December 2009

Votre chat, je peux vous le rendre

The last parterre chat of 2009, Carmen from the Met, begins at 6:00 pm for a 6:30 curtain. 

Should old, old, old acquaintance be forgot?

Well, La Cieca certainly hopes not, and she looks forward to seeing all of you in 2010. In the meantime, do drop by parterre.com beginning around 6ish this PM for a live chat about tonight’s Carmen prima from the Met. After the jump, La Cieca and an unidentified member of the cher public (possibly Camille?)…

Wagging Tales

David Pomeroy makes his Met debut tonight as the eponymous boozehound in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, replacing the ill Joseph Calleja. Meanwhile, La Cieca hears, Brandon Jovanovich is on a rehearsal stage getting brought up to speed on the Carmen production in case he has to go on for Roberto Alagna tomorrow night.

La Cieca and her saga prove that you are gaga

Your doyenne guiltily just realized that she has not yet taken a moment to pen a “thank you” note to that member of the cher public who sent her the George Steel watch as a holiday gift. In the spirit of that timepiece, La Cieca would like to update yesterday afternoon’s open-and-shut, 100% certain, no questions asked posting…

Coup de Grace

A tribute to Kennedy Center honoree Grace Bumbry from fellow laureate Aretha Franklin. 

The rise of the Roman empire

Okay, La Cieca has sifted all the evidence thus far, and she has done Pravda-style scrutiny of what was said and what was left unsaid (particularly by Peter Gelb) in the most recent New York Times analysis of the issue, and ignoring the most recent Jeremiads from Rome on account of the fact that pretty…

No word from Carmencita

That invited audience for last night’s dress rehearsal of Carmen at the Met must still be under house arrest, for nary a peep has reached the ear of your doyenne. On the bright side, there was a snippet of video smuggled out of a rehearsal of the upcoming Attila, and La Cieca is happy to…

That will bring us back to Do

La Cieca’s first resolution for the New Year: to get herself a high C like the one Amarilli Nizza throws around with such aplomb and insouciance and such.

Cabbage Patch Regie

La Cieca would be fascinated to find out how you did it, Hoffmann. However did you guess that last week’s Regie quiz in fact portrayed Rusalka — as envisioned by that new parterre darling Stefan Herheim for Oper Graz! 

Allein?

Don’t say that!  No one is alone for the weekly chat during the Saturday Met broadcast! Today the performance is Elektra, starting at 1:00 pm.

Thus spake Tommasini

“I will have more to say on this question later.” So, three weeks ago, Anthony Tommasini left open the subject of how “[n]one of the versions of [Les Contes d’Hoffmann] that have appeared over the years, some of them corrupted, can be said to be authentic.” The Times scribe has at last broken his silence, though…

E avanti a lui fischiava tutta Roma

“A Zeffirelli, dopo le polemiche della vigilia che lo hanno opposto al soprano Daniela Dessì, da lui ritenuta non giusta per il ruolo di Violetta in questa Traviata, qualche dissenso misto agli applausi al momento di comparire in proscenio assieme a Gelmetti.” [Il Messaggero]

The biggest scoop of the decade

So La Cieca was thinking back, what with the end of the oughts and all, and she found herself wondering how parterre.com has changed in the past ten years. Here’s a screenshot of the site (not yet a blog) circa December 1999, and what nostalgia to think of the days when we still used “frames!”…

38%

Tonight’s Hoffmann at the Met is conducted by John Keenan, but it’s not a(nother) James Levine cancellation. Of the nine performances of the Offenbach opera this season, Maestro Jimmy was always scheduled to do only six; the other were “TBA” until the season began. With his cancellation of of the December 16 performance, of course,…

Reminder: Oughty but nice

La Cieca reminds the cher public: you still have one week to come up with a top ten list about the decade from the beginning of 2000 to the end of 2009, with the winner taking home a $100 Amazon gift card.

Pandemic

“Three cast changes have been made for tonight’s performance of Les Contes d’Hoffmann due to illness. Rachele Gilmore will make her Met debut replacing Kathleen Kim in the role of Olympia. Laura Vlasek Nolan replaces Ekaterina Gubanova as Giulietta. Joel Sorensen sings the roles of the four servants – Andrès, Frantz, Cochenille, and Pitichinaccio –…

Le film d’artifice

Call this Prima Donna: The Opera: The Documentary: The Trailer. Plus it includes a glimpse of tween Rufus playing Scarpia. 

Happy Birthday Giacomo Puccini

The poet of “le piccole cose” was born 151 years ago today.

Her haunted heart is in the right place

Soprano Renée Fleming, target of a jibe or three on this site over the years, shows what finer stuff she’s made of on January 11 when she gives a recital for the benefit of Treatment Action Group in the intimate setting of a SoHo loft, recently dubbed “Carnegie Hall South” in the New York Times.

The Barber of Bleecker Street

One week after my visit to Amore Opera, it was time to turn my attention to Bleecker Street Opera — another heir presumptive to the throne of the defunct Amato Opera. 

Yesterday’s news, tomorrow

Wow! That Daniel J. Wakin story appearing in tomorrow’s Times has everything but the bloodhounds snappin’ at Luc Bondy‘s rear end!

“It’s right twice a day”

It’s always time for Stravinsky! [Ebay]

In my pet pailleted Regie

Several of you guessed correctly that our most recent Regie quiz was La fanciulla del West, in the “leather bar” production by Nikolaus Lehnhoff for De Nederlandse Opera.   After the jump, a look at more of this production in action.

Bring back Bondy

A source close to (though not necessarily at) the Metropolitan Opera tells La Cieca that the company’s production staff “late last week” pitched the idea of reviving the Franco Zeffirelli production of Tosca in the fall of 2010 in order to free up some backstage space for the “QEII-sized” sets for the new Rheingold. Peter’s…