May 2008
La Cieca has just noticed that Decca is about to release a 33-disc collection comprising all the standard Wagner works. (You’ll have to look elsewhere for Das Liebesverbot.) The amazing news here is that this complete traversal of the standard Wagnerian canon is on sale for only $66.99 — yes, that’s right, barely two dollars…
La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Sanford writes:Â
Fiorenza Cossotto. Tichina Vaughn. Irina Arkhipova. Viorica Cortez. Elena Cernei. Big voices. Bigger hair.
As several of you informed La Cieca (some in no uncertain terms) our most recent Regiequiz was a bit dodgy — the opera represented was hardly a standard repertory work, and the stage direction was fairly straightforward. Richard “Wallpaper” Jones directed this production of Gerald Barry’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, a Bremen…
Well, in fact your doyenne just warbles a few bars of a dear old Jerry Herman tune, but the real news is the second part of Montserrat Caballé‘s legendary New York debut as Lucrezia Borgia. Lucrezia Borgia Act 1
Interview with Leyla Gencer in 2007. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/5q4je2G7YpE” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Music video producer extraordinaire Wenarto is currently trying to get his invaluable collection of performances reinstated on YouTube following a terms of service contretemps. Pending when, as, and if the original site goes online again, Wenarto has created a new YouTube account highlighting his classical, operatic-themed and Izzycentric vids: 222Opera. Visit soon, cher public, and often!
Rupert Christiansen writes a review that might be a rave, or, then again . . . In the small role of the minister Arbace, a confident young British tenor currently based in Hamburg suggested that he is ready to give Bostridge a run for his money: Benjamin Hulett, clearly a name to watch out for.
Sometimes one can recognize a great artist in only one word of operatic text. This, however, is not one of those times. Context is provided after the jump.
From an email promo for Washington National Opera’s current production of Elektra: See Susan Bullock and Christine Goerke Sing Elektra! Washington National Opera stars Susan Bullock and Christine Goerke are featured in these extended excerpts and interviews from a recent production of Strauss’ Elektra in Florence, Italy, directed by Robert Carsen and conducted by Seiji…
La Cieca’s cher public — and music lovers around the world — won’t have Bernard Holland to kick around any more. The veteran classical music reviewer is leaving the New York TImes after 27 years, though to us who read him regularly it has easily seemed twice that. Holland is one of about 85 NYT newsroom…
[This article originally appeared in the print zine precursor to this site, one of a series of surveys of live recordings by critic Leila de Lakmé.] Leyla Gencer. The very name is exotic. She was an artist of Turkish ancestry who, during the 1950s and 60s, held her own despite the presence of Maria Callas,…
Another “Name that Regie” quiz for you, cher public. Remember, if you have seen this production (or know the photos), don’t blurt out the answer — let others deduce it!
“La Diva Turca” died this morning in Milan. In tribute to the art of Leyla Gencer, here is the soprano in the final scenes of Bellini’s Norma at La Scala on January 13, 1965. She is joined in this performance by Bruno Prevedi (Pollione) and Nicola Zaccaria (Oroveso); Gianandrea Gavazzeni is the conductor. UPDATE: The…
Thanks to High C’s for this excellent topic suggestion.
La Cieca thanks cher Charles for sending this “funniest, most withering description of singers ever written” from James M. Cain’s Mildred Pierce.
La Cieca offers her own personal salute to a very special holiday with an edition of Unnatural Acts of Opera featuring Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia. In this legendary April 20, 1965 performance, the eponymous antiheroine is Montserrat Caballé. Lucrezia Borgia (Prologue)
“Houston Grand Opera has appointed Laura Canning to run its young-artist training program, Houston Grand Opera Studio, effective Aug. 1. She follows General Director and CEO Anthony Freud from the Welsh National Opera, where she has been artistic administrator for the last ten years.” [via musicalamerica.com]Â
A very young Anna Moffo sings La sonnambula. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/XuC25v_tzOA” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
First the bad news, or anyway the bad news for us New Yorkers. Why the hell should Seattle Opera get Mariusz Kwiecien in Puritani, whereas we get — whatever his name was? Now the good news, though Seattle may think otherwise: Nick Scholl is moving to New York! (The photo’s a detail of an image…
Conductor Franz Welser-Moest (not pictured) has backed out of two performances of Die Fledermaus at the Zurich Opera, complaining that he was “unhappy” with the staging by Michael Sturminger. One innovation in this production is the inclusion of several vampires among Orlovsky’s retinue, which of course means that good old Frosch has lots of funny…
The Royal Opera House (you know, that place with the naked buskecutioner) is looking for “budding” filmmakers to produce a 40 second long version of Romeo and Juliet. The company asks for the finished featurettes to be uploaded to the Royal Opera’s YouTube site, which is just so Web 2.0 La Cieca can hardly stand…
Obviously the snippet of Birgit Nilsson‘s singing in the Curse Quiz does not represent the great dramatic soprano at her considerable best, since it’s taken from a post-retirement gala performance. Here’s Nilsson’s Isolde at her peak in one of La Cieca’s very favorite YouTube clips, from a 1967 telecast. (It’s been posted here before, but…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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