March 2010
Oh, phooey! Barely 12 minutes separated La Cieca’s posting of the most recent Regie quiz and the correct guess by bassoprofundo. By the way, your doyenne’s current crush Stefan Herheim directed this production for Den Norske Opera. And now for a puzzler La Cieca hopes will be a bit more challenging!
With the production of Siegfried, the “Ring for the 21st Century” staged by La Fura dels Baus finally hits its stride.
Today’s Met broadcast is From the House of the Dead. Our habitual chat begins at 12:30 pm, and the details are after the jump.
I have heard Gerald Finley live and enjoyed his singing immensely. He possesses a strong, resonant, lyric baritone, even of scale and beautiful of timbre. His biggest successes to date have been creating the roles of Oppenheimer in John Adams‘ Dr. Atomic and Harry in Mark-Anthony Turnage‘s The Silver Tassie. He includes selections from both…
Today’s gossip riddle: what does the Met’s upcoming Mary Zimmerman production of Rossini’s Armida have in common with the above-referenced classic of cheesy 1950s science fiction?
Angela Gheorghiu will sing Mimì at the Met’s last performance of Boheme this season tomorrow afternoon, replacing Anna Netrebko who is ill. Angie’s in town (already?) in preparation for her performances in La traviata beginning March 29.
La Cieca has obtained a snippet of the Met’s upcoming HD simulcast of Thomas’ Hamlet. Do not reveal to anyone the source of this clip!
I have to confess that I overheard that line during the intermission of the Met’s new production of Amboise Thomas’s seldom-performed Hamlet based on Shakespeare’s oft-performed play. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The cher public are invited to suggest captions for this less than flattering photo by Sara Krulwich, which appeared originally in the New York Times.
“After all that, it would be gratifying to declare Petersen’s debut a ‘star is born’ moment. But… she was pretty much a nonstarter, her Ophélie hovering on the cusp of inaudibility in midrange and shrill on the highest notes.” [NYP]
David Gockley has accepted Elina Garanca‘s withdrawal for “personal reasons” from San Francisco after discovering a “series of European concerts has been recently announced on Ms. Garanca’s website during the Werther performance schedule.” [La Cieca earlier reported this story as Gockley’s giving “the boot” to Garanca, which was not accurate.]
The wait is over, cher public, and your doyenne’s blue-ribbon panel has selected the perkiest procrastinator of the pack, jatm2063 for his account of a delayed encounter with Sylvia Sass. Congratulations, jatm!
Serious “opera singer” Katherine Jenkins says her greatest wish is to sing Carmen or Cherubino at La Scala.
La Cieca (not pictured) has been asked to spread the word that the Opera-L list is down due to the power outages in New Jersey where it is hosted. The latest information is that it is hoped to be up sometime Wednesday. UPDATE: Opera-L is now operational again.
La Cieca is delighted to begin a new series on parterre.com dedicated to the fretting, brooding and dithering of the Wazier of the Worriers, Anthony Tommasini. Our first examples (of many) follow the jump.
Many happy returns to Antonietta Stella, who turned 81 today!
Although she has made headlines on this side of the Atlantic largely because of her recent dismissal by Franco Zeffirelli from a Roman production of La traviata on the grounds of “physical inadequacy,” Daniela Dessì is a topflight star in Europe. In her native Italy she is arguably the most popular soprano currently active. Over…
La Cieca has decided she is going insert the the following line into her official biography (names and pronouns varied as necessary):
Today’s Met broadcast is The Nose. Our habitual chat begins at 12:30 pm, and the details are after the jump.
… as the saying goes. A German opera singer is accused of murdering her husband Hermann, then hiring a body double to sign over to her his properties, stocks, bonds, cash and life insurance policy. [The Telegraph]
She without whom La Cieca would not cast a shadow, Renée Fleming, has a newly revamped website!
Per the Met’s press office, “Jane Archibald will make her Met debut as Ophélie in the Met’s new production of Thomas’s Hamlet, singing the role on April 5 and 9.”
La Cieca would like to give the cher public a little nudge in the way of a reminder that the procrastination competition will be closed at midnight tonight. So what are you waiting for? (Remember, only comments to the original posting will be considered!)
As La Cieca indicated previously, Francesca Zambello (center) is going to add the notch of General and Artistic Director of Glimmerglass Opera to her already bulging belt. [NYT]
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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