June 2007
Sempiternal soprano Gwyneth Jones creates a role in a world premiere later today! The veteran singing actress performs the role of the Queen of Hearts in Unsuk Chin‘s opera Alice in Wonderland, to an English-language libretto by David Henry Hwang after the novel by Lewis Carroll. The production, conducted by Kent Nagano, will be broadcast…
Unnatural Acts of Opera returns with yet another rarity, Wagner’s Rienzi in a performance from Vienna in 1997. Featured are Siegfried Jerusalem and Violeta Urmana, with Zubin Mehta wielding the baton. Unnatural Acts of Opera.
AP reports that Beverly Sills is “gravely ill with cancer.” Sills has always been very hands-on with her PR, so if she’s allowing this story to get out, I’m afraid she’s basically announcing that the end is very near. (If she’s not in control of the story, that’s not good news either: she’d have to…
La Cieca must first of all express how startled she is that this particular item didn’t appear first on NYC Opera Fanatic — after all, Lana Turner as Elisabetta in Don Carlo? Well, in fact, Miss Turner never did sing any Verdi, on- or off-stage (unlike her precursor Joan Crawford), but my goodness, doesn’t she…
La Cieca hears that Natalie Dessay has walked out of the current Liceu production of Manon, leaving Inva Mula to sing the company’s new production of the Massenet opera. (Given the tight stagione scheduling, though, surely they will need another soprano to alternate.) Our insider whispers that la Dessay found Rolando Villazon (Des Grieux) something…
La Cieca hears that Justin Davidson, classical music critic at Newsday for the past decade, is moving over to New York magazine, where he will take over reviewing duties from the departing Peter G. Davis. Davidson’s gig will also include writing about architecture.
La Cieca is startled and delighted to note that there are already some very competitive entries in the “Nine Normas” quiz, including a likely prize winner. So that all you cher public may have the chance to put your vocal identification skills to the test, here’s the clip of The Nine Normas. Feel free to…
“Riveting!”“Seductively handsome!”“Chiseled physique!”“Exuding charisma!”“Unabashedly narcissistic!”“A stage animal!”“Opera houses everywhere will soon be clamoring for him!”“Exposing his muscled chest!”“Shirtless, dripping with perspiration and looking crazed!”“An image I’ll take home with me from London!”
Surrounding the second act of D’Albert’s opera Tiefland on the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera is a veritable plethora of special features. First, La Cieca takes a telephone call from an icon of stage, screen and recordings (hint: she was the surprise star of Broadway’s Hit the Sky). Then our old, old, old…
“This writer approached the new off-Broadway play The Second Tosca with more than a bit of trepidation, worried that it might amount to no more than second-rate Terrance McNally or, even worse, unfunny inanity like Lend Me a Tenor. What a relief, then, it is to report that The Second Tosca is a delightful, campy,…
La Cieca is delighted to announce the return of the online opera chat, this Thursday June 14 on the subject of Il trittico, as telecast on Channel 13 here in New York. The chat room will open at 7:45 for the 8:00 beginning of the telecast.
A glimpse of beloved soprano Gabriella Benackova in an unusual role: Emilia Marty in Vec Makropulos. Tete-de-peau tenor Roman Sadnik is Gregor.
(a-p?th’?-?’s?s) n. pl. a·poth·e·o·ses (-s?z’) Exaltation to divine rank or stature; deification. Elevation to a preeminent or transcendent position; glorification: Many observers have tried to attribute Warhol’s current apotheosis to the subversive power of artistic vision” (Michiko Kakutani) An exalted or glorified example: Their leader was the apotheosis of courage. Tony Tommasini reviews Death in…
Just a few quick words about the magnificent soprano Antonietta Stella, the “tie-breaker” in our recent quiz. She is perhaps not quite so familiar to some of La Cieca’s readers as the more celebrated divas also heard on the track such as Tebaldi and Price. La Cieca will quote her dear colleague Enzo Bordello, who…
Who, La Cieca asks, could disagree with this sentiment? Particularly when it is expressed so, well, expressively by the divine Jacqueline van Quaille in Tintin, the Musical (Kuifje de musical). The scene opens as Bianca Castafiore, the Milanese Nightingale, prepares to go onstage for a performance of Faust. She pauses a moment to read a…
The long drought of Richard Strauss operas on Sirius Metropolitan Opera Radio ends with an appropriately post-romantic bang on Monday when the network launches a two-day marathon of archival Met performances of the composer’s works. Here’s the schedule: Monday, June 11, 2007 6:00 AM ET Ariadne auf Naxos. 3/20/1976. Levine; Caballé, Remedios, Welting, Troyanos, Dooley,…
“Eye makeup never looked so good on a man. In the latest installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp trowels on more black eyeliner than a Kabuki dancer. . . . and he is not the only man calling for more kohl. Lately, eyeliner — that little slick of dark paste — has acquired…
Alexandrina Pendatchanska summons the spirits!
Dominique Meyer (currently at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées) and will take over as Intendant at the Vienna State Opera in 2010, with Franz Welser-Möst serving as Musical Director. Better luck next time Neil Shicoff, Christian Thielemann, Daniel Barenboim and Simone Young! (Via The Europe Channel)
WE HAVE A WINNER!. The lovely and talented Eric M. was the first to identify all six mystery sopranos correctly at 10:15 AM today, followed closely by Fred at 11:47. Congratulations to Eric and Fred, and thanks ever so to all of you who played! (For the correct answers to the quiz, check the comments…
Our devoted and prolific little sister Opera Chic reports that, threatened with legal action from La Scala’s cadre of highly-paid lawyers, she has removed “offending” content from her site, including photographs taken inside the celebrated opera house and even her own logo. But, as with so many things Milanese, OC tells the story best.
One of our finest critics has just lost his regular gig. Peter G. Davis has been asked to sign an “agreement of separation” from New York magazine, where he has reviewed classical music for the past 26 years.
The month of June in New York traditionally offers scant little in the way of operatic entertainment beyond the Met’s Parks concerts. And so the premiere of an opera-themed play off-Broadway sounds like particularly good news. The show is called The Second Tosca, and it is described as “a contemporary comedy that takes place backstage…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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