Three-time World’s Best-selling Canadian Female Recording Artist of the Year Céline Dion apparently has not come to her senses in the eight months that have passed since her Las Vegas farewell. As La Cieca warned you last year, the québécoise canary is planning a crossover into the cinema, specifically a biopic in which she, Céline Dion, will portray her idol Maria Callas. Read more »
Our previous Regie quiz depicted (as Nerva Nelli so quickly guessed) Verdi’s Aida, in a production by Christopher Alden for the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
And now, cher public, our weekly edition of Name that Regie. Remember, if you have seen the production or otherwise recognize the photos, please remain silent while others guess the answer!
“Alex, age 4, clearly in love with what he’s hearing and seeing.”
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That bloggeress La Cieca likes to think of as “like a young me,” OperaChic, is currently and brilliantly following up on the controversy sparked by Lorin Maazel‘s grumpy condemnation of those darn newfangled stage directors who won’t get out of his yard. Consarn it. Joining Maazel in tying an onion to his belt is the doyen of operatic media whores, Franco Zeffirelli. And now the young ‘uns are answering back, more in sorrow than in anger
Several of you cher public have been kind enough to forward to me an email from Peter Gelb offering the Met’s apology for the debacle of the first day of subscriber ticket exchanges. Though La Cieca has sneered a bit at the Buoso Donati contingent, she certainly can understand why loyal subscribers might feel that this email is somewhat “too little, too late.” It does seem that so sweeping a change in the exchange system could have been handled more transparently, and, more to the point, more consistently. La Cieca has heard numerous complaints that subscribers were given conflicting information [...]
Here’s a very special audio quiz for La Cieca’s cher public du weekend. In the following mp3 clip, 11 sopranos sing the soaring aria “Zweite Brautnacht!” from Die Ägyptische Helena of Richard Strauss. If you think you can identify these beauties, email lacieca@parterre.com. The first email received with the names of all 11 sopranos in the correct order will win a coveted amazon.com gift certificate. Zweite Brautnacht! UPDATE: La Cieca realizes that Helena #6 (piano accompanied) is very difficult to identify, particularly since this soprano is not generally associated with the Richard Strauss repertoire. So your ever-thoughtful doyenne will provide [...]
La Cieca hears that at least one of the ultracool ultraqueer world premieres scheduled for the Met is definitely off the bill.
La Cieca’s dear colleage The Counter Critic is writing a piece for a New York paper about the Met’s HD program. He is looking for “people to interview who have seen the simulcasts, and who have strong opinions about how folks behave during the screenings.” Here’s your chance for your voice to be heard loud and clear, cher public, without any of the fuss and muss or revising your Last Will and Testament. You can read more about CC’s request at his own site.
Cher Public