November 2008
“Maria Callas arrives in San Francisco in 1958 with her toy poodle and 17 pieces of luggage,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle 50 years ago (November 24, 2008).
La Cieca extends her congratulations to her little sister Opera Chic for a namecheck in the AP story by Ronald Blum on the Met’s 2009-10 production cutbacks. According to Blum’s story, dropping Ghosts of Versailles from the Met’s repertoire will save “more than $1 million.” In the unfortunately ongoing “more bad news” section, La Cieca…
Official word from the Met concerning rumored cutbacks in next season is that Ghosts of Versailles is to be replaced with a revival of Traviata, rolling over Angela Gheorghiu and Thomas Hampson. No word on what happens to Kristen Chenoweth, but Peter Gelb promises that the new productions are going ahead as scheduled. [via NYT]
Left to right: Lypsinka in As I Lay Lip-Synching and Anne Sofie von Otter in The Rake’s Progress. (Thanks to Opera Chic for finding the Stravinsky production photo!)
ORGIA
Kennedy Center head Michael Kaiser will assist the New York City Opera in finding a new leader and scheduling a 2009-10 season following the departure of Gerard Mortier. [via AP]
This afternoon, after breaking the tragic news that Baltimore Opera seems to be on its last legs, Opera Chic added the startling tidbit that even the mighty Met is planning major cutbacks for next year. The blog says (with no source offered) that the company “is about to excise four [productions?] from their 2009-10 season.”…
La Cieca has just been informed that Boston Lyric Opera “is mere hours away” from announcing their new Director of Artistic Operations, Nicholas Russell (formerly of Glimmerglass Opera before the regime coup there). It should be noted that although Russell is “dall’ immondo sangue degl’inglesi dei scozie,” he is a naturalized U.S. citizen, so it’s…
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/KE_YiNED5WQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] An excerpt from Jeffrey Lependorf‘s Tim Gunn’s Podcast (a reality chamber opera), performed by baritone John Schenkel, with the composer at the piano, from a performance at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival at The Jazz Gallery.
A jump-in a due in tonight’s Met Butterfly, as Maria Gavrilova and Marcello Giordani substitute for Patricia Racette and Roberto Aronica . Earlier today at the production presentation and first rehearsal for Thaïs, Olga Makarina played the titular hooker — while Renée Fleming played hooky.
La Cieca hears that now that NYCO is relinquishing its commission of Charles Wuorinen‘s Brokeback Mountain, another opera company at Lincoln Center is interested in premiering the work, starring one or more of their stable of telegenic baritones. Perhaps in this version Jack and Ennis can meet at a honky-tonk called The Diamond Horseshoe?
Screenshot of the “Pressroom” page at the New York City Opera’s website, taken at 2:50 pm on November 11, November 10, 2008. Note the date of the most recent item. And this from the “About” page, same site, captured at 8:30 am, November 11:
parterre.com editor Our Own JJ plays talking head with Brian Wise John Schaefer this afternoon circa 2:00 pm on WNYC. Topic for the day is the recent bombshell at NYCO. Let’s hope that in the hour or so before the show it doesn’t turn to be a literal bombshell, which at this writing about the only disaster the…
Low camp, admittedly, but it’s still some sort of accomplishment when a movie is camp even before it’s released. With Paul Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton heading the cast, how could Repo! The Genetic Opera possibly go wrong? [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/1TbiM3dVJhQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
If you ever wondered, cher public, what Adriana Lecouvreur would look like as a Charles Busch “Grande Dame Guignol” epic, well, now here’s your chance. (It’s surely coincidental, though serendipitous, that mezzo-soprano Marianna Bódi so closely resembles Olivia de Havilland circa Lady in a Cage.)
Nothing could illustrate better the “strange intercourse” between artist and public than the following clip. Chris Merritt‘s 2008 performance of the rarely-heard cabaletta to “Rachel quand du Seigneur” is not much worse than you might expect, but it is the “ovation” at the end that elevates the entire experience to the highest summit of Filth.
As if to demonstrate that there are better ways to run an opera company than the NYCO’s ongoing fiasco, Fort Worth Opera announced today that they will present the world premiere of Before Night Falls, is by Jorge MartÃn in 2010. Darren K. Woods, the quiet genius who is general director of Fort Worth Opera,…
Sadly, La Cieca, who foresaw the beginning, foresaw the end as well.
Now, La Cieca asks you, cher public. Wouldn’t you think that someone as experienced in deconstructing Mozart as Gerard Mortier would find some new take on the role of the coy Zerlina, instead of all this “I would and then I waver, I tremble to depa-art” nonsense. Well, yes, you would, and so would La…
La Cieca was just tipped that leather-loving tunesmith David Del Tredici is journeying below the belt once more, offering the premiere of his song cycle “My Favorite Penis Poems” at Symphony Space on December 4. Soprano Melissa Fogarty will sing the composer’s “frank, erotic, and bawdy” setting of explicit poems from from Rumi to Allen…
The nip in the air (which La Cieca feels most keenly in her skimpy outfit!) reminds your doyenne that the holiday season is upon us. May she suggest that for your gift-giving needs you peruse La Cieca’s Holiday Shop at amazon.com? Remember, parterre.com receives a commision off every product sold from the shop. Bless you…
Opera Pacific has canceled the remainder of their season and “will likely close down operations for good.” [via OC Register]
If there is a stranger opera video ever made, La Cieca hasn’t seen it. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/DvNhv5yEP0Q” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] And since we’re on the subject of dramatic sopranos, here’s our transplanted Turandot in more familiar vocal territory, circa 1973.
Here’s a quiz La Cieca trusts will prove thematically appropriate on this particular night: six sopranos sing “Du bist der Lenz.”
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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