The legendary mezzo-soprano is 75 today.
La Cieca has no word on this yet, but she is sure that reliable baritone is going to get a lot of stage time at the Met the last few weeks of the season — probably as much as he’s had since the 20th century!
Juilliard Opera presented an under-ripe yet moving performance of Poulenc’s masterpiece Dialogues des Carmelites on Wednesday. Promising young singers surmounted a dodgy production and stiff musical direction with intelligent singing and contagious enthusiasm. Read more »
La Cieca’s delight at the success of her colleague The Omniscient Mussel is equaled only by her bitter envy for the success of her colleague The Omniscient Mussel. TOM, you see, has built upon the success of last year’s #operaplot competition by signing up a slew of new opera houses to offer prize packages for this year’s #Operaplot 2010. Serving as adjudicator of the winning entries is none other than His Jummyness Jonas Kaufmann!
A member of the cher public who attended yesterday’s Met Guild luncheon honoring Frederica von Stade reports: “Evelyn Lear went so far as to call [Flicka] ‘Mother Teresa — a saint.’ As part of his homage, Thomas Hampson sang one of the Cherubino arias — it was really sweet.
A dramatic symphony with incidental voices: that’s how Riccardo Muti’s Otello, which inaugurated the 2008 Salzburg Festival, could be aptly described. Beginning with the initial allegro agitato with its piercing lashes, it instantly appears obvious that Muti’s intention is to go for the jugular, nail the audience to their seats and never give them a moment of relief. The raw energy emanating from his orchestra is simply overwhelming, often brutal. There is no denying that such an aggressive approach to the opera can be electrifying and breathtaking.
La Cieca hears that two spectacular events crowned last night’s performance of La sonnambula at the Vienna State Opera.
Robert Tuggle, Director of Archives for the Metropolitan Opera, has announced a migration of the company’s supremely useful online database to a new software system. He’s looking for ideas for “new features that might improve on a system that we are already pleased with.”
Cher Public