parterre box presents la cieca

Bess, is you our woman now?

2008-01-31T18:39:00.000-05:00

Or, to put it another way, could this soprano be what the Met needs for Roberto Devereux?

While you ponder the future, you can enjoy the past: the final act of Verdi's Macbeth is now on Unnatural Acts of Opera.

A fine kettle

2008-01-31T16:47:00.000-05:00

OperaChic caught the story first, and now it's even made the AP: Juan Diego Flórez has canceled Chicago (and anything else on the agenda for the next six weeks or so) due to a throat infection from a swallowed fishbone.

Joyce DiDonato in Maria Stuarda

2008-01-31T12:31:00.000-05:00

La DiDonato is joined here by Gabriele Fontana and Eric Cutler in this 2005 video.

Body Neo-Nazis

2008-01-31T11:29:00.000-05:00

So, if you're wondering why Jerry Springer: the Opera is called "the opera" --

30-day flu grips music industry!

2008-01-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: La Cieca has heard from more than one reliable source that Juan Diego Flórez is yet another victim of whatever it is that's mowing down all the Almavivas. The tenor, she hears, has canceled Barbiere di Siviglia at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Word on the street is that John Osborn will be released from L'elisir d'amore at Palm Beach so he may sing the Rossini in Chicago, with performances beginning February 11 opposite Joyce DiDonato and Nathan Gunn. LOC subscribers (already reeling over having Angela Gheorghiu, Barbara Frittoli, Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Peter Mattei, Bernadette Manca di Nissa and Ambrogio Maestri yoinked from this season's roster) should gird themselves for a belated press release sometime today.

From the Met's press office: "José Manuel Zapata will sing the role of Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia on Thursday, February 21 at 8 p.m., Monday, February 25 at 8 p.m., and Friday, February 29 at 8 p.m. He replaces Michael Schade, who is indisposed." [emphasis added]

What do you think you are? A pair of queens?

2008-01-30T22:05:00.000-05:00

The Met officially announced today that the company will stage Anna Bolena for Anna Netrebko for the opening night of the 2011-2012 season (old news to you, cher public!) and, the following season, Maria Stuarda for Joyce DiDonato.

The company has no current plans to produce Roberto Devereux. In what La Cieca is choosing to consider a stinging slap in the face to -- well, at least one soprano -- Peter Gelb explained, "The problem is casting ....There's no singer around today who can sing [Elisabetta]."

And you may make what you will of la Netrebko's statement about the Bolena: "Fortunately, it's far enough in the future that I'll have time to learn it really well."

Frocked up

2008-01-30T22:00:00.000-05:00

UPDATED: Now with even more operatic tackiness!

A sampling of Diva Dress Disasters submitted by the cher public.Seen worse disasters? Email La Cieca!

Cessa di più eseguire?

2008-01-30T20:26:00.000-05:00

La Cieca hears that, beginning tonight, Jose Manuel Zapata will omit Almaviva's final aria from the remaining performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia this season at the Met.

"Shirtless Teddy Tahu Rhodes Doing Push Ups"

2008-01-30T10:59:00.000-05:00

Oh, what more delightful headline can be imagined? Well, perhaps "Florida free-fall sends Giuliani from hero to zero" -- that's great news too. But back to important matters. Did La Cieca mention that for his current stint in Dead Man Walking The Teddster has shaved his head?

Singing, actress

2008-01-30T09:41:00.001-05:00

For those of you who were stumped by Lady Number Six, here's the mysterious dame herself, Galina Vishnevskaya, in a more accustomed version of Lady Macbeth, the 1966 film by Mikhail Shapiro of Katerina Izmailova.

The great diva returned to the screen only last year in Alexandra (directed by Alexander Sokurov), playing an elderly woman who makes the trek to Chechnya to visit her grandson, who has been stationed there as a soldier for seven years.

Mot du jour

2008-01-30T08:31:00.000-05:00

"Marcello Giordani is, how can I put this, what Franco Farina would sound like if he weren't awful." -- My Favorite Intermissions

When Ladies Meet

2008-01-30T00:01:00.000-05:00

And now, the solution to the "Sleepwalking Scene" quiz.

Three for the Regie

2008-01-29T22:31:00.000-05:00

Our Mystery Regie this time presents a standard opera in three acts. So let's see one image from each act -- although each image is from a different production of the work.

Remember, cher public, if you actually recognize the production, hold your tongue and allow others to guess!

Una... due...

2008-01-29T20:30:00.000-05:00

The clock is running out on the great Sleepwalking Scene contest, ladies and gentlemen! With only three hours and change to go, no one has successfully identified all 14 Ladies. Currently leading the pack with 13 correct are MC (not to be confused with Maria Callas) and DS (not to be confused with, uh, Dame Joan Sutherland). Each of these savants, however, stumbled on the mysterious Lady Number Six. Can you guess her identity (along with the other 13, of course), email La Cieca, and win the coveted amazon.com gift certificate?

Tu? Indietro! Fugly!

2008-01-29T09:48:00.000-05:00

A loyal reader calls this little number "the worst gown I've ever seen."

La Cieca she agrees that Mme. Guleghina's fashion faux pas here just screams, "that was no lady, that was Lady Macbeth." On the other hand, your doyenne has seen some rather ghastly frocks in her time, and she's sure, cher public, that you have seen worse. If you have, send a jpg (preferably 350 pixels wide or larger) or a link to lacieca@parterre.com. Let's dish!

Ferocious!

2008-01-28T19:02:00.000-05:00

The unusual and undreamed-of videos just keep popping up on YouTube. Here's a scene from Norma with Elinor Ross and Mario del Monaco!

No Sleep 'Til Sunnyside

2008-01-28T18:57:00.000-05:00

Not a whole lot of news on matters operatic in the past couple of days, so La Cieca has decided a competitive quiz is in order. The clip below is the "Sleepwalking Scene" from Verdi's Macbeth divided among 14 sopranos and mezzo-sopranos. All you have to do is name the 14 singers in the correct order. (La Cieca has decided to be merciful this time and omit overly obscure singers. Each singer in this clip is or was internationally famous. However, La Cieca cautions you that not all these singers included Lady Macbeth in their onstage repertoire.)

When you believe you know all 14 voices, send your answer to lacieca@parterre.com. First correct answer will receive a gift certificate from amazon.com. Should there be no entry with all 14 correct answers by midnight on Tuesday, January 29, La Cieca will choose randomly among the entries with the highest number of correct answers.

In the meantime, please feel free to discuss and make wild guesses in the comments section.

UPDATE: As of Monday evening, La Cieca has not declared a winner. There is a tie for first place with two entries each naming 13 out of 14 correctly. Interestingly, they both mistake the same Lady. For those of you who might want to do a little more intensive study of the Ladies (and La Cieca doesn't mean only the lesbians in the audience!), here's the mp3 to download.

A Star is Reborn

2008-01-28T10:32:00.000-05:00

That superstar of the podosphere, Miss Frances Gumm, is back after six months of laying fallow. Or is La Cieca thinking of Frank Sinatra? Anyway, one of our absolute favorite online destinations, JudyCast, has returned with its distinctive mélange of entertainment gossip and otherworldy warbling as gaily subversive as ever. (No explanation is given for the hiatus, but La Cieca suspects that the recent TCM screening of the bizarre 1968 flick Skiddoo dislodged whatever was creatively blocking Carol Channing and the other JudyCast partipants.)

Villazón sings again!

2008-01-27T22:29:00.000-05:00

La Cieca's dear friend Ed Rosen (doyen of Premiere Opera) sent along a clip from Rolando Villazón's first recital since his return to the stage early this month. According to Ed, "He first sings Massenet's "Ouvre tes yeux," followed by Tosti's "Ideale." Rolando's voice sounds as beautiful as ever! The recital took place in Barcelona on January 13 of this year."

While we're on the subject, do be sure to check out Ed's always fascinating podcast.

There's no wrinkle on his brow, no how!

2008-01-27T01:20:00.000-05:00

La Cieca has to say she has never taken much interest in the music of John Corigliano; in fact, she believes she used the phrase "Technicolor twaddle" to describe The Ghosts of Versailles. But your doyenne must give credit where credit is due. Boyfriend is looking fucking amazing for a 70-year-old!

Take a look at these two images that accompanied Steve Smith's NY Times preview of the Brooklyn Philharmonic's upcoming Corigliano festival:

At left is Corigliano 8 years ago when he won the Academy Award for The Red Violin; at right is a recent photo of the composer. Is it just me, or does he look more refreshed -- or shall we just say younger -- at 70 than he did at 62?

At this rate, Corigliano will look a dewy 35 by the time the Met revives Ghosts in 2010! Though, come to think of it, collaborating with Angela Gheorghiu has been known to add a crease or two to even the most youthful punim. What a pity if America's hottest septuagenarian composer should end up looking his age!

Gaîté Ancienne

2008-01-26T21:29:00.000-05:00

La fée Manto (Francois Piolino) turns up the heat on old coot Anselme (René Schirrer) in this scene from Rameau's Les Paladins.

Ach! Hilde, weißt du, daß wir Ratten im Keller haben?

2008-01-26T19:17:00.000-05:00

"Blogs are awfully decorative, don't you think?"

2008-01-26T00:10:00.000-05:00

A brainy reader points out to La Cieca that her little blog is mentioned this month in The New York Review of Books. The lovely and talented Sarah Boxer discusses a bevy of books on blogs and blogging, modestly mentioning only in passing her own tome on that very subject. As an example of the vast variety of blogs out there, she notes

You can read about the Iraq war from Iraqi bloggers, from American soldiers (often censored now), or from scholars like Juan Cole, whose blog, Informed Comment, summarizes, analyzes, and translates news from the front. For opera, to take another example, you have Parterre Box, which is kind of campy, or Sieglinde's Diaries and My Favorite Intermissions, written by frequent Met-goers, or Opera Chic, a Milan-based blog focused on La Scala (which followed in great detail the scandal of Roberto Alagna's walkout during Aida a year ago).

La Cieca can only say, thank you cher public; without you I am nothing!

Mad about the boy

2008-01-24T17:53:00.000-05:00

La Cieca is all for crossover, but...

In response to several questions from commenters, La Cieca will say, no, she does not believe that Vitas takes "the" high e-flat. However, there is another genetic male on YouTube who does have the note: Lallanzinho!

Toy toy toy

2008-01-24T01:40:00.000-05:00

The Lego Opera, previously heard performing Il trovatore, has returned with a new and innovative production of Tosca.

Lego bricks outnumber human beings 62 to 1. Did you know that?