You know, there’s the day-to-day stuff, like is Salvatore Licitra going to sing tonight. And then there’s the “coming soon” stuff, like getting the new Walküre up and running. And the “closely watched” stuff, like the Japan tour, with additional concerns outlined in today’s New York Times. And speaking of that article, there’s bullshit like this: Read more »
“Take a sexy comedy, add Rossini’s scrumptious melodies, then fold in world-class singers and a Tony-winning director. Now pray it doesn’t turn out like the sodden soufflé that is the Met’s new Le Comte Ory.”
Our own JJ is in a severe mood in today’s New York Post.
La Cieca has heard from a reliable source that two Met divas have already privately announced they “are not taking their young children to Japan and are not going themselves.”
Like the double or triple negative (where theoretically pairs of “nots” cancel each other out, but in practice you can’t be so sure) this tidbit of news La Cieca just read has her confused and uncertain. It seems that at a recital in Tulsa last night, Dame Kiri te Kanawa sang as an encore a Jake Heggie setting of Maria Callas‘s final monologue from Terrence McNally‘s Master Class. You know, the one that McNally didn’t actually write but rather collated from some random remarks Callas made in an entirely different emotional context.
A source close to the Met tells La Cieca that “all the house’s union representatives” will meet with Peter Gelb today to discuss rank and file “anxieties” about exposure to radiation and other safety concerns during the company’s planned tour to Japan scheduled for June. The bulk of Met personnel are scheduled to depart on the three-week tour on May 29, exactly two months from today, with members of the tech crew flying over as early as the the second week of May.
Renée Fleming (who will not be wearing the dress depicted, probably) leads the cast in tonight’s performance of Capriccio at the Met, and La Cieca is counting on you, the cher public, to lead the chat beginning at 8:00 pm.
Former Editor of Opera News and Director of Opera-Music Theater at the National Endowment for the Arts Patrick J. Smith (pictured) yearns for the ancien régime: “We used to go to the opera for the voices. Zinka Milanov…” And so, anyone who has serious informed criticism of how Peter Gelb runs the Met now can look forward to getting lumped in with the reactionary prigs. [Musical America]
“Esoteric music staged by an operatic outsider paid off for the New York City Opera on Friday night with Monodramas, a program of three single-character operas.” [New York Post]
Cher Public