November 2009
Smartly done, Kashania, who guessed almost immediately that last week’s Regie quiz represented From the House of the Dead — in a production by Calixto Bieito, by the way. But even oil drums, truck tires and life-sized airplanes suspended over the stage might look a little prim in contrast to this week’s puzzler:
Squirrel was expecting boobs! People, there were no boobs, and for that, I was a little disappointed.
“Voglio essere giudicato per la musica e nient’altro che per la musica.” “I want to be judged for my music and nothing but my music.” This phrase, which Mascagni himself wrote to his publisher Sonzogno, is the key to understanding the very essence and existence of L’amico Fritz (1891). Cavalleria rusticana, Mascagni’s first performed opera,…
Had I been living at the time Walter Felsenstein’s film of Verdi’s Otello was released in 1969, such then-innovative elements as the use of color on television and a vernacular translation might have given me new insights into this great opera. Maybe.
For those of us newly accustomed to watching The Met: Live in HD cinecasts and similar events in our neighborhood theaters, it is easy to forget that opera as cinema was once a very different experience. Ritter Blaubart, one in a series of seven films by Walter Felsenstein recently released on DVD, shows us the…
Poet of the podium Carlos Kleiber leads the final minutes of Tristan und Isolde from the mystic abyss of Bayreuth, circa 1975.
La Cieca invites all the cher public to a troika of talk during tonight’s Met season premiere of Il trittico. The performance begins at 8:00 pm.
The great Swedish soprano died earlier today. She was 82. [AP]
The results of the Repertory Poll are in! Squirrel asked which three Old Operas you would most like to see staged at the New New Met, and the people have spoken! Results after the jump.
La Cieca welcomes to the editorial desk of parterre.com new correspondents squirrel and Ercole Farnese, who have already begun their blanket coverage of the New York City opera scene.
Tonight’s Met season premiere of Il trittico features Patricia Racette‘s first local whack at the three heroines, which means La Cieca expects the parterre posse to be out in force. Check back here at parterre.com beginning at 7:45 for a live chat coinciding with the Sirius/RealNetworks broadcast of the Puccini three-parter.
Colombetta, Colombetta, Apri l’uscio, non farmi penar Del balcon solleva il velo Apri amor se no qui gelo Colombetta, Colombetta, Arlecchino gelando si sta.
(No, not that again.) The San Diego Opera, boldly exploring cutting-edge trends in dramaturgy, is producing a Twitter version of the complete history of opera.
The Met’s January Rosenkavalier performances have been reassigned to maestro Edo de Waart as James Levine “takes it easy” preparing the new production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann.
So, which composer wants to jump on this peach of a libretto? “The Met’s fund-raising office had kept in touch with Ms. Webster since then. It sent her books about the birds of Central Park; a volume called Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park.”
You know how you have this old friend you’ve known for 20 years now, who’s always been a little nuts, or gets a little high, or just is, you know, eccentric, but in a way that is so clueless that it’s kind of endearing? Someone you can count on for a laugh, because you always…
My post about Nielsen’s Maskarade outraged only a few of you, and inspired a passionate discussion about what works we’d like to see at the New New Met. (Thank you, Hans Lick, for your very complete wish list!) You are each now invited to vote for your three most longed-for revivals or premieres at the…
What happens, La Cieca imagines, when Project Runway meets Carl Maria von Weber.
It’s no easy easy task to “re-review” one of the most discussed and scrutinized opera productions of the last few years. Mary Zimmerman’s mise-en-scène of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor has been extensively examined since it was chosen to inaugurate the 2007/08 season of the Metropolitan Opera, provoking very mixed reactions both from the professional critics…
A funny thing happened to me yesterday. I was desperate to go to Aprile Millo’s long awaited recital but it simply wasn’t in the budget. La Cieca sent a posting mentioning she would give her extra ticket to the first one who e-mails her. I sent it, I got it, and the rest is history…
Attached you will find the song lineup for last night’s Aprile Millo recital, though as the saying goes, there were some changes to the printed program. The first half went more or less as planned, though after the R. Strauss a man exiting the auditorium tripped and fell in the aisle, hit his head on…
The Met’s new production of Janacek’s From the House of the Dead sets high standards for the company, but as an indicator of the Gelb Era, it may be too good to be true.
Far side of the lobby, near the big picture window overlooking the park.
Hui He will sing the title role of Verdi’s Aida at the Metropolitan Opera on March 26, 31, and April 3 matinee, replacing Hasmik Papian, who has withdrawn.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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