La Cieca has just heard that Salvatore Licitra is out of all performances of the Met’s 2012 revival of Ernani. The role of Verdi’s bandit will be shared between Marcello Giordani and Roberto DeBiasio.
Continuing what La Cieca hopes will be a fascinating discussion of the “sacro fuoco.” Let’s start with a Wikipedia definition: “Il sacro fuoco è una delle tante espressioni comuni per indicare una sacralità del fuoco, sia per ragioni religiose, sia per mera simbologia rituale.”
As was perhaps inevitable, Anna Netrebko is on the cusp of the Mildred Pierce phase of her career. The soprano talks about her plans to open a restaurant, her reasons for retiring Violetta from her repertoire, and her distaste for inflated ticket prices in an interview appearing in the German magazine Stern. Read more »
While major stars like René Pape and Piotr Beczala had to wait until they were over 40 to record a solo aria CD, Julia Lezhneva has just done her first—and she’s only twenty-one! After a drought, CD companies are issuing a surprising number of debut recitals; Nino Machaidze, Olga Peretyatko, Mojca Erdmann, and Aleksandra Kurzak (only females need apply?) have discs just out or due soon.
The Man of Steel is in danger again, this time from a new gang of supervillains: Lila and DeWitt Wallace. [NYT]
I received a package in the mail this afternoon from La Cieca, and eagerly tore it open. I knew that this was to be my parterre review assignment… rapture! It was a CD of an opera: The Brothers composed by… George Antheil? Who the fuck is that? After researching him for a bit, I got the feeling I wasn’t the only one who skipped over George Antheil in music education.
Soprano Amber Wagner will sing all the performances of Ariadne auf Naxos at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2011-2012, replacing Deborah Voigt, who “is focusing increasingly on dramatic soprano roles and has made the decision to remove the role of Ariadne from her repertoire for the time being.” Performances run November 19-December 11.
It is a known fact that in summer, I only attend events in my habitual haunts of Nice, Antibes, St. Paul de Vence and Milan. However, when our coquine doyenne begged on her knees (à la Gencer in Alceste), I accepted the assignment to review Martina Arroyo Foundation’s production of Puccini’s La Rondine.
Cher Public