February 2011
“…LA Opera’s 2010/11 25th Anniversary Season will continue with Benjamin Britten’s suspenseful masterpiece The Turn of the Screw, opening at 7:30pm on Saturday, March 12, 2011 . . . . Irish mezzo-soprano Anne Murray makes her Company debut as the housekeeper Mrs. Grose, the governess’ only ally.” (Los Angeles Opera press release)
As perhaps you may have heard hinted hereabouts, “Gary Lehman and Stephen Gould will sing the role of Siegfried in the Met’s 2011-12 season performances of Wagner’s Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, replacing Ben Heppner who has retired the role from his repertory.” That’s according to a release from the Met’s press office less than an hour…
La Cieca is delighted to note that philanthropist Agnes Varis (not pictured, obviously) will subsidize 500 premium seats at Avery Fisher Hall for the Opera Orchestra of New York’s performance of Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine conducted by Music Director Eve Queler on March 2, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
La Cieca hears that the continuation of the Ring cycle at the Met next season will go on without the participation of Ben Heppner. We’ll have more details next week when the Met makes their season announcement, but La Cieca’s impression is that the two Siegfrieds are at the moment some combination of Gary Lehman…
Gather around to chat tonight, cher public, during yet another La boheme.
Faithful reader Sadie Salome writes, “Don’t know if you saw last night’s marketing email from the Met promoting their Valentine’s Day e-card website: “This Valentine’s day fall in love at the Met Opera.” Well, I did not like their schmaltzy selection of cards, so I made some of my own from my favorite romantic opera…
Courtesy of contextual ad placement, here’s a quick and easy way to remember the meaning of the German term “Kulturbanause.”
Our most recent Regie quiz was just too easy! Among many correct guesses ipomoea was first to discern Carmen amongst the pit bulls and jockstraps, followed closely by Billys Butt and WeillFan offering important refinements to the original theory. The production for Opera North was by Daniel Kramer. No dogs in the current quiz, but…
As La Cieca always so magnanimously says, “E vo gridando: pace! E vo gridando: chat!” The subject of today’s discussion is Simon Boccanegra, live from the Met at 1:00 pm.
Although Walter Braunfels was among those German composers whose music was banned in their home country after 1933, and whose political rehabilitiation in 1945 was not accompanied by a commensurate revival of his music, his 1920 opera Die Vögel should need no special pleading on musical or dramatic grounds. Though Braunfels is traditionally described as…
“A milestone in history, a hyped Met premiere and a gaggle of A-list artists added up to something less than a sensation Wednesday night when the Metropolitan Opera offered its first performance of John Adams’ Nixon in China.” [New York Post]
Overheard after last night’s performance of Nixon in China: “That’s the first time I’ve heard the word ‘motherfuckers’ shouted from the Met stage since John Dexter resigned.”
All this talk about girls and ladies prompted La Cieca to turn (not for the first time!) to Brad Wilber’s Met Futures Page, freshly updated just a couple of days ago. So detailed and fascinating is Brad’s vision of the future that La Cieca is inspired to invite the cher public to play a little…
Which girl proved so popular that she will return next year, all grown up into a lady?
La Cieca (not pictured) invites the cher public to a meeting of the minds this evening at 8:00 pm during the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Nixon in China.
Many happy returns to two big-voiced, big-haired sopranos who are still very much with us!
The golden-voiced gay icon was born 89 years ago today.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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