The definitive postwar dramatic soprano was born May 17, 1918. Read more »
His Regie recognition is as fleet as his singing: it took iltenoredigrazia only six minutes to guess correctly that Elektra was the opera depicted in our most recent quiz.
La Cieca invites him (and the rest of you, of course) to lock horns with a more knotty puzzler, after the jump. Read more »
Why you chose it I can’t say: I guess you like it better this way. At any rate, this afternoon’s chat (by popular demand) will revolve around a broadcast of Il turco in Italia from the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Here’s the BBC 3 Player, and the live chat is in the usual location. Read more »
“Maestro Placido Domingo took to the stage in Qatar for the second time on Thursday night, when he was joined by the ‘Antologia de la Zarzuela’, with whom he gave an amazing performance of traditional Spanish music at the Pearl-Qatar.” [Gulf Times]
Before the Los Angeles Ring cycle has even begun, two of the leading singers have thrown director Achim Freyer under the bus. Particular non-collegial is leather-larynxed heldentenor John Treleaven, who blames his crappy singing on the production, but the mot du jour is: “Domingo was out of town and unavailable to answer questions.” [Los Angeles Times]
On the other hand, only moments ago La Cieca got a call from member of the cher public who gushed, “I just heard the greatest ‘Egli vede ch’io piango!’ ever!”
La Cieca doesn’t want her cher public to scatter to the four winds just because the Met’s broadcast season has drawn to a close. So let’s choose an internet radio broadcast to enjoy (and to discuss) next Saturday.
“The Met at this point is not a place where even a talented opera director can make good, strong work, let alone a place where a director inexperienced with the genre — as so many of Mr. Gelb’s favored artists are — can be guided toward an understanding of it.” Gadfly-at-large Zachary Woolfe takes “A Look Back at Peter Gelb’s Met.” [New York Observer]
Cher Public