Headshot of La Cieca

Cher Public

  • 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...
  • Matthew: I'm just enjoying imagining the parallel universe where "hon...
  • Camille: "FIFTY DOLLARS?!?!?!!!!" - for an opera ticket. What an out...
  • Camille: The great Giorgio Tozzi, a paragon of virtues, siinging my h...
  • papopera: who is the SIEGFRIED tonight is voiceless Voigt confirmed ??...

blog advertising is good for you

Dark lord

La Cieca had never really considered before the possibility that Peter Gelb was a Harry Potter villain, but this image from Channel 13′s Sunday Arts certainly does make one wonder.

Sun turns black as sackcloth; moon red as blood

“On Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall, the Carnegie Hall Notables—a membership and ticket program for music enthusiasts in their 20s and 30s—will host Love Letters, a performance of contemporary American playwright A. R. Gurney’s work. Celebrated soprano Renée Fleming and award-winning actor Alec Baldwin will perform the piece as directed by Mark Lamos with executive producer Susan Q. Gallin. After the exclusive event, the Notables will gather at Providence for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, with music by Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky.”

Tales of the kitty

“Pets are not mentioned.” [Bloomberg Businessweek]

Read more »

Her bark and her bite

“Anna Bolena… opened at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday in a new production featuring Anna Netrebko and two handsome Irish wolfhounds who helped us get through one very tedious scene.” (Bloomberg News, Manuela Hoelterhoff)

Read more »

Read more »

Dream a little dreamboat

Deutsche Grammophon has a new hunk on the market, ignoring the fact that he’s been around for twenty years. Ildebrando d’Arcangelo has been steadily building a career since the early 90s, getting a reputation as a reliable, intelligent artist with a supple bass-baritone. He has a lengthy career of singing with the greats under his belt, not to mention several high-profile recordings of full-length operas.

Read more »

Read more »

Running out of adjectives

“Queen Anna is dead — long live Queen Anna! The late royal lady is Anna Bolena in Donizetti’s 1830 opera, based on the final days of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII. The new monarch — ruling not over England but the Met — is Anna Netrebko, whose radiant performance at the company’s opening night Monday catapulted her to ‘prima donna assoluta’: undisputed superstar.” [New York Post]

Read more »

Read more »

Anna of the thousands dazed

Tonight’s the night, cher public, traditionally the busiest of the year here at parterre. Complete details on the opening night performance of Anna Bolena after the jump.

Read more »

Read more »

Regie de los Muertos

As several of you were sharp-eyed enough to notice (and sharp-tongued enough to mention), our previous Regie quiz was in fact a repeat, and La Cieca is sorry to say it looks like a production that hardly deserved a reprise: Rossini’s Semiramide directed by Nigel Lowery. A new and different challenge to your sleuthing skills may be found following the jump.  

Read more »