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 in slightly rough voice (nervous, surely), but after that note that Zinka spoiled for everyone, she settled in, and there was a lot of glorious singing, most especially the quiet introspective moments in the last act. She looks better than La Cieca has seen her for years, slimmer and handsomely costumed.
The acting was in the trademark Millo-grandiose manner. It’s not perhaps what you’d want to see in a Minghella Butterfly, but this is a melodrama played on 40 year old sets, and Millo is not embarassed to play it big. La Cieca has heard the top in more consistent form, but it never lacked for power, and Millo doesn’t tiptoe around the high C’s the way Violeta Urmana does.
La Urmana was in the audience, by the way, and she’s exotically attractive in person, far more so than in photos. Marcello Giordani was there too, and he is not exactly hard on the eyes himself. Ildar Abdrazakov showed up backstage to escort his Mrs. (Olga Borodina): she very blonde in a pink linen jacket and low-rider jeans; he just the right degree of scruffy. Onlookers viewing Abdrazakov up close agreed unanimously that Borodina is one mezzo who will never have an excuse to go lesbian. (As La Cieca left the building, Mr. A was being accosted by one of the autograph crazies in the tunnel. She — the crazy, not La Cieca — was cackling, “So, in Faust, do you have a tail? Do you have a tail?” La Cieca wanted to say “I’m sure he has all the tail he can handle,” but you know one must be polite, even to crazy people.)
One bit of gossip to be passed along: Dwayne Croft is jumping into the Met’s Pagliacci as Silvio, replacing the originally scheduled Pavel Baransky — who departed after the dress rehearsal.
Oh, and another bit: La Cieca was told that Sirius now has about 6 million subscribers total, including approximately 440,000 new customers in the July – September period.
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 story goes on to speculate that Sacha Baron Cohen is considering the role of Adolfo Pirelli, but DreamWorks Studios (producers of the film) would neither confirm nor deny.
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 Strauss shocker, but of course the most intense interest here will be Deborah Voigt’s first staged performance of the title role. Sir Andrew Davis conducts and the cast also includes Kim Begley (Herodes), Alan Held (Jokanaan) and Judith Forst (Herodias). The chat room will be [...]
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 of Frau ohne Schatten and her first local Tristan, La Cieca wonders if the Italian parts are meant to be “in addition to” or “instead of.” La Cieca would sorely mourn the loss of a Voigt Isolde, though presumably Christine Brewer would be easy to [...]
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 from where that came from — the Lyric Opera of Chicago, which will resume its broadcasts beginning this Saturday night, October 21. This will be the first series of broadcasts from the Lyric Opera since the 2001- 2002 season, and LOC is kicking off the [...]
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 be Simon O’Neill (Manrico).
Cher Public