“A dash of pizazz would have been welcome in announcing next year’s schedule, which looks respectable but safe.” Our Own JJ previews the Met’s 2011-2012 season. [New York Post]
The several of you who guessed Iolanthe for last week’s Regie quiz were, well, not quite as wrong as everyone else. The work in question was Birtwhistle’s The Io Passion as performed at the Wiener Kammeroper in a staging by Nicola Raab. (But of course!)
Moving on: so, what are these folks up to? Read more »
Thanks to the valiant (not so) few of you, cher public, parterre.com garnered its highest-ever single day of pageviews in history this week. On Wednesday (the day of the Met press conference) the site registered 30, 729 views, most of them on the liveblog, which now ranks as the sixth most popular page in parterre history. Tonight we dine at O’Neals!
So, any guesses who’s funding the Tea Party Astroturfing campaign backing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker‘s proposal to strip state workers of collective bargaining rights? La Cieca urges all you opera fans to keep in mind the image of the National Guard called on striking teachers when you are enjoying the ambiance of the Auditorium Formerly Known as the New York State Theater later this spring.
“When I left the opera house, I stumbled to the next train out of town and fell immediately asleep; when I left the afternoon broadcast, I stepped out onto the sidewalk and discovered that the sun had set while I’d been in the dark, watching. The sky’d gone all orange and blue and was seemingly cloudless, but a thin flurry of huge white flakes snowed down as if from nowhere and then, after a moment, it stopped.” What La Cieca thinks is going to live as the definitive take on John Adams‘ Nixon in China at the Met is sitting [...]
If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard from La Cieca (pictured, right) today, it’s because JJ (pictured, left) has been busy writing and stuff. By “and stuff,” he means primarily seeing an amazing production of Tennessee Williams‘ Vieux Carré by the Wooster Group and reacting to it at Musical America. See you all tomorrow at the chat during Don Pasquale at 1 pm!
“Rachelle Durkin will sing the role of Norina in this Saturday’s matinee performance of Don Pasquale, replacing Anna Netrebko, who is ill,” says the Met press office.
Above is a preliminary PR photo of Eva-Maria Westbroek in the “biggest than life” titular role of the Mark-Anthony Turnage/Richard Thomas bio-opera Anna Nicole, set to open tonight at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. But without the benefit of Photoshop and artful lighting, what do Westbroek and Anna Nicole really look like?
Cher Public