“A music review on Monday about the opera ‘Prima Donna’ by Rufus Wainwright, in which the character Régine at one points asks ‘Who is this woman?’ and thus recalls a similar question in ‘Madama Butterfly,’ misidentified the character in that opera who asks about a woman’s identity. She is Suzuki, Butterfly’s servant — not Butterfly.’ [Corrections, NYT]
“Il Devo a global phenomenon” [Fresno Bee]
Casting is announced for the New York City Opera’s 2009-10 season. It’s all on their website, but here are a few highlights:
The “American Voices” concert features “a roster of stars including Joyce Castle, Anna Christy, Joyce DiDonato, Lauren Flanigan, Anthony Dean Griffey, and Samuel Ramey, all of whom appeared [note the past tense] at New York City Opera during their illustrious careers.” Read more »
The Divine Miss Millo sings “Pace, pace” in a concert from August, 1988. (Hey, don’t laugh: we all had hair like that then.)
La Cieca’s friend and icon Dorothy Bishop showed up last night on America’s Got Talent!
“We live in an age in which everyone is encouraged to express themselves, from inane blogging, Twittering and voting in mediocre talent shows. Please, let’s keep this out of the concert hall.” Jonathan Lennie admonishes over-enthusiastic applauders. (PS: the quotation sounds particularly funny if you do the voice.) [Time Out London]
Simply everyone chimes in today about Monday night’s Met in the Parks recital at Central Park SummerStage. JJ has one take, Anthony Tommasini quite another, and for depth of detail, you need look no further than Our Own Sanford:
Peter Gelb, who recently has been asking the Met’s rank and file for salary concessions, had his own compensation bumped up 36% for the 2007-08 season. According to Bloomberg News, Gelb earned about $1.5 million during his second year as the Met’s general manager. Since then he and the Met’s senior staff have taken 10% cuts. What La Cieca finds particularly intriguing about the Bloomberg piece is that it reveals that Gelb still takes home a smaller paycheck than Joe Volpe did at the end of his Met incumbency. Uncle Joe’s final haul was $1.7 million for the financial year [...]
Cher Public