — Leontyne turns time-traveler.
Tatiana Troyanos and James Levine perform “Asie” from “Shéhérazade” (Ravel/Klingsor).
Our story this far: 17 October 2006: La Cieca reports (erroneously) that Andrea Gruber is about to be “bought out” of a Met revival of La fanciulla del West. 20 October 2006: La Cieca discovers that the Fanciulla isn’t happening; Gruber and Salvatore Licitra possibly to be cast in the replacement opera? 21 October 2006:…
Pronounced “oog,” as in Wowkle, that is. You may recall that La Cieca said something a few days ago about a rumored departure of soprano Andrea Gruber from a Met revival of La fanciulla del West scheduled for next season. Well, further information has filtered in that suggests a different story. You might say, in…
La Cieca has just heard that irresistable, irreverent, erudite Ira Siff will be Margaret Juntwait‘s guest during the intermission of tonight’s Sirius broadcast of Cav/Pag from the Met.
To begin with: everybody was there. People you haven’t seen in 20 years were there. People you were sure were dead were there. (They were alive, at least as of the third intermission.) The house was quite nearly full, and there were no significant defections as the long evening wore on. Miss M herself began…
Helena Bonham Carter has been announced for the role of Mrs. Lovett in the Tim Burton film version of Sweeney Tood. According to the announcement in Variety, La Carter will do her own singing of the Stephen Sondheim score. She will star opposite long-time Burton collaborator Johnny Depp, who will play the title role. The…
The Windy City’s own Enzo Bordello will host the next Unnatural Chat of Opera this Saturday night (October 21). Topic of the chat will be Lyric Opera of Chicago’s performance of Salome, which will be broadcast that evening beginning at 7:30 Central time. This is the prima of a new Francesca Zambello production of the…
La Cieca’s (of course) impeccably reliable sources are suggesting major casting changes afoot among the Met’s dramatic soprano roster. La Cieca hears that Deborah Voigt has expressed a strong preference for Italian roles in future seasons instead of the German vehicles she has mostly sung so far. Since Voigt’s rumored future engagements include a revival…
As if those opera queens (you know La Cieca is talking to you, cher public) don’t already have more than enough to listen to, what with Unnatural Acts of Opera, plus Sirius Met Broadcasts, plus various streaming radio on the internet — well, now there’s lots more where that came from. Well, anyway, one more…
The slow but stead Podlefication of New York continues next summer when Ewa herself sings her first local performances of Azucena. Now, by local, La Cieca means “a quick bus ride away,” because these performances of Il trovatore will be presented by the Caramoor Festival under the baton of Will Crutchfield. Opposite La Podles will…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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