La Cieca’s spy at least night’s performance of La Fille du Régiment assures her that, yes, indeed, Juan Diego Florèz did take a “bis” of his first act cabaletta. “Tonight the ovation was far longer and louder than before (perhaps for fear of getting short-shrift as the old folks on Saturday did), and the encore was again followed by a big noise, standing,” the eyewitness at the Met reports. The “bisometer” score therefore stands at 2 encores per perfomances or .667.
At very long last, the final act of Tristan und Isolde.
Tristan – Spas Wenkoff, Isolde – Catarina Ligendza, Brangaene – Yvonne Minton, Marke – Karl Ridderbusch, Kurwenal – Donald McIntyre, Melot - Heribert Steinbach, Steuermann – Heinz Feldhoff, Hirte – Heinz Zednik. Carlos Kleiber; Bayreuther Festspiele, 30 July 1976.
Here’s bel canto goddess Mariella Devia in fiery form for the final cabaletta from Anna Bolena earlier this month in Palermo. (Just ignore the annoying interpolated interviste.)
. . . much to our dismay, we caught a glimpse of high-C-flaunting Juan Diego Florez coming out of the Juilliard School’s Meredith Wilson Residence Hall with fiance Julia Trappe in tow at around, oh, 1pm. That’s like 30 minutes before curtain! Little sister Counter Critic goes to the movies and gets a surprise preview. And read on after the most recent post, because Counter Critic sink their teeth into Bernard Holland and others of his banana-eared ilk.
Reader/brainiac Orion Montoya has invented a gizmo that may help simplify the annual puzzlement over which of the Met’s myriad subscription series is right for you (if any). Before you purchase your tickets for next season, take a look at the Met Opera Subscription Helper.
According to a review by Vivien Schweitzer in this morning’s NYT, the staid old Metropolitan Opera introduced a rather startling new plot element into their current revival of Entführung aus dem Serail:
It took sharp-eyed reader Weill Fan less than eight hours to recognize our most recent Regie puzzler. The correct answer was (of course) Ariadne auf Naxos. Additional kudos are due to Weill Fan for pinpointing exactly the characters and situations depicted in all three photos. So, will he (she?) be able to name this week’s mystery opera using only the photos below? (Again, cher public, if you recognize the show, stumm!)
Until recently, soprano Diana Damrau was unaware of reports of steroid abuse in the 18th century seraglio. (Photo by Ken Howard, Metropolitan Opera.)
Cher Public