“The New York City Opera, which just reported a $19.9 million deficit in 2008-09, paid Gerard Mortier $400,000 for his stint as part-time general-manager in-waiting.” [Bloomberg News]
The results are in for the first annual Pubie Awards, nominated and voted upon by you, the Cher Public. Turnout this year was spectacular, with some categories racking up as many as 2,647 votes. A few of the races were close, and La Cieca thinks you’ll see an upset or two among the winners, after the jump. Read more »
When invited to participate in a discourse on artistic standards (hello, internet!), it’s easy — pleasurable, even — for an aesthete to bray about “the fall.” Where are the true heldentenors? Your kingdom for a Callas! (Or a Stratas, or a Rysanek!) And might the public, at long last, deserve a stable of directors who possess the good sense to avoid both the trope-y familiar as well as the ill-advised pathways of, ugh, the modern? Read more »
The subtitle for Il crociato in Egitto, the last of Meyerbeer’s great Italian operas, is “Historic Melodrama in Two Acts,” and boy is it! A melodrama, I mean. I’m not sure about the historic part.
In honor of the impending revival of Porgy and Bess at New Jersey State Opera (marking the 75th anniversary of the premiere of the work), La Cieca invites the public to share their favorite YouTube clips of the Gershwin masterpiece. After the jump, La Cieca nominates a highlight and a lowlight of Porgiana.
As if her elegant carriage, pristine soprano and knockabout comedy skills (as enjoyed in La Fille du Régiment) were not sufficient claims to fame, Dame Kiri te Kanawa has branched out into the composition of surrealist poetry.
Andrea Bocelli is a pop singer, and a wildly successful one at that. So why does he feel compelled to pretend to be a dramatic tenor?
La Cieca is nothing if not infinitely suggestible, particularly when the suggestion in question is clever and elegantly expressed. So, on the prompting of commenter M (pictured above) La Cieca would like to remind the cher public about a few contemporary opera projects on the immediate horizon.
Cher Public