August 2009
La Cieca figures if Adelaida Negri can make a comeback, so can your doyenne.
History repeating, indeed — and rather recent history at that!
Following the jump, snippets of all the tracks on the new “Verismo” album, as performed by America’s Soprano.
La Cieca’s curiosity is always aroused when a journalist probes with really penetrating questions.
Now, La Cieca believes in turning a gimlet eye on everyone and everything, you know that. But even your doyenne finds this latest Zinta Lundborg screed, well, harsh is the only word. … the company’s funereal new logo is a black circle, which evokes thoughts of the deficit or even oblivion. Presenting four performances of…
Preseason puffery has commenced for the Met’s 2009 opening night production of Tosca, to star that noted brunette Karita Mattila. A release from the company’s press office today details the various ancillary events associated with the September 21 performance, including the first “Open House” of the season (i.e., the final dress rehearsal on September 17…
La Cieca wishes her cher public a joyous and safe St. Bartholomew’s Day.
“Opera singer” Katherine Jenkins has been insured against getting swine flu. [Wales Online]
La Cieca is delighted to learn that “the New York City Opera and the American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO, have reached agreement on a new collective bargaining contract, helping to ensure City Opera’s continuing place in the forefront of American opera,” according to a press release from the NYCO. Since Alan Gordon and George…
Of course, there were also setbacks along the road to success. During a performance of “La Traviata” in Genoa conducted by Bonynge, the audience roundly booed tenor Lamberto Furlan to the point that the conductor and his wife, who had personally picked Furlan for the role, left the stage and refused to complete the performance.…
“Verismo,” Renée Fleming informs us, “means truth.” What better demonstration of this artist’s dedication to the real-life (not to say the mundane) than her apparent decision to fire her stylist and hairdresser in hopes of achieving a greater naturalism of appearance. Indeed, La Cieca would say that Fleming has succeeded: at least as documented in…
UPDATE, 10:55 pm: The Associated Press confirms that Hildegard Behrens died early Tuesday, according to an email sent to opera officials by Jonathan Friend, artistic administrator of the Metropolitan Opera. La Cieca has just received an as yet unconfirmed report that Hildegard Behrens died earlier today in Japan, where she was preparing for a Lieder…
“…dramatic personalities are drawn to opera, not influenced by it.” [Psychology Today]
From that rarest and most coveted of all camp crossover efforts, the Sylvia Sass disco album:
Or, “Tosca è un buon funbag!”
Notorious cumblogger JJ has finally cleaned up his mess. [New York Post]
La Cieca is delighted to note that two of the best-remembered and most-coveted “Live from the Met” telecasts have at last been made available on DVD. Otello (25 September 1978) and Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci (5 April 1978) are now available at the Met Opera Shop and online at www.metoperashop.org, “as well as through other outlets.” La…
La Cieca would like to introduce a new feature to parterre.com in which questions on opera-related etiquette (and probably “life issues” and stuff) sent in by the puzzled, the concerned and, perhaps on occasion, the merely inept. Our first question come to us from “Baffled By the Bay” — I have an opera friend who…
So, cher public, those of you who are buying tickets for the Met today. What’s the experience like?
George Steel recently gave Anthony Tommasini a sneak peak at his bulging Koch Theater. The Times scribe, “dodging sparks from welders and ducking under hanging cables” soon realized that the “boyish” intendant is just like President Obama, sort of. [NYT]
Naughty Feldmarschallin spoiled the most recent Regie quiz by blurting out the answer, so La Cieca will repeat her usual entreaty in advance this time. The point of this quiz is not to see if you can recognize a production you have seen (or have seen reviewed) but rather, working from the images, to try…
Our Own JJ reviews A Flowering Tree in today’s New York Post.
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/goFTDbMyRUs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] The Gran Teatre del Liceu has posted 70 clips from a variety of their opera productions over the last decade or so. Great singing and improbable regie: who could ask for anything more?
La Cieca hears that after two days of negotiations a “tentative agreement” has been reached between AGMA and the New York City Opera. Members of AGMA will vote on August 20 whether they choose to ratify the agreement as the negotiating committee has recommended. According to our source, AGMA has made “some concessions,” though apparently…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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