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  • Buster: “Somehow compelling” is much better than “somewhat compelling,” not? Glad you... 6:47 AM
  • oedipe: You are right, I almost forgot! Though -as she is the one and only and way past sale by date, whereas... 5:13 AM
  • armerjacquino: Apart from the fact that the singer he originally cast is French. 4:51 AM
  • oedipe: That’s why she is moving on to French roles, which ANYBODY can sing. Of course, it would never occur... 4:23 AM
  • Feldmarschallin: What a surprise this morning when I was listening to Bayern 4 Klassik at 7 and they bring a... 2:39 AM
  • antikitschychick: This was a smart move…if anything a definitive attempt to distance himself from the... 12:38 AM
  • antikitschychick: ITA. Very well-put. As Cieca incisively noted, debacles/decisions like these are not just about... 12:20 AM
  • antikitschychick: Manou, your wit is boundless!! This has truly made me LMAO!! 11:34 PM

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Die heilige Musik!

by | 5:09 pm | Jun 8, 2007
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, Titus.

9:00 AM ET Der Rosenkavalier. 1/29/2000. Levine; Graham, Fleming, Hawlata, Grant Murphy, Ketelsen.

12:25 PM ET Salome. 1/5/1974. Levine; Bumbry, Ulfung, Resnik, Shadur, Lewis.

3:00 PM ET Die Frau Ohne Schatten. 12/17/1966. Böhm; Rysanek, King, Ludwig, Berry, Dalis.

6:00 PM ET Elektra. 1/22/1994. Behrens, Voight, Fassbaender, McIntyre, King.

9:00 PM ET Arabella 3/5/1983. Leinsdorf; Te Kanawa, Weikl, Battle, Rendall, Dunn, Gramm.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007


6:00 AM ET Elektra 3/25/1961. Rosenstock; Borkh, Rysanek, Madeira, Uhde, Vinay.

9:00 AM ET Capriccio 1/31/1998. Davis; Te Kanawa, Harries, Kuebler, Fitch, Brendel, Keenlyside, Rootering.

12:00 PM ET Arabella 12/15/2001. Eschenbach; Fleming, Ketelsen, Bonney, Very, Forst, Halfvarson.

3:00 PM ET Der Rosenkavalier 3/19/1983. Levine; Troyanos, Te Kanawa, Haugland, Blegen, Hammond-Stroud.

6:20 PM ET Ariadne auf Naxos 4/14/2001. Levine; Voigt, Margison, Petrova, Mentzer, Brendel, Oswald.

9:00 PM ET Salome 3/13/1965. Böhm; Nilsson, Liebl, Dalis, Cassel, Shirley.

If you’ve held out on getting Sirius thus far, now you have an excuse to sign up for a FREE 3 day trial.

4 Comments

Un ballo in mascara

by | 11:46 am | Jun 8, 2007

“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 a new, more-masculine and more-marketable name: ‘Guyliner.’ Tobey Maguire wears it in Spider-Man 3. Fall Out Boy bassist and Chicago rocker Pete Wentz gave a step-by-step demonstration on People magazine’s Web site recently, showing the uninitiated how to affix it.” — Chicago Tribune, June 4, 2007.

3 Comments

Entendez ma voix!

by | 9:03 pm | Jun 6, 2007

Alexandrina Pendatchanska summons the spirits!

28 Comments
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Meyer wins Wien

by | 1:20 pm | Jun 6, 2007

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)

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WINNER! Chi e quella donna bruna lassu?

by | 11:10 pm | Jun 5, 2007

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 thread to this post!) Our sound clip of Soprano #6 was excerpted from one of her seven performances of Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera. La Cieca is delighted to announce that the lovely people over at The Second Tosca have offered a pair of complimentary [...]

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Opera Chic recoils in Scala shocker!

by | 10:55 pm | Jun 5, 2007

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.

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More dust bitten

by | 1:16 pm | Jun 5, 2007

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.

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Dog Sees Diva

by | 3:14 pm | Jun 4, 2007

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 at Opera California during rehearsals for Tosca. Meet a rising operatic star, her rivalrous brother, the controlling maestro who wants to marry her, a diva with a dog, an assistant with a dream, and a meddling singing ghost.” The author is Tom Rowan and the [...]

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