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Cher Public

  • Buster: We get Edith Haller in L’Upupa soon, with John Mark Ainsley ...
  • La Valkyrietta: Of course that was Eileen Farrell singing for Eleanor Parker...
  • Indiana Loiterer III: I don't know whether she deserves another award, but no doub...
  • Quanto Painy Fakor: If course people who sing at the MET pay for private coachin...
  • La Valkyrietta: There does not seem to be her Ernani Involami in youtube. ...
  • kashania: Oh, I'm leaving for a week's vacation today. Sorry to miss ...
  • That Guy: "Heard" is an overstatement, at least based on the one perfo...
  • grimoaldo: I noticed a couple of comments expressing surprise that toni...
  • kashania: Does that mean that Fleming will be semi-fake-acting?
  • grimoaldo: Siegfried will be Jay Hunter Morris who replaced the replace...

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Chat in exile

advice_cieca_collins_thumbBetsy is back in Pike or wherever she hails from, so this week we don’t have the usual smörgåsbord of listening selections she ordinarily provides. Our Own Hans Lick, though, has nominated a brace of broadcasts of possible interest to the cher public. Read more »

Nymph errant

takeshaTakesha Meshé Kizart will make her Met debut as Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème on October 16, also singing performances on October 20, 23, 28, November 1, and 5.  She replaces the originally announced Kristine Opolais, who has “withdrawn“. (In case you’re wondering, Nina Stemme was the one who canceled.) (Photo: Maja Slavec)

She feels pretty

semele_bartoliAn unlikely but adept English-language vocal stylist, Cecilia Bartoli, led the cast of a revival of the 2007 Zurich staging of Handel’s Semele, transferred to the Theater an der Wien for a short run. Director Robert Carsen takes an occasional liberty: Juno and Jupiter emerge as British royals, for instance, she a wellie-wearer and devotee of the low tabloids. Yet disbelief is gladly suspended, and kept there, a rare credit these days.  Read more »

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“…purely coincidental and not intended”

“Zinta Lundborg is a writer for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.” [Bloomberg]

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Puff piece

The Board of Directors of New York City Opera has announced that Charles R. Wall was unanimously elected Chairman of the Board effective December 16, 2010. He succeeds Susan L. Baker, who will “step down” after seven years of “dedicated service.” 

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Oh, how we danced on the night we were webbed

Lots of media news today, so let’s not waste any time! La Cieca congratulates Opera News on the occasion of the mag’s 75th anniversary this month, though your doyenne is willing to swear that the mag doesn’t look a day over 60! 

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In memory of La Divina

Maria Callas died 33 years ago, September 16, 1977.

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Poll dancing

Only a few hours left before voting in the “Greatest Divas” poll is closed!  You have until midnight tonight to add your vote to the more than 15,000 already cast.

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