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  • papopera: thank you. looking forward to six o'clock
  • Will: I think the reasoning here is that these productions of what...
  • Nerva Nelli: Apparently Billingsgate has Ingrid Steger and Carol Yahr sta...
  • grimoaldo: Good lord. I find that somewhat sad. Why are they having ope...
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  • Donna Anna: Anna Russell, thou shouldst be living at this hour but since...
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  • Will: Casting note: Glimmerglass has announced that opposite Dwayn...
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Vivian Della Chiesa 1914-2009

Vivian Della Chiesa, “Toscanini’s favorite soprano,” died on Tuesday. She was 94.

Della Chiesa is heard in the Trio from I Lombardi with Jan Peerce and Nicola Moscona, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, in a radio concert from January 31, 1943.

“Qui posa il fianco… Qual volutta trascorrere”

nyco roundup

“Dancing in the streets exaggerates only a bit. In Dallas, any tears shed over his departure would barely fill a thimble.”  Jeremy Gerard sums up the reaction of George Steel‘s departure from Dallas in Bloomberg News.

non, je ne regrette rien

Gerard “La Môme” Mortier told Le Monde yesterday that he has “no regrets” walking away from the New York City Opera. The wily Belgian impresario added, “But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and spit it out. I faced it all and I stood tall; and did it my way.” [via NYT]

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live from the nest

Since there’s nothing new on Sirius, no HD telecast, or a new Unnatural Acts of Opera tonight, La Cieca thought we might revisit the golden age of two decades ago for a classic performance of The Dentist of Seville.

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le coeur a ses raisons

In today’s Dallas Morning News, Scott Cantrell explains how Stephen Costello “steals [an] aging queen’s heart.”

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“most hated” gelb makes page six

Is there a grassroots “Draft Placido Domingo” movement afoot, or is there genuine hostility to Peter Gelb somewhere in the Met administration? Page Six goes on the rant today, with quotes from a source who is already mourning the demise of that Franco Zeffirelli Tosca, nine months before it’s officially out of the repertoire.

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happy birthday charlie handelman

La Cieca wishes her dear, dear, dear friend many happy returns, and reminds her cher public that Charlie’s podcasts (gleaned from his vastissimo collection) are about the best opera you can find anywhere on the web.

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of me I sing

La Cieca wants to take this opportunity to offer her best wishes to the 44th President of the United States.

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