December 2006
Which late-blooming soprano, hailed as a savior only last season, has now been stripped of her “prima donna” status? Who knew the winter would come so soon?
Per Opera Chic, Roberto Alagna is off for what promises to be an interesting weekend at Franco Zeffirelli‘s palatial villa near Rome. According to Alagna’s “Chief Counsel Avvocato” Marco Rocchini, the tenor will apparently spend much of the weekend in transit, since he plans a quick visit to Paris on Tuesday, and then will return…
Our editor JJ sounds off about the Alagnapalooza on WNYC’s “Soundcheck.”
You’ve seen the dress. Now you can hear the song! UPDATE: No, she wasn’t drunk, so far as La Cieca knows, and no, the singer is not Joanne Worley, it’s our Renaay.
Senator (and presumptive Republican Presidential nominee in 2008) John McCain is wasting no time in getting started with the necessary pandering. According to cnet.com, McCain has proposed legislation that would require “[m]illions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs … to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up…
Intrepid girl reporter Opera Chic has lead the blogosphere in her coverage of the recent Alagnadammerung. But who is this mysterious Opera Chic? An important piece of evidence has made its way into the greedy mitts of La Cieca: soon the truth may be told. Here we see a photograph of the poster for tonight’s…
BREAKING! La Cieca has been informed that a stray RAI microphone in the wings of La Scala picked up an emotionally heated conversation between Roberto Alagna and Franco Zeffirelli immediately following the tenor’s angry walkout on Sunday night. A translated transcript follows: FZ: Calm down. The gong rang. The fight’s over. RA: I will not…
First off, La Cieca should tell you that her producer/alter ego JJ will be heard this afternoon on WNYC’s talk show “Soundcheck” discussing (what else?) L’affaire Alagna. The program begins at 2:00 PM and JJ is scheduled to be heard in the final segment between 2:30 and 3:00. “Soundcheck” gained notoriety last month when uber-diva…
Yeah, I guess you have to figure that singing at such a low-profile, unimportant event as the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert really doesn’t merit investing in a whole new frock. I mean, the dress that everyone in the freaking universe has already seen on television is plenty good enough to recycle for the Oslo…
Milan is just one little corner of the world, after all. Meanwhile, back home in the ‘Side, La Cieca’s managed to podcast a couple of times in the past dizzying days: Unnatural Acts of Opera
Roberto Alagna sings “Celeste Aida” December 7, 2006 at La Scala. And for those of you who are interested, here’s how the Antonello “Fleet of Foot” Palombi sang the aria in 1998.
Well, it had to happen sooner or later, and so it did happen, sometime between last night and tonight. La Cieca has decided she’s taking Roberto Alagna‘s side in The Scandale. Yes, yes, La Cieca hears your gasps and snorts of disbelief and contempt, but you know, cher public, La Cieca is, deep in her…
There’s video of “Il momento dell’abbandono di Alagna e la precipitosa entrata di Palombi in jeans.”
It just gets better and better. Now Opera Chic reports that Roberto Alagna is threatening to (counter)sue La Scala, citing a hostile work environment. And yet, he has announced he intends to sing Thursday night’s performance, even though the Scala management has already announced a substitute singer. More tales of anonymous phone calls, threats, showdowns…
At left, Astrid Varnay as Ortrud in Lohengrin; at right, Joan Crawford as Nurse Lucretia Terry in The Caretakers.
Walkout tenor Roberto Alagna is just generally pissed at the whole La Scala Aida experience, frankly. Even before the “buu” incident at last night’s performance, Bobby was spewing in an interview with La Repubblica that he (and the other singers in Aida) were being treated like second-class citizens: “La verità è che, in Italia, ormai…
Your correspondent is back in town just in time to report that Roberto Alagna walked out of tonight’s performance of Aida at La Scala when his rendition of “Celeste Aida” was greeted by “qualche fischio” among the polite applause. The Corriere della Sera reports that Antonello Palombi was rushed onto the stage in “black jeans…
La Cieca is off for a week in sunny Florida; she’ll be back on December 10 tanned, rested and ready to dish the dirt. Feel free to comment on any current threads, enjoy the podcasts, and if you hear of anything universe-shattering (e.g., Renee’s Trovatore), email La Cieca and she’ll get around to it as…
The Judgment Scene from Aida, as performed by Lois Maxwell, lipsynching to Ebe Stignani. La Stignani needs no further introduction, but Miss Maxwell is perhaps better known even to operagoers for a non-operatic role.This is of course the 1953 Italian film of Aida that also starred the 19-year-old Sophia Loren with the voice of the…
La Cieca has just heard that Juan Diego Flórez has canceled tonight’s Carnegie Hall recital: tracheitis.
You’ve got to hand it to lovely Lucine Amara. First she gets cast in the Encore! production of Follies, and now she even has her own infomercial!
“Peter Mattei plays Figaro as a lusty bachelor, something like Warren Beatty‘s character in the movie Shampoo. While this angle isn’t particularly relevant to the plot, it’s ideally suited to Mattei, a tall and sexy singer for whom the overused adjective ‘strapping‘ might have been coined.” Our publisher JJ reviews the Met’s new Barbiere di…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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