Headshot of La Cieca

Cher Public

  • Camille: Um, has anyone read the latest on Berlusconi’s trial and one of its star witnesses? Now THAT would... 4:05 PM
  • BillysBuddy: Ripped from today’s headlines, Il maggiordomo del papa, a new opera by Bela Malaventjentskij to... 3:27 PM
  • ljushuvud: Moderation? 2:27 PM
  • Liz.S: It’s going to be on demand for a while, but there’s also Giulio Cesare video streaming from... 2:18 PM
  • Camille: Patrick Mack—- Operatic wasteland? How is that? You should have been there in the sixties and... 2:16 PM
  • Camille: And the fourth(!) time it WAS Matos and we got to meet you, caro Ercole, a pleasure we hope to have... 1:54 PM
  • La Cieca: Says Kaufmann, “It was my intention to stay in the Trojans, but at the last minute I... 1:50 PM
  • Ercole Farnese: Well, the first time was to review. Free ticket, and I was there on assignment. The second time I... 1:37 PM

Bess, is you our woman now?

Or, to put it another way, could this soprano be what the Met needs for Roberto Devereux?


While you ponder the future, you can enjoy the past: the final act of Verdi’s Macbeth is now on Unnatural Acts of Opera.

An attempt at WordPress

Please bear with La Cieca, cher public as she is experimenting with WordPress. Don’t worry, the old parterre.com won’t disappear!

To read previous postings, please click here.

A fine kettle

OperaChic caught the story first, and now it’s even made the AP: Juan Diego Flórez has canceled Chicago (and anything else on the agenda for the next six weeks or so) due to a throat infection from a swallowed fishbone.

Read more »

Joyce DiDonato in Maria Stuarda

La DiDonato is joined here by Gabriele Fontana and Eric Cutler in this 2005 video.

Read more »

Read more »

Body Neo-Nazis

So, if you’re wondering why Jerry Springer: the Opera is called “the opera” –

Read more »

Read more »

30-day flu grips music industry!

UPDATE: La Cieca has heard from more than one reliable source that Juan Diego Flórez is yet another victim of whatever it is that’s mowing down all the Almavivas. The tenor, she hears, has canceled Barbiere di Siviglia at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Word on the street is that John Osborn will be released from L’elisir d’amore at Palm Beach so he may sing the Rossini in Chicago, with performances beginning February 11 opposite Joyce DiDonato and Nathan Gunn. LOC subscribers (already reeling over having Angela Gheorghiu, Barbara Frittoli, Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Peter Mattei, Bernadette Manca di Nissa and Ambrogio Maestri [...]

Read more »

Read more »

What do you think you are? A pair of queens?

The Met officially announced today that the company will stage Anna Bolena for Anna Netrebko for the opening night of the 2011-2012 season (old news to you, cher public!) and, the following season, Maria Stuarda for Joyce DiDonato. The company has no current plans to produce Roberto Devereux. In what La Cieca is choosing to consider a stinging slap in the face to — well, at least one soprano — Peter Gelb explained, “The problem is casting ….There’s no singer around today who can sing [Elisabetta].” And you may make what you will of la Netrebko’s statement about the Bolena: [...]

Read more »

Read more »

Frocked up

UPDATED: Now with even more operatic tackiness! A sampling of Diva Dress Disasters submitted by the cher public.Seen worse disasters? Email La Cieca!

Read more »