Bess, is you our woman now?

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

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

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

Body Neo-Nazis

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

30-day flu grips music industry!

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?

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

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?

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"

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

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

"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

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

Three for the Regie

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...

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!

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 [email protected]. Let's dish!

Ferocious!

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

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 [email protected]. 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

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!

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!

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

Blackout

Don't expect Met HD telecasts to show up on your pay-per-view channel anytime soon. According to the Associated Press, theater owners protested that the release of the telecasts to the In Demand service only 30 days after theatrical release would take revenue away from their broadcasts.

"At least five of the Met's operas this season are to be released on DVD under an agreement with EMI Classics," the story goes on to note. Which five, La Cieca wonders?

Weird sister

The inimitable, irrepressible Miss Tallulah Bankhead once more graces the studio of Unnatural Acts of Opera with a guest appearance on Apocryphal Opera Anecdote Theater. The legendary stage star joins Our Own La Cieca and Miss Cratchitt to perform a pair of scenes from Shakespeare's Macbeth. The main event, of course, is the second and third acts of Verdi's operatic version of the Scottish Tragedy, starring Shirley Verrett, Piero Cappuccilli, Nicolai Ghiaurov and Franco Tagliavini. Conducting this performance from La Scala on December 7, 1975 is Claudio Abbado.

Izzy or izzn't he?

La Cieca's cher public will breathe a sigh of relief when she informs them that internet it-boy Izzy Anderson is, in fact, over 18. According to an email from YouTube impresario Wen Arto, Izzy is 23 and an aspiring performer. Wen continues, "Izzy wants to sing opera very badly but he is busy with ... nursing school."

The email enclosed a few photos of which La Cieca thought this one was the most charming.

Jerry duty

Perhaps the last people in the world still interested in Jerry Springer: the Opera are trying to get together a protest against the January 29 Carnegie Hall concert performance of the "patently obscene and viciously anti-Christian musical." Our own JJ, you know, saw the show in London way back when Jenny Larmore was still fat, and this is some of what he had to say:

... the level of wit rarely rose to that of a “Saturday Night Live” skit. The one-joke concept is tipped off in the title: we hear, for example, a countertenor “chick with a dick” shrieking “Talk to the hand!” in mock-Wagnerian hysteria .... Oh, how the audience roared every time anyone said the f-word, which added up to about 500 laughs in the course of the evening. Among the huge cast, the clear standout was David Bedella (Warm Up Man/Satan), a triple-threat star personality with a seemingly limitless vocal range.

Bedella reprises his role at Carnegie, which is the only reason La Cieca would recommend the show. Well, the only reason besides pissing off Bill Donohue, who apparently has free time on his hands when he's not taking on Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Kathy Griffin, Mike Huckabee and Chocolate Jesus.

La Cieca gives major props to the editor of catholicleague.org, though, for hed writing skillz: "CHRISTIANS SAVAGED AT CARNEGIE HALL" is a grabber!

Don't want to be a prima donna, donna, donna

"Believe you me, there is a lot of drama in the opera world, and you have to rise above it .... I really don't get into the drama. ... I don't cause scandals and I don't throw fits. For me, the thing to be admired is to be on time, be prepared and to give it 100 percent." That's Jennifer Larmore speaking "with a faint Southern accent" to The Cincinnati Enquirer. The mezzo firmly asserts "she's not a diva" in the very first paragraph of the piece.

Interestingly, there are lots of numbers in this article -- such as 500 (times Larmore claims to have sung Rosina), 90 (pounds she has lost in the past four years since gall bladder surgery) and, alas, 15 (top ticket price, in dollars, for her recital tonight University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; students get in free). La Cieca will to the reader to explain why, sometimes at least, it may better to be a diva after all.

Hunk 10, Tenor 3

A gifted amateur by the name of Izzy Anderson takes on Verdi's Duke of Mantua.


Mr. Anderson is one of the regulars on the must-see Wenarto YouTube site. (That's the celebrated Wenarto himself conducting this selection, though usually he is found center stage.)

Regie on the rocks

You've all worked out that the previous Regie quiz was Don Carlos in the Peter Konwitschny production. So now, how about a few guesses what opera these two photos might represent? (Please, any of you who already know the production, please let the others try to work it out!)

Weekend at Bernie's 2

Bernard Holland of The New York Times attended(?) Saturday night's all-Schubert program at Carnegie Hall, featuring Ian Bostridge, Thomas Quasthoff and Dorothea Röschmann accompanied by Julius Drake. Holland's review ran 468 words, of which barely 100 addressed the performance. Here's La Cieca's analysis.

Spanish inquisition

Given the current lively discussion of Peter Konwitschny's regie of Don Carlos, La Cieca thought the cher public might like to see (and to debate) the "Celestial Voice" scene from this production.

UPDATE: Since the discussion has now broadened to involve the context of this scene, La Cieca has substituted a player with a selection of scenes from this production.

E l'amor uno strano augello

A reader sends us this page from the Los Angeles Opera season brochure for 2008-2009. (Click on the image to enlarge).

La Cieca wonders if perhaps this production was originally planned for Giulietta Simionato and Mario del Monaco...

O brother where art thou

An Italian TV report on the already infamous all-Alagna-all-the-time Orphée.



Now, David Alagna may not be one of the world's great stage directors, but he certainly is among the cutest!

This is my belief, in brief

That grand old man of music André Previn is writing another opera, following up on the clamorous success of 1998's A Streetcar Named Desire. The commission for Houston Grand Opera is Brief Encounter, based on Noel Coward's one-act play Still Life as well as the screenplay for the eponymous film. (First Tennessee Williams, then Noel Coward ... surely a collaboration with Jean Genet is the next logical step!) Well, anyway, the premiere of Brief Encounter, most likely omitting the above imagery, is set for May of 2009. Too long a wait, you say? Well, in the meantime, sit back and enjoy an excerpt from Previn's one universally recognized masterpiece.

Regie, Steady, Go!

Two images from a recent production of ... well, you tell me!




Our previous Regie riddle? It's Tristan und Isolde, of course, directed by "The Cher of Regisseurs," that one-named wonder Rosalie.

Winter storms

"The presence of the voiceless Rosalind Plowright in the supporting role of Gertrude demonstrates the folly of the Met's notoriously Britcentric artistic administration. Surely there are dozens of equally over-the-hill American mezzos who could have shrieked the role just as atonally."

Our own JJ reviews the Met's productions of Hansel and Gretel, Die Walküre and Un ballo in maschera in Gay City News. JJ's previous scribblings in the queer rag be found in the archives for 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004.

Tit for tat

La Cieca has Maury D'annato to thank for (passively) calling her attention to the blog The Opera Tattler, which in recent days has been detailing next season's plans in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other opera companies of the Transhudson. (The) Opera Tattler also reviews a lot of West Coast opera, and at least so far as La Cieca has read, his (?) blogatorial voice is either very arch or very sincere, either of which is fine by me. ("However, perhaps I should go to Bayreuth in 2009, since I will have the time," writes the Tattler. How can you not love that?)

More bloggerei (in Italian, but it's penetrable enough) may be found on the wild 'n' wacky site Opéra Bouffe, one of many various efforts by the lovely and apparently tireless Giorgia Meschini. At the moment attention at the Bouffe is split between the"new" Zeffirelli production of Tosca at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and the recent purchase of "le boat slippers dell'Adidas, blu e oro. Con 'Respect' stampato sulla linguetta... 'firmate' da Missy Elliott." Bloggy!

Then Opéra Bouffe pointed your doyenne to the utterly necessary Schrott-Locator ™: ¿donde está Erwin?. Even Barihunks doesn't have this level of detail.

Lady Be Good

La Cieca is happy to announce a special performance to mark the return from exile of Unnatural Acts of Opera. Our program is a reprise of the first opera ever podcast on this site, Verdi's Macbeth featuring Shirley Verrett and Piero Cappuccilli. Claudio Abbado conducts the orchestra and chorus of La Scala on December 7, 1975.

Front burner

A legendary Lulu crosses over.

Wait 'til you've refined it

A controversial new production of Massenet's erotically-tinged opera Manon featuring "it girl" soprano Anna Netrebko opened last night in....

Oh, all right. Obviously that's not our Anna. In fact it's ecdysiast Dita Von Teese performing her signature "cocktail glass" strip. The model and performer (whose adorably mousy real name is Heather Sweet) has accepted an invitation to attend Vienna's prestigious Opera Ball later this month as the special guest Austrian businessman Richard Lugner. The 75-year-old real estate and construction mogul takes a celebrity to the glamorous gala every year.

Previous guests of "Mörtel" Lugner have included Joan Collins (1993), Ivana Trump (1994), Sophia Loren (1995), Grace Jones (1996), Sarah, Duchess of York (1997), Raquel Welch (1998), Faye Dunaway (1999), Jacqueline Bisset (2000), Farrah Fawcett (2001), Claudia Cardinale (2002), Pamela Anderson (2003), Andie MacDowell (2004), Geri Halliwell (2005), Carmen Electra (2006) and Paris Hilton (2007).

La Von Teese is known as a retro fashion muse and was briefly married to goth rocker Marilyn Manson.

You love Lucy

La Cieca pulled a string or two and managed to get permission to embed a clip from the VAI Lucia so recently lauded by Our Own Niel Rishoi. Of course YouTube video and audio is severely compressed, but the imaginative viewer will surely get the gist that this is a performance for the ages.

Anna as Anna?

La Cieca is loath to scoop dear Bradley Wilber, but rumors are swirling once again about future seasons at the Met. Perhaps the most controversial (among the cher public, at least) of these plans is a new production of Anna Bolena to open the 2011 season, with Anna Netrebko's pretty head on the chopping block. Further casting at this point is not set, though La Cieca is confident that speculation will run rife in the comments section.

Now, La Cieca is just going to suggest that we all don't go off the deep end instantly and unanimously here, despite what at least some of may regard as perfect justification for doing so.

It does seem apparent that if Netrebko is determined to do bel canto (not saying "should be doing" mind you), then Bolena does make more sense than, say, Puritani or Lucia. Anna (Mrs. Tudor, I mean) relies less on vocal brilliance qua brilliance than those two roles, and the "fiery" character of the rejected queen is the sort of dramatic type that appeals to Ms. Netrebko's lively theatrical instincts. We should also keep in mind that she now has more than three years of lead time and the availability of Scotto as a coach; as such she does have the opportunity to delve beyond a superficial reading of the music. (Again, no guarantees...)

It will also help, I think that the only "obligatory" sopracuto is the D at the end of the first act, a high interpolation so relatively that even Carol Vaness used to sing it.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Need La Cieca remind any of you that the duration from 2008 to 2001 is the equivalent of a century in Gelb Years. By that time we may end up with Christine Ebersole opening the season in Pikovaya Dama.

Your doyenne further has heard that the title role in Simon Boccanegra (2010-2011?) has been reassigned to Placido Domingo, with Thomas Hampson shifted into a revival of Macbeth -- opposite whom, La Cieca cannot venture to guess, though it's a safe bet the cover will be Cynthia Lawrence. Domingo, La Cieca hears, is already preparing an "out of town tryout" for Verdi's noble corsair with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

But speaking of Macbeth, La Cieca regrettably has a previous engagement and so will not be able to take in this evening's Lawrence/Ataneli version of the Scottish Opera. Any volunteers to serve as Guest Critic?

...and tenderly beckons, Moby Dick, dearest Moby Dick!

As dear Rosalind Russell used to say, "It's about this whale..."

"Bad news, the fog's getting thicker..."

"...and Marcelo's getting LARGER!"

[Via Opera Chic]

Honestly insincere

[Via Likely Impossibilities]

Perhaps the public would prefer to judge for themselves

"John Treleaven and Linda Watson Bring Passion to Wagner's Five-Hour Love Story" -- Los Angeles Downtown News

Lucia di DVD

Guest critic Niel Rishoi reviews the VAI DVD release of Lucia di Lammermoor.

OK, this is IT. Barring the cuts, this is the Lucia of Gaetano Donizetti. Not that misguided travesty at the Met, not Natalie Dessay's vocally juddery overwoughtness. No schtick, no Carol Burnetting around. Just Donizetti and Cammarano's Romantic drama, pure and simple. Real artists, real singers. Performing it straight, as if their lives depended on it. No gimmicks. No BS. You watch this 40 year old performance, and you see and hear a kind of authority and rightness of approach that just doesn't happen often nowadays Here we have music. Here is all the garlic, red wine, passion and organic Italian musical DRAMA. The action contained within the singing. It's a miracle, nothing less.

The picture is a bit grainy, the sets standard issue. Does it matter? Give me a break (NO).

We start with Bergonzi. Tenore supremo. Short, stumpy (yet handsome here), gestures of stock vintage. Yet, he creates drama through voice alone;"Vi disperda!" cuts right to the bone. Debonair in the old-fashioned manner. Ardent, the ultimate tenor hero. Perfect. Voice, voice voice - in awesome form here. "Fra poco a me ricovero" just splendid: it's met with a roaring ovation. Bergonzi and Scotto do not have the sensual interplay of Ricciarelli and Carreras - they don't make a lot of eye contact and are sometimes hilariously buried in their own "work" - but they are together all the way vocally and musically.

Zanasi. "Another" Italian baritone of his time, extinct today. A darkly handsome man, he has a commanding presence. He sings a solid "Cruda, funesta smania," beginning with a slightly muscular overemphasis, yet it suits the piece; but the line, upper extensions of ease, and expression is just right.

Plinio Clabassi. A Raimondo of unusually fine caliber, with a mellow, steady, consummately produced tone - he evinces a genuine control over it, and uses it flexibly - no park and bark approach here. Moreover, he makes the character figure prominently: he really delivers a tale in his "Dalle stanze, ove Lucia," setting up the mad scene fittingly.

Whoever said Scotto was a second-stringer should be thumped on the head, then made to hasten and acquire this release. She is spectacular, nothing short of miraculous here. What may have been accepted as standard then registers as something extraordinary now. Scotto is in marvelous voice: that brisk, tangy sound, slightly piercing on high, is bracingly clear, pure and perfectly steady throughout. She has never sounded more appealing, nor so classically Italianate in tone and manner. Her coloratura, while not of Sutherlandian velocity, is neat, in place, and confidently deployed. Trills are not a prominent thing of disctict articulation, yet they are discerned - and importantly, uses them effectively in the line where called for. High notes pop out quite strongly. What's most important here is she does that all-important shaping and binding of lines into an expressive whole; she has a way of magically "dropping in" and connecting phrases, with a wide range of dynamics, and her diction is an absolute joy - no alteration of vowels or slushing over of them. She makes every word clear, and meaningful. The line in "Regnava nel silenzio" is ideal, true, unfussed, yet so very sustained on a level of gripping narrative. "Verranno a te sull'are" is pristinely, gorgeously sung, as is "Soffriva nel pianto." This kind of cantabile singing should be taken heed by any budding Lucia today.


But what is most especially distinctive is that in each isolated number, she tells a story. You see in her face, the spontaneity of her delivery of the words and expressions, how they register upon the listener as internal thoughts, given out to the audience. What's most important here, though, is that she is so not trying to force external gimmicks onto the characterization. The question never forms in the mind, what kind of a character is Lucia? A spineless wimp? Sick from the start? A mad hatter? No, the Lucia here is one that uninformed individuals will never understand: she is a 19th century Romantic heroine, a girl in love with Edgardo. Scotto reacts in each episode as if the character were hearing the statements of the others in the story for the first time. It has a uniquely-alive spontaneity, unusually free of calculation. I'm sick of the discussion of whether Lucia is mentally ill from the start, based on her occult meanderings in "Regnava nel silenzio;" if anyone knew of literature, religious superstitions and so forth of that time, these were conventional devices in Romantic melodramas. Ghosts and apparitions are commonplace. So, then, Scotto just accepts Cammarano's text, and tells it without any manipulation or presumption. She or we do not think Lucia mentally ill from the get-go.

Scotto's emotional honesty never falters, not once. She is convincing in the scene with Enrico, bringing just the right amount of anguish, her reactions often touching; in "Se tradirmi," you see her pleading to God most plausibly. In the wedding scene, Scotto is riveting, and does what Mariella Devia had a hard time establishing in her La Scala 1992 video: show the abject despair and desolation of Lucia, as the hope drains out of her. Devia has the astounding vocal technique that kept her singing better longer, but she does not have, by a considerable margin, Scotto's all-abiding charisma and out-there personality. Back to the Wedding Scene: the sextet, onto the end of the act, just sizzles and explodes with drama - those voices just pour out with thrilling abandon. Exciting stuff, this.

After all my extravagance of description, I'll have to think of ways to go further concerning the Mad Scene: it's a revelation. One of the best, hands down, I have ever seen performed. Every American soprano and all directors should watch this. This is how it should be done. In the service of the music, no gimmicks.

Scotto is in her element. Intensely musical, letting the scene flow with astonishing naturalness. Again, she's telling a story. The audience doesn't see this, but the TV viewer does: close-ups reveal the soprano absolutely into her music/storymaking. Scotto has the audience confidently in the palm of her hand, but not for a moment is she calculating or manipulative: it is, rather, an artist in full sureness and specific aim in what she is doing - she's fascinating to watch at every point, you can't take your eyes off her. She's living the situation moment by moment. We get no hysterics, no forced "mad acting" or cheap effects (which I despise). Lucia is totally removed from reality, in her childlike state, moving around like a little ghost in her own little but all-consuming world. Apart from a few moments of fright (the "il fantasma" sequence is powerful), she's deliriously happy, living out her bliss with Edgardo. Most of all, though, finally, you get the full power and pathos of what Donizetti intended. Scotto weds the text with the music so skillfully so that you get the full effect how how beautifully they complement each other. She does not allow the music to be compromised, so she takes care to make all the actions fit in, rather than standing out, as is the wont of too many a soprano. Scotto's bravura accomplishment is a triumph, and what a fortuitous circumstance that these documents exist, and that we have privy to them.

The bows and biz in the lengthy applause after the flute with cadenza, is however, pure Scotto. She steps out of character to acknowledge the ovation. No objections at all; it is decidedly part of the show. Very much like Cossotto, oh thank thank you, oh so humble me but I deserve it. I'm beginning to think these kinds of self-possessed artists, who don't display false modesty very well, are the lastingly memorable artists. Infinite self-belief, a healthy dose of the imperious ego, wanting to please, absolutely certain of their merit, and a kind of inborn dementedness: it translates into a very personal charisma, which defines who they are. They're to be preferred. We want personalities, a personal statement, an individual MO. Wallflowers, generic, unidentifiable, pedantic, please go home.

Without a doubt, this is the video Lucia of choice. Even though it's cut, it retains and fleshes out the truest spirit of the piece. -- Niel Rishoi

VAI DVD 4418 Lucia: Renata Scotto; Edgardo: Carlo Bergonzi; Enrico: Mario Zanasi; Raimondo: Plinio Clabassi; Arturo: Angelo Marchiandi; Alisa: Mirella Fiorentini; Normanno: Giuseppe Baratti. NHK Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Bartoletti. Japan, 1967.

Separated at death?

In related macabre news, (reportedly) gay tenor Sergej Larin died this weekend, and La Cieca has just heard an unconfirmed report that another gay tenor, Giuliano Ciannella, has also passed away.

Fleming-Bocelli ticket in 2008

The Washington National Opera has announced their 2008-2009 season will feature headliners Renée Fleming and Andrea Bocelli under the artistic direction of Plácido Domingo. According to an article by Our Own Anne Midgette in today's Washington Post, The Beautiful Voice will grace a new production of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia, an opera that has deep personal significance for the diva. Directing the opera will be "John Pascoe, a friend of Fleming's." Pascoe designed the leather jerkin Erwin Schrott sported in last season's Don Giovanni at WNO, so his credentials as an FOF are already well-established.

Alas, Fleming and Bocelli will not actually share a performance at WNO, since his vocal contribution will be limited to a pair of performances of Rossini's "Petite Messe Solennelle."

Family values will be honored this season as Domingo's wife Marta will direct La traviata and Keri-Lynn Wilson (Mrs. Peter Gelb) will conduct Turandot.

Journalist desperately seeking emoticon for sarcasm

"Seattle Opera did more than put an intermission between the two scenes. It restored, or opened, to use opera terminology, customary cuts in the score and invented a dream sequence to open Act 2, using music written by Leoncavallo but not for Pagliacci. Two mimes, Comedy, in white, and Tragedy, in black, open the opera and stay a part of the action until the end, when Comedy has lost the game. What an effective device." -- R. M Campbell, seattlepi.com

In questa Regie or son mille ani

Three images from a single production of an opera in the standard repertoire. What is the opera?

Le nozze

La Cieca hears that we can expect a June wedding with only a brief honeymoon before that busy love couple gets back to the salt mines!

Kiri gets it right

Shirley, no jest!

La Cieca hears that the one and only Miss Shirley Verrett will grace the airwaves this afternoon as an intermission guest during the broadcast of Macbeth.

Do join La Cieca in the comments section of this posting to enjoy this afternoon's broadcast -- especially the words of La Verrett!

Peacock, indeed!

Who said this?


Here's a hint:

Doge star

La Cieca's spy in San Francisco whispers that the 2008-2009 season will open with Simon Boccanegra with Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the title role. Later productions will include a revival of Bohème with Angela Gheorghiu and the company premiere of Die Tote Stadt featuring Emily Magee and Torsten Kerl. Also expected is the world premiere of Stewart Wallace’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, based on the novel by Amy Tan.

Željko can and Željko do

Željko Lučic will sing Macbeth for the Met's broadcast and HD simulcast of the Verdi opera tomorrow afternoon, replacing Lado Ataneli, who is "indisposed."

The ceremony of innocence is drowned

"Directed by Francesca Zambello, this Little Mermaid burdens its performers with ungainly guess-what-I-am costumes (by Tatiana Noginova) and a distracting set (by George Tsypin) awash in pastels gone sour and unidentifiable giant tchotchkes that suggest a Luau Lounge whipped up by an acid-head heiress in the 1960s. The whole enterprise is soaked in that sparkly garishness that only a very young child — or possibly a tackiness-worshiping drag queen — might find pretty.

"....Ms. Zambello, best known as an adventurous director of operas, rarely lets jokes, songs or set pieces register clearly. And the impression is often of costumed employees from the Magic Kingdom of Disney World, wandering around and occasionally singing to entertain visiting children." -- Ben Brantley, New York Times

In related news, the family of Roger Bart send their condolences.

Karita... after hours

An Orpheus from Hell

Over the years we have heard many different versions of Gluck’s Orphée. One can choose the Vienna version for castrato, which is shorter and simpler (or better: equally difficult, but in a less spectacular way), the Paris rewrite for tenor or the Berlioz reworking for the distinguished mezzo Pauline Viardot (Anne Sophie von Otter sang this version in Stockholm a few weeks ago). In short, a singer can “play” with the role in order to show his/her ability in portraying Apollo’s son: however, any adaptation should respect the spirit of Gluck’s masterpiece.

Unfortunately, this is not the case with the Orphée which opened on January 8 in Bologna, starring Roberto Alagna in the main role. Together with his lesser-known brothers David (director & composer) and Frédérico (scenic designer), the French-Italian tenor presented a rather unusual patchwork, with heavy cuts (almost all the dances and the great aria “L’espoir renaît dans mon âme” are omitted, while “Objet de mon amour” has been reduced to a single stanza) and the tenor part rewritten in a lower key, in order to fit in with Alagna’s chronic problems with the high register.

Moreover, the role of Amour (originally sung by a soprano) has been reassigned to a baritone: in fact, instead of the God of Love, we have a gravedigger who leads a modern-day Orphée into a death cell in order to save his wife from a group of mummies. In the third act, Eurydice attempts to seduce the gravedigger, threatening to elope with him. Orphée decides he has to look at her in order not to lose her again(!) She dies, of course, and Orphée chooses to be buried with her. (Apparently, Alagna didn’t like the original happy ending).

Now, all this may sound like a bad dream, or at least a cheap mise en scène of an Offenbach operetta, but that is just what Alagna’s Orphée is about. One can understand that such a humble singer as Alagna might have wanted an Orphée to call his own, yet he’d better have written it together with his oh-so-smart little brothers, instead of stealing Gluck’s name for this trivial farce. Yet, we cannot forget that such a shame also involves both the opera house’s superintendent Marco Tutino and the musical director of the show, Giampaolo Bisanti, whose bland interpretation and eccentric tempos (too fast in the pit, too slow on stage, the pairing of these two musical realms being a mere accident) made a bad thing worse.

Alagna shouted like he was singing Cavalleria Rusticana on a bad evening in a big house (Bologna’s theater is rather small), but the voice is too thin and not well projected, while what remains of the high register is often off key. His Eurydice, Serena Gamberoni, is a tiny sopranino, with a non-existent low register and shrilling high notes, in the manner of old-fashioned soubrettes. French baritone Marc Barrard was the grotesque, wobbly Amour. Audience reaction was mixed: a few loud booe and a big round of applause. Gluck turned into a poor imitation of Mascagni? Who cares, as long as we have The Brothers Alagna! -- Antonio Tamburini

Close harmony

La Cieca thanks you all for your patience. And now, at the proper playback speed, the "Cherry Duet" as sung by Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez at their London recital Tuesday night. Iain Burnside is the pianist.

Fatal mia donna!

La Cieca has just heard that Cynthia Lawrence will sing Lady Macbeth on Tuesday, January 15 at the Met... and possibly more performances later in the season!

Gran nuova! Gran nuova!

Juan Diego Flórez will make his role debut as the Duke of Mantua in a new production of Rigoletto on March 31.

The event will mark the inauguration of "The International Opera Festival Alejandro Granda" in Peru. Puppylicious Flórez is pictured here with Latin Grammy winner Gian Marco, with whom he shared the stage for a benefit concert for UNICEF last year. (Admittedly, that concert has nothing to do with the current news, but La Cieca wanted an excuse to run this photo.)

In breaking news also relating to puppyliciousness, the renaissance of Rolando Villazón's career will extend into a new medium when the tenor begins principal photography for the role of Rodolfo in a film version of La bohème opposite the Mimi of (who else?) Anna Netrebko. According to La Cieca's source, the pair pre-recorded their music for the movie last year and will begin their on-set lip-synching duties within the month.

76 Trombones Led the Big Regie

So, tell me, what is this jolly-looking opera? (UPDATE: La Cieca has added a second image from the same production.)





The previous Regie was Die Fledermaus, the first act trio for Rosalinde, Alfred and Frank.

Boy, is my face green!

"Stephanie Blythe, superlative in both voice and Wagnerian bitchery as the righteous Erda..." (Clive Barnes' review of Die Walküre, NY Post)

"I wouldn't pay any attention to that. You know how bitchy Walas can be!"

Joan Ingpen 1916-2007

Legendary opera administrator Joan Ingpen died on December 29 at the age of 91. The Telegraph has an appreciation of her life and career that includes this observation: "She had wonderful teeth that sparkled like diamonds when they caught the light."

Boldly going

This comes under the heading of "so obvious; why didn't anyone think of this before?" Here's the opening scene of Amok Time: the Opera, a "cabaret opera" presented by Goat Hall Productions in 2006. The music and libretto are by Steven Clark.

Mozart is for little people!

In a startling example of casting against type, protean singer Cecilia Bartoli has agreed to take on the most demanding role of her career in La regina della meschina, an operatic version of the life of Leona Helmsley. ("Voice From the Past Becomes an Obsession" in the New York Times.)

Wien: Wilkommen, Villazón!

The Associated Press has the first review of Rolando Villazón's return to the stage earlier today in a performance of Werther at the Vienna Staatsoper. Reporter George Jahn says the audience's "huge expectations... were mostly - but not completely - met." Apparently the tenor's high B's sometimes failed to soar over the Massenet orchestral climaxes, but his celebrated onstage energy and presence were on full display. Villazón won several minutes of entrance applause and "a post-performance standing ovation from an audience that normally stays glued to its seats."

The indefatigable Opera Chic was (as she so often is!) first to blog the happy news, with the bonus of an exclusive eyewitness report.

Ein Kind ward hier geboren

Today, January 5, is the 91st anniversary of the birth of one of La Cieca's particular heroes, Wieland Wagner, stage director and designer. Here is a scene from Wieland's legendary production of Tristan und Isolde featuring Birgit Nilsson and Wolfgang Windgassen.


In this clip, Wieland is seen in rehearsal for his 1965 production of Der Ring des Nibelungen with Windgassen, Erwin Wohlfahrt, Theo Adam and Gustav Neidlinger.


(The first few seconds of the film clip are of Wieland's muse Anja Silja in her Bayreuth debut role of Senta.)

A page dedicated to the work of Wieland Wagner can be found at the Wagner Operas site.

A teeny-weeny admonishment to dear Signor Bellini

Noel Coward offers a few observations on the standard operatic repertoire, assisted by Margaret Leighton.

Einen guten Rutsch ins Neuinszenierung!

And what might this opera be?


Answer to our previous Regierätsel: Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.

Ever dancing, none can be half so merry as are we

La Cieca has just been reminded of the intriguing news that Gotham Chamber Opera, in collaboration with The Morgan Library & Museum, will present a new production, Scenes of Gypsy Life (a cautionary tale featuring music of Janácek and Dvorák), on January 16 and 17. The program devised by GCO artistic director Neal Goren and stage director Eric Einhorn is a double bill consisting of Janácek’s Diary of One Who Disappeared and Dvorák’s "Gypsy Songs" and performed by Garrett Sorensen.

Performances are at 7:30 each night Gilder Lehrman Hall, The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, NYC. Tickets are $35 for members of The Morgan Library and $45 for non-members. Tickets are available at http://www.themorgan.org/ or by phone at 212-685-0008 x560.

Tomorrow is another day

Just a little over 24 hours from now, Rolando Villazón is scheduled to return to the operatic stage following an absence of nearly six months. He is announced for a revival of Werther at the Vienna State Opera tomorrow night, January 5, beginning at 19.30 (1:30 EST). Followup plans for the tenor this month include more Werthers and three performances of Manon plus concerts in Paris and Barcelona.

Villazón's highly-anticipated return is the lede for a Times Online article about how opera singers are in risk of becoming "pill-popping stressballs." Much of it is a rehash of the Endrik Wottrich brouhaha from last fall, but there are some interesting bits about how Joyce DiDonato uses Skype for brush-ups with her voice teacher.

Well, anyway, as you can imagine, La Cieca is naturally very curious as to the Villazón's current vocal estate, so she hopes that any of you Old World cher public in attendance at his performances this month will keep us informed.

Whatever happened to Katia Ricciarelli?

In fact, she became Peggy Lee.

Spring wind-up

Another poll, this time asking which events are the absolute must-sees here in New York this spring. Please note that on this poll you can choose more than one "must-see," which is a good thing, because everything looks most tempting!

Breakthrough of the century for artistic administrators

The diva hazard bonus: a special above-and-beyond payoff to those who have patiently put up with a colleague's diva antics. La Cieca cannot find any official instance of this bonus in the world of opera, but surely it's an incredible idea.

... Kim Cattrall was such a diva to work with on the Sex and the City movie that her costars are getting a secret bonus for dealing with Kim's prima donna behavior.

An insider tells Star, "Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon are getting a 'hush-hush' bonus for not being divas during filming and as a thank-you for putting up with Kim."

Natalie Déshabillée

La Dessay rehearses the "bathtub scene" from Manon.

Sorry, folks, the video is no longer available for embedding at the request of the uploader, Parsifal1979. You can view it, however, on the YouTube site.

Fun with subtitles

From the 1978 film of Götz Friedrich's production of Tannhäuser -- alas, not currently available on DVD. Dame Gwyneth Jones is the lady asking the rather personal question.

La parola scenica

At yesterday's matinee Hansel and Gretel at the Met (broadcast and simulcast), a disgruntled audience member expresses his distaste for the "forest" setting, just as Lisette Oropesa makes her entrance as the Dew Fairy. Top marks to Ms. Oropesa not only for singing her solo so enchantingly, but for continuing without a flinch despite the clearly audible shout of "Boo! Change the set!" (At least the fellow didn't yell, "Bravo! Bravo Robert O'Hearn!")

Kaufknabe

A number of the cher public have asked for more photos of hunkalicious Jonas Kaufmann, with a several of you specifially requesting a image without the tenor's accustomed facial stubble. Well, one of La Cieca's dear readers has obliged by sending a snapshot of Kaufmann before he stopped shaving, or possibly before he even started shaving.

The reader recalls performing with Der Junge Jonas circa 1997 when he "still sang Rossini and The Student Prince." A particularly vivid memory is of "Jonas in biker spandex for Proben in Heidelberg!" (The image of Mr. Kauffman's dinner companion has been obscured for reasons of privacy.)

And now here's some contemporary video of the unstubbled Kaufmann in action, singing The Student Prince.

Forced to bend her soul to a sordid role

Pint-sized Broadway dynamo Kristen Chenoweth will make her fully-staged role debut as Cunegonde in Candide at the English National Opera this summer. The Bernstein/Wilbur, Latouche, Parker, Hellman, Sondheim, Bernstein & Wheeler operetta will be performed in the Robert Carsen production previously seen at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris and La Scala, Milan. Performances begin June 23 for a 13-performance run.

According to The Stage, "popular tenor" Toby Spence will take on the title role, with other casting TBA. By an odd coincidence, the ENO are presenting a concert only a few weeks prior to this Candide starring a diva some might consider "dream casting" as The Old Lady. La Cieca supposes we should just dream on!

And will someone please wake La Cieca when the New York City Opera gets around to announcing the casting for their revival of the creaky Harold Prince staging of Candide?

Let's be buddies!

Graefin Geschwitz meets Vera Charles

Isn't it romantic?

Jummy Jonas Kaufmann records his recital CD Romantic Arias, due for release in March.

Circular reasoning

"As implied by the title, this collection probes deeply into Wagner's vast Ring.... Among the highlights is the revealing chapter on the many characters than Wagner has managed to cram into his Ring. Also covered are the brass instruments that Wagner designed specifically for use within his Ring."

The infelicitous title of this musiciological study has led to a veritable festival of punning reviews over at amazon.com.

Hair of the dog

On New Year's Day, WNET/Channel 13 will broadcast all six operas comprising the first season of Met HD simulcasts. As you stagger home from your year-end revels, you can tune in to The First Emperor at 5:00 AM, followed by I puritani at 8:00 and Il barbiere di Siviglia at 11:00. Following a nice long nap and (one hopes) a hearty portion of hopping john, you can enjoy The Magic Flute at 9:30 PM, followed by Il trittico at 11:30 and (believe me, this is worth staying up for) Eugene Onegin at 2:30 AM January 2.

Those of you not living in New York should check your local listings. And you'll have to cook your own hopping john.

Golden girl

Ageless Reri Grist sings "Somewhere" in a rehearsal for the 19th Annual Gypsy of the Year Competition, celebrated earlier this month. La Grist introduced this song 50 seasons ago when West Side Story premiered on Broadway. She is joined in this clip by Chita Rivera, Carol Lawrence and other members of the original company.

Another song of the season

A concert in Vienna, 2006.

Christmas is here, bringing good Cher

While we're waiting for the restoration of Stephen Costello's ringing rendition of "O Holy Night," La Cieca thought you might like to hear another great American tenor's take on the classic carol.

Ecco il Sidestep

The saga of the peripatetic New York City Opera continues. According to a story in today's New York Times (another Saturday newsdump! Well, at least someone has figured out how the media works here in the city!) Anyway, according to this NYT story, Gérard Mortier is kicking around a few ideas for keeping the NYCO brand from vanishing from the public consciousness during the company's "hiatus" awaiting the reconstruction of the New York State Theater (and, not so incidentally, the official beginning of his regime in the fall of 2009). The company is looking at "probably" four productions in various venues, including "possibly" Carnegie Hall, the Beacon Theater and "other Lincoln Center halls." Oh, and don't rule out the Apollo Theater or the Hammerstein Ballroom, either. (To tell the truth, at this point La Cieca wouldn't be surprised if she heard "Yankee Stadium" or "Splash.")

Well, let's table the venue discussion for a moment and move on to repertoire. Just what sort of operas might we expect in this transitional year? Of course, nothing's set in stone yet. Well, maybe that's an understatement. It appears, in fact, that nothing's even scribbled on a Post-it at the moment. In the Times interview, Mortier coyly suggests Mefistofele "because of its association with the house in performances by the bass Samuel Ramey."

Or, on the other hand, what about Rienzi -- assuming, of course, that one could count on "finding strong enough singers." Hey, what about a children's opera for the holidays, that might work, and, just to mix things up a bit, "a major American opera." But here's something you put in the bank: the repertory "must be great things," says Mortier.

Susan L. Baker, City Opera’s chairwoman reassures us that there will be some kind of announcement about next season in January. Or, failing that, February. Count on it.

Have Yourself a Hunky Little Christmas

UPDATE: The YouTube clip of Stephen Costello singing "O Holy Night" is no longer available. Given Stephen's ubiquity on YouTube, though, surely it can't be long before another performance of this song goes live, and La Cieca promises to link as soon as her veritable army of sources inform her. In the meantime, here's another number. Right religion, even if it's the "wrong" holiday.

Legends!

"Starring Leona Mitchell (star of the Metropolitan Opera and other major opera houses around the world) and Sarah Rice (the original Johanna in SWEENEY TODD on Broadway), Leona & Sarah, Songs for the Heart & Soul. These two friends join their thrilling voices in an evening of songs, melodie, chanson and an aria or two, with a little gospel/inspirational thrown in for good measure, to uplift the heart and warm the winter-weary spirit. Come be transported and bask in the musical sunshine!

"BCD concerts have been called 'Life-affirming', 'show-stopping', 'Like Babette's feast for the ear' by reviewers and audience members lucky enough to have seen our previous performances. Don't miss out on this heartbreakingly beautiful and thrilling concert."

Le Scandale, 2007 edition

Cher public, La Cieca meant to turn in early tonight, but she got one of those bees in her bonnet. This particular specimen of Apis mellifera is the "debacle" (as La Cieca has been astonished to see it termed) of Anna Netrebko's Juliette last Saturday afternoon. Such harsh criticism La Cieca has rarely heard since the infamous Renata Scotto Norma. Even La Cieca's own bitchery about Renée Fleming never (well, rarely) reached such heights of dudgeon.

La Cieca should remind herself that much of this accidie springs from opera-l, which most of the time is a valuable resource and all that, but it does seem to be a haven for every tongue-clucking old maid still hunched over her Philco every Saturday afternoon during the broadcast season. (Some of them predate Texaco, La Cieca thinks.) Anyway, the consensus over at opera-l is that Netrebko is kaput, over, finished -- that is, assuming she was ever anything to start with. The Roméo et Juliette has been called "failure" and even (yes!) "debacle." Admittedly , La Cieca occasionally amuses herself by throwing those terms (including the "d" word) around indiscriminately, but she has the defense that nobody with half a brain takes her babbling seriously anyway. On the other hand, La Cieca has her doubts that everybody over at opera-l shares her sense of light-hearted irony in these things.

Look. La Cieca regards herself as a very critical listener, but she simply cannot discern any "debacle" or even "failure" in last week's Roméo performance. Netrebko was admittedly somewhat off her best form at the beginning of the opera. She did have a minor crack on the high D in her first cadenza, and for most of the performance her voice sounded a bit cloudy and thick compared to what La Cieca (and, you, of course, cher public) have heard on Sirius and in the theater earlier this season.

La Cieca hesitates to jump to the conclusion that this one performance indicates an inevitable downward spiral toward ruin for Ms. Netrebko. She prefer to take the more cautious position that Netrebko was simply having a "B" voice day instead of her customary "A." The cause may have been nerves, or a mild case of acid reflux, or a minor allergy attack, or (who knows?) she may have been starting her period on Saturday. The point is, nerves and all the rest (including even dysmenhorrhea) don't last forever.

As, it so happens, tonight's Sirius broadcast neatly indicates. La Cieca tuned in at the beginning of the second act to hear Netrebko in fine fettle. Your doyenne will note also that in the bedroom duet tonight Netrebko is singing with a lighter tone and softer dynamics than she did opposite Roberto Alagna -- the better to blend with Joseph Kaiser's less aggressive approach, one assumes.

Well, enough scolding. A recent news story about Antonio Banderas' directing Carmen got La Cieca to thinking: how long before Angela Gheorghiu backs out of the projected Met production of the Bizet opera -- and how thrilling it would be if Netrebko could be persuaded to jump in!

Oh, and just so you don't think La Cieca has completely abandoned her position as Sultana of the Soupcons, here's a tidbit. Your doyenne hears that among Netrebko's la Gheorghiu's upcoming projects (besides that unlikely Carmen and the perhaps even unlikelier Ghosts of Versailles) is a complete recording of Giordano's Fedora opposite (who else) Placido Domingo.

Fatal sdegno

If, through some miracle of recombinant DNA manipulation, Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh and Maria Montez were to have a child together, La Cieca is certain this is how she (or he, for that matter) would turn out.

Exotica

Last month our own JJ took in a trio of less than standard operas: Giulio Cesare and Die Frau ohne Schatten in Chicago, and Iphigénie en Tauride right here in New York. The review is in Gay City News, of course.

The blonde leading the blind

Imagine La Cieca's delight when she heard that Julia Roberts has been cast in the starring role of Voce di Donna, a biopic based upon the whirlwind adventures of your very own doyenne.


Oscar-winner Roberts (left) beat out A-listers Nicole Kidman, Susan Sarandon and Dame Judi Dench to portray "Older Cieca." The character in more "youthful" days will be played by Zac Efron. Additional casting for the film includes George Clooney as "Gualtier Malde," Robert Downey Jr. as "Little Stevie" and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as "Maury D'annato."

Weathers man

A reader writes...

Dear La Cieca:

I found your site through a Google search because I am trying to track down contact information for Felicia Weathers. So imagine my pleasure at the clip of "Up, Up and Away"!

In 1969 I had the good fortune to play "Trouble" to Felicia Weathers' "Cio-Cio San" in a production of "Madama Butterfly" at Memphis State University.

I've lost contact with Ms. Weathers and am hoping that, with your encyclopedic knowledge [flattery will get you everywhere - Ed.], you might have a lead or a suggestion as to how I might find her.

I know that she's been in Germany for many years, but I have had no luck in finding contact information or an agent listing. I've tapped numerous resources, including contacts here in Los Angeles and at the Met, but to no avail.

Any assistance you might be able to provide would be greatly ppreciated.

So, how about it, readers? If you have contact information for Ms. Weathers, please email it to La Cieca, who will forward it to The Reader Formerly Known as Trouble.

Vox populi

You, the cher public, have spoken. By a firm plurality of 31%, you have selected Renata Scotto's Lady Macbeth as the "encore" to her Adriana Lecouvreur on the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera. Of the 238 ballots cast, the Scottish dame garnered 74 votes. Runners-up were Norma (50 votes) and Elisabetta in Don Carlo (47 votes). La Gioconda and Amelia in Ballo brought up the rear with 31 votes each.

Also featured on our current podcast: Apocryphal Opera Anecdote Theatre of the Air presents the heart-warming holiday-themed drama "La Cieca's Christmas Carol," with special "ghost" appearances by your favorites Tullio Serafin and Olga Cratchitt.

Druid fluid

Ring around the Regie

Same character, same opera, different productions. Guesses?

Only in New York, Kids

"At High School of Enterprise, Business and Technology on Grand Street Campus in Brooklyn, the show is sold out at nearly 1000 tickets. The school didn’t spare any effort in terms of marketing: there’s a huge color banner for 'Live in HD' on the side of the building, facing Bushwick Avenue, with a picture of Anna Netrebko, who is singing Juliette, standing 20 feet tall. The school kids also put up posters in local eating establishments, including Grand Street Grill, their local bodega, and The Great Wall Chinese restaurant."

From metopera.org.

Two weeks!

Stephanie Blythe sings Ulrica in the Met's revival of Un ballo in maschera.

"I am big, it's the opera that got small!"

San Francisco hits the big screen

San Francisco Opera is about to hop on the HD bandwagon, promising theater transmissions of six operas a year beginning in March 2008.

Unlike the Met's simulcasts, though, San Francisco's appear likely to turn a profit almost immediately. The company can produce their telecasts for only about $75,000 per production since earlier this year they installed a $3.5 million Taube-Koret Media Suite. The Media Suite is the first permanent high definition, broadcast-standard production facility in an opera house.

"This is the big kahuna," said David Gockley, general director of San Francisco Opera. "It's the most effective revenue generating use of the suite."

The company aims for 150-200 screens the first season, which will feature La Rondine, Madama Butterfly, Samson et Dalila, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Lucia di Lammermoor and Appomattox, the new opera by Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton that premiered at San Francisco Opera in October 2007.

More details on the technology and SFO's plans can be found in an article from San Francisco Business Times.

Speaking of Begbick

Magnificent Martha Mödl performs a bit of Mahagonny.

What's Nue, Pussycat?

Longtime readers of parterre box will recall the series of articles entitled "Ou va la jeune andouille" by enigmatic Enzo Bordello on the subject of the youthful fan's experiences at New Orleans Opera. One of the most infamous of all NOO events, though, was one Enzo did not experience in person:

I was not allowed to see Carol Neblett's scandalous debut as Thais. My parents thought I was too young to view La Nebletto's strip tease routine. Yes, dear reader, I was that young. Given how I turned out, my parents are still banging their heads against the wall for not letting me see the Big Blonde in the buff. Her singing was reportedly variable, but in the words of Lanfranco Rasponi, she "delighted the audience by baring her breasts."

The Bourbon Street strippers were anything but delighted, however, and picketed Neblett outside the opera house. If they were required to wear panties and pasties by law, how did that soprano broad rate? Just whose dick, they mused, was she sucking?

Well, the answer to that last question probably has no answer. But the other issue here has always been: just what did it look like when "La Nebletto" did The Full Monté? Curious readers may click the cropped photo below for the NSFW version hosted elsewhere.

You, the programmer

La Cieca has once more been remiss in her podcasting, so she's turning to you, cher public, for a little help. Thursday night La Cieca will publish the (overdue) podcast featuring the final act of Adriana Lecouvreur starring the ineffable Renata Scotto. As usual, there will be room for 20-25 minutes of additional music after the act. So La Cieca is asking you, my darlings, to help her choose the bonus material.

more at twiigs.com...

Don't cry for me, Pensacola

Leocadia Begbick (in the person of Patti Lupone, no less) issues small craft warnings for the Gulf coast. (Just a quick clip from the Mahagonny telecast scheduled for tonight at 9 PM on PBS. Check your local listings, obviously.)


And, of course it's old news by now, but la Lupone will be back on Broadway this March reprising her already classic Mama Rose.

Zaubernacht

A YouTuber new to La Cieca by the name of Promptersbox, has managed to make available the entire La Scala Tristan und Isolde. Your doyenne is not sure exactly where the intense magic in this performance comes from: Patrice Chéreau, Daniel Barenboim or Waltraud Meier. But magic it is!

Flawless?

When she first saw this photo, La Cieca thought, well, it's about time we saw an all-bear production of The Lisbon Traviata. But, in point of fact, that delightful Terrance McNally play is not what this picture depicts.

So La Cieca puts it to you, cher public What is this opera?

Trouser snake

Maite Beaumont created a sensation as Sesto in Lyric Opera of Chicago's recent Giulio Cesare. She's seen and heard here as Cherubino.

Wanderjahr

La Cieca has obtained exclusive video footage of a presentation by Susan L. Baker, chairwoman of the New York City Opera, announcing plans for the company's 2008-2009 "season."


NYCO's announcement, dumped into the scarcely-read Saturday Times, would seem to indicate that our speculation of the past couple of weeks was, in fact, accurate.

Rolando ritornato?

There hasn't been much chatter about it, but it seems that Rolando Villazón is emerging from his four-month period of silence. His recently updated website states that the tenor is scheduled for staged performances in Vienna (Manon and Werther) beginning January 5, followed by a series of concerts and a couple of Verdi Requiems in the spring. Engagements for the summer of 2008 include a new Don Carlos at the Royal Opera and Roméo et Juliette at the Salzburg Festival. La Cieca looks forward to hearing Villazón here in New York in the fall, when he and Anna Netrebko are to star in a revival of Lucia at the Met.

In fact, according to Mike Richter, Villazón has already made at least one public singing appearance in recent days. Mike has posted on his website a video identified as "Rolando Villazon sings unfamiliar Ponchielli - 9 December 2007." La Cieca doesn't know the aria, but she does hear a healthy voice with an easy high A-natural at the end of the piece.

Thoughts? Corrections? Or shall we all just remain guardedly optimistic for the moment?

"Straight, ya know!"

Controversial soprano Anna Netrebko has gone on record categorically denying recent rumors that she... is a lesbian? (My dears, La Cieca has been out of the dating pool for a while, but even she wouldn't mistake Erwin Schrott for a girl!)

Well, my dear Sapphic comrades, all La Cieca can say is, you win some, you lose some. Really, girls, how many toaster ovens does one actually need? After all, this week, your team got Jodie Foster plus a first-round draft pick for Queen Latifah. But, sorry ladies, no Netrebko for you! As blogged by Opera Chic earlier today, our Anna asserted, "Ein für alle Mal: Ich bin nicht lesbisch!"

It should perhaps be noted that she -- Anna, that is, not Opera Chic -- was speaking to a journalist from the glossy German-language celeb mag Bunte at the time. Presumably the declaration would hold up in any language: "Once and for all, I'm not a Gay!"

It seems that there were rumors swirling around Anna since she has been palling around (though not gal-palling around!) with out lesbian pop singer Lucy Diakovska from the band No Angels. La Netrebko explained to Bunte "We went out for a meal together. We happened to meet at a television taping and got along well. I was a huge fan of No Angels and Lucy loves opera. You shouldn't make anything more of it."

The article goes on to say that Netrebko is 36, which would suggest that the rest of the piece is fairly accurate. And, to tell the truth, that's about the whole story, except that Bunte posted a lavish photo gallery of Netrebkiana, with captions that don't always relate to the image. Well, anyway, this is what I mean:

In a related story, Renée Fleming announced earlier today that she plans attend the Westminister Kennel Club Dog Show show as the guest of Camille Paglia.

The Kid Stays in the Picture

The newest member of the gaggle of Gay City News opera critic, Eli Jacobson, critiques recent NYC performances by Opera Grattacielo and Collegiate Chorale.

Ambiguous anguish

More Geheimnisregie. What's the opera? (Hint: it's not Carmen).

Tarte a la Bernheimer

Another review (this one only 340 words) of War and Peace. Martin Bernheimer writing for the Financial Times:

Legends of the fall

When a monumental 20th century masterpiece is revived at the Met, who better to review it than Anthony Tommasini? Today the Times published TT's critique of War and Peace, a compact screed of exactly 799 words. And how, you may ask, were those words distributed? Well almost half the review (351 words) was given over to a rehash of the incident five years ago when the super fell off the set into the pit. Here's how Tony's wordage stacks up in chart form:

The bells are ringing?

Purely a rumor at this point, but La Cieca hears that Erwin Schrott and Anna Netrebko are engaged. (To be married. To each other.)

UPDATE: A reliable source informs La Cieca: "As far as I know they are very close friends but I have not heard anything about marriage." So let's wait and see.

Fan male

This video indicates some of the underlying reasons for the recent shocking increase in acts of violence against character tenors.

Zara Dolukhanova 1918-2007

The legendary mezzo-soprano of the Russian Soviet period, Zara Dolukhanova, died last week at the age of 89. Though she excelled in brilliant Rossini roles in the opera house, her greatest success was as a recitalist. Dolukhanova's broad repertoire included music from arie antiche to Prokofiev and Stravinsky; unusually for Soviet-era singers, she often included Lieder by German composers such as Schumann and Wolf in her programs. She was one of the first major Soviet stars to appear in the United States, making her debut at Carnegie Hall in 1959. In the later years of her career, she made a successful transition to the soprano range; however, she is best remembered for the warmth and elegance of her mezzo-soprano in a series of studio recordings made in the 1950s.

Zara Dolukhanova sings "Oh! quand je dors."

"We're puttin' on an op'ra tonight!"

Mae West goes mezzo-soprano for this scene from her 1935 vehicle Goin' to Town.

Barenboim sings again!

Introducting a new guest critic, Giulia Grisi, who blogs regularly for "Il Corriere della Grisi."

La Scala's 2007-8 opera season opened last night (December 7) with a new production of Tristan und Isolde. The Milanese theatre hadn't presented Wagner's masterpiece since 1978, when Carlos Kleiber's masterful interpretation became an instant classic, in spite of a not-so-sensational cast (Wenkoff, Ligendza, Baldani, Moll).

Superintendent Stéphane Lissner must have thought it was time to try it again, counting on the power of the music and the experienced production team, with conductor Daniel Barenboim, director Patrice Chéreau and set designer Richard Peduzzi (of the 1976 Bayreuth Ring). After all, everyone knows that singers aren't really that important in Wagner, nowadays... are they?

The rehearsals period was something less than idyllic because of problems with the unions, yet Barenboim's conducting can be called ideal: a beautiful, clean orchestra, rich in color and atmosphere -- in fact much more "singing" than the singers on stage. we can indeed describe Daniel B. as the true "deus ex machina" and the real protagonist of the night. Conducting from memory, he has led the La Scala orchestra towards a real Wagnerian sound and has made everything he could to help the singers, literally breathing with them, reducing the orchestral volume when they needed it, pumping it up when they could not finish a phrase. Through his conducting have felt the epic, the passion destroying every rule, the magnificent night, the eternal suffering -- in short, the Wagnerian drama we couldn't see on stage, where a great, realistic canal boat, stark grey walls, some staircases and a lot of trench coats were visible. Chéreau and Peduzzi presented their familiar Wagnerian mise en scène, utterly realistic and utterly ugly, with some dramaturgical errors.

This "avant-garde" art is so past and over that only an theater so behind the times as La Scala can appreciate it. Twenty-three years have passed since this team's modern dress Lucio Silla production here -- and even that was not a success.

Waltraud Meier is a brilliant actress, ravishing and sexy. However, her voice is faded in the lower octave (that's quite strange, since she began as a mezzo) and in the upper range she shrieks more than she sings. Often out-of-tune, she was able to sing the role to the end thanks to her experience and to Barenboim, who aided her in every possible way, underlining some beautiful intentions in her interpretation and drawing a veil over some glaring flaws in her singing (especially in the Liebestod).

Ian Storey is more a crooner than a Wagnerian tenor: a small, short voice, with insufficient projection, he was neither a hero nor a lover nor a dying prince. Tristan's love and drama were confined to the orchestral pit. Brangäne, the Wagner "specialist" Michelle De Young, offered the worst vocal performance of the night, with the possible exception of Matti Salminen's superannuated and shouty König Marke. Handsome Gerd Grochowski barked a rather conventional Kurwenal.

To make a long story short, La Scala has presented a Tristan und Isolde for orchestra and conductor. We may be too "addicted to voices", but without Barenboim and his experience in minimizing the singers' problems, this opening night would have been nothing special. -- Giulia Grisi, translated by Antonio Tamburini.

Personenregie

La Scala, December 7. 2007.

E Fedra sia!

La Cieca enthuses about her recent visit to the Lyric Opera of Chicago before introducing the third act of Adriana Lecouvreur starring Renata Scotto. Your doyenne's favorite diva returns after the act for a rare live recording of an excerpt from one of her most celebrated roles. All this, plus Milton Host's wonted bemusement, on the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera.

Send in the clowns

That "Cate Blanchett" Traviata we were talking about earlier? Turns out there's video of the dress rehearsal.

We have a winner!

The people have spoken, and they have chosen Winpal as the author of the wittiest Season Brochure. Congratulations to Winpal and all you cher public who participated!

Demi-filth?

Fiorenza Cedolins gets off to a bad start in this performance of Luisa Miller. La Cieca feels that if you're going to sing like that, you really should avoid the Grayson Hall wig.

Dark year for NYCO?

UPDATE: La Cieca has just heard that the "dark season" is not a done deal just yet. The NYCO board meets next week to make that decision. (Given how late in the game this is, most likely the "decision" will be no more than a formality. But La Cieca will keep her ear to the ground, not to mention her shoulder to the wheel and her nose to the grindstone. She also intends to free her mind with the intention that her ass should follow.)

La Cieca has been hearing whispers and grumblings from here and there for a couple of months now, so maybe it's time to go out on a limb and predict that the New York City Opera will take a season-long hiatus in 2008-09. Yes, that's right, no season at all, not until the opening of Gérard Mortier's first year of direction in the fall of 2009.

The primary reason driving La Cieca's gloomy prediction is the lack of any sense of what the repertoire or casting would be for 2008-09, even as 2007 draws to a close. NYCO, like other opera companies, has a fairly long lead time in planning upcoming seasons. Their practice in recent years has been to lock in repertoire and casting more than a year before the beginning of a given season.

For example, it was fairly common knowledge by the summer of 2006 that the current NYCO season would include Vanessa, Cendrillion, King Arthur and so forth; major casting was already set by then as well. Repertoire choices for Mortier's first season leaked several months ago: 2009-10 will feature The Rake's Progress, Einstein on the Beach, Nixon in China, Věc Makropulos, Pelléas et Mélisande, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Saint François d'Assise and Death in Venice.

No such details have surfaced about plans for 2008-09; in fact, an informant tells La Cieca that ever since early last summer "managers have been attempting to nail down the schedule and engagements for their artists, but have been met with stone cold silence from the [NYCO] administration."

This same source continues with a little speculation that your doyenne must say she finds reasonable enough:

The official reason given [for the cancellation of the 2008-09 season] will be that Mortier wants to freshen up and fix the hall in conjunction with NYCB (and they certainly will take the time given to do some work on the State Theater, remove the sound system, etc.) but the real reason was he was so patently appalled by every performance he saw this year and last that he wants a literal fresh start for the entire company, and wants no attachment whatsoever to the past artistic administration.

Regie, steady, go!

Which opera is this? And for bonus Cieca Bucks, which scene?

Who can that attractive girl be?

La Cieca would never have thought this would work. And yet...

Surely you chest!

And don't call her Shirley! It's the one and only Ruby Hinds singing the cabaletta to "O mio Fernando" at a tribute to Doris Roberts (yeah, go figure) in Beverly Hills.

Basta diva

La Cieca is sure she doesn't wish ill on anyone, but Maria Guleghina's return to Norma tonight is turning filthy already.

Runners-up and their lilting melodies

Excellent lines from some of the many, many "Season Brochures" that didn't make the final five.

Soprano Montserrat Caballe stars as Jeanette, a virginal pony who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious duck. Montserrat Caballe is perhaps best known from TV's Sex & The City where she sang the lilting melody "My Way."

Soprano Diana Damrau stars as Alice, a virginal mortar and pestle who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious desk accessory. Diana Damrau is perhaps best known from TV's The West Wing where she sang the lilting melody "Oops I Did It Again."

Soprano Rosa Ponselle stars as Giuletta, a virginal cattle prod who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious cigar. Rosa Ponselle is perhaps best known from TV's Heroes where she sang the lilting melody "Without a Song."

Soprano Joan Sutherland stars as Hortensia, a virginal abbess who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious food processor. Joan Sutherland is perhaps best known from TV's Miami Vice where she sang the lilting melody "Vesti la giubba."

Dame Gwyneth Jones is perhaps best known from TV's The Life Of Riley where she sang the lilting melody "The Leader Of The Pack."

Hildegard Behrens is perhaps best known from TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer where she sang the lilting melody "How much is that doggy in the window?"

Zinka Milanov is perhaps best known from TV's Everybody Loves Raymond where she sang the lilting melody "Hava Negila."

Victoria de los Angeles is perhaps best known from TV's Fear Factor where she sang the lilting melody "Let's hear it for the boy."

Aprile Millo is perhaps best known from TV's Nanny and the Professor where she sang the lilting melody "I Will Survive."

June Anderson is perhaps best known from TV's Leave It To Beaver where she sang the lilting melody "Love Don't Live Here Anymore."

Ljuba Weltisch is perhaps best known from TV's The Gong Show where she sang the lilting melody "Oompa Loompa Doopity Do."

Dawn Upshaw is perhaps best known from TV's So Graham Norton where she sang the lilting melody "It Sucks to be Me."

Birgit Nilsson is perhaps best known from TV's Grey's Anatomy where she sang the lilting melody "Glitter and be Gay."

Maria Callas is perhaps best known from TV's The Simpsons where she sang the lilting melody "We wish you a Merry Christmas."

Galina Gorchakova is perhaps best known from TV's Ugly Betty where she sang the lilting melody "Super Trouper".

Christine Brewer is perhaps best known from TV's Brothers and Sisters where she sang the lilting melody "Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong."

Leonie Rysanek is perhaps best known from TV's Wife Swap where she sang the lilting melody "Sexy Back."

Cheryl Studer is perhaps best known from TV's My Name is Earl where she sang the lilting melody "Let the Bright Seraphim."

Mara Zampieri is perhaps best known from TV's American Gladiators where she sang the lilting melody "Get your tongue out of my mouth, I am kissing you goodbye."

Brochuremania 2007: Vote for your favorite Season Brochure

Now is the time to restore La Cieca's faith in the democratic process, cher public! The polls will remain open until midnight on Thursday, December 6. Remember, the winner receives a gift certificate from amazon.com.

	Which is your favorite Season Brochure?
	The 1924 Season for Parma Grand Opera by Julian
	The 1954 Season for Selma Grand Opera by Orestes
	The 1995 Season for Seattle Grand Opera by James
	The 2008 Season for Montego Bay Grand Opera by Winpal
	The 2007 Season for Buffalo Grand Opera by Indiana
polls

"The Season Brochure" - you be the judge (part 5)

La Cieca was franky overwhelmed by both the volume and the quality of the "Season Brochure" contest entries, so she's decided to ask you, her cher public, to help decide the winner. In this and four other posts, she will present five finalists. Later today, she will post a ballot so you, the cher public, may vote on your #1 favorite.

Indiana writes:

The 2007 season for Buffalo Grand Opera promises an eclectic mix of mysterious and delirious works, as well as a gala extravaganza featuring the gutly personality Stephen Colbert as special bear.

The beloved classic, Donizetti's La sprezzatura di Springfield boasts a new production directed by Andrew Sullivan, with costumes by Julian Schnabel. This lavish staging updates the action to Mt. McKinley in the early part of the twentieth century. Soprano Renee Fleming stars as Leonora, a virginal noun who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious verb. Renee Fleming is perhaps best known from TV's 24 where she sang the lilting melody "Erwartung."

The neglected masterpiece Der Zaubervogelnachlass will be revived for only three and a half performances. You probably already know the famous "Teatime Chorus" which was used on the soundtrack of the Academy Award winning film Dances with Wolves. Due to the length of this work, all performances will begin at noon.

Finally, the company will present the New York premiere of the opera The Life and Times of Norman Podhoretz in a co-production with La Scala and Glyndebourne. The libretto is by Tom Wolfe, based on the play What the Butler Saw, and the music is adapted from the works of Nicolo Jommelli by maestro Rene Jacobs. Exciting newcomer Ann Coulter makes her operatic debut as the glamorous heroine, and the men in her life are portrayed by Glenn Reynolds, Glenn Greenwald and Glenn Beck.

Generous support for Buffalo Grand Opera's laundry was provided by the Margaret Dumont Foundation and the National Endowment for the Sackbut.

"The Season Brochure" - you be the judge (part 4)

La Cieca was franky overwhelmed by both the volume and the quality of the "Season Brochure" contest entries, so she's decided to ask you, her cher public, to help decide the winner. In this and four other posts, she will present five finalists. Later today, she will post a ballot so you, the cher public, may vote on your #1 favorite.

Winpal writes:

The 2008 season for Montego Bay Grand Opera promises an eclectic mix of fratboy and Rastafarian works, as well as a gala kegger featuring the totally awesome personality Paris Hilton as special barmaid.

The reggae classic, Donizetti's La Bimba di Cancun boasts a new production directed by La Cieca, with costumes by Maury D'Annato. This beachfront staging updates the action to Coney Island in the early part of the 19th century. Soprano Angela Gheorghiu stars as Lindsay, a virginal nymphomaniac who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious sand dab. Angela Gheorghiu is perhaps best known from TV's Survivor Chicago where she sang the lilting melody "Stand By Your Man."

The neglected masterpiece Der Lederkoniginhausfrau will be revived for only 14 performances. You probably already know the famous "Dykes' Chorus" which was used on the soundtrack of the Academy Award winning film The Nun's Story. Due to the length of this work, all performances will begin at sunrise.

Finally, the company will present the Jamaica premiere of the opera The Life and Times of Britney Spears in a co-production with Amato Opera and La Scala. The libretto is by Lynne Cheney, based on the play Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, and the music is adapted from the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber by maestro Valery Gergiev. Exciting newcomer Rosie O'Donnell makes her operatic debut as the maternal heroine, and the men in her life are portrayed by Donald Trump, Bill O'Reilly and Oprah Winfrey.

Generous support for Montego Bay Grand Opera's spring break was provided by the Bob Marley Foundation and the National Endowment for the Bong.

"The Season Brochure" - you be the judge (part 3)

La Cieca was franky overwhelmed by both the volume and the quality of the "Season Brochure" contest entries, so she's decided to ask you, her cher public, to help decide the winner. In this and four other posts, she will present five finalists. Later today, she will post a ballot so you, the cher public, may vote on your #1 favorite.

James writes:

The 1995 season for Seattle Grand Opera promises an eclectic mix of round and glorious works, as well as a gala chair featuring the rotund personality Mel Gibson as special chandelier.

The bright classic, Paul Hindemith's La Scuro di Houston, boasts a new production directed by Hilary Clinton, with costumes by Ray Liotta. This large staging updates the action to Hicksville in the early part of the 53rd century. Soprano Jane Eaglen stars as Samantha, a virginal train who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious scarf. Jane Eaglen is perhaps best known from TV's Scrubs where she sang the lilting melody "Du Hast Den Schönsten Arsch Der Welt."

The neglected masterpiece Der Naturschutzgebietsüßstoffhaus will be revived for only 32 performances. You probably already know the famous "Carpet Chorus" which was used on the soundtrack of the Academy Award winning film Resident Evil. Due to the length of this work, all performances will begin at 2 o'clock PM.

Finally, the company will present the Scranton premiere of the opera The Life and Times of the Dalai Lama in a co-production with HGO and Chicago Lyric. The libretto is by Arnold Schwarzenegger, based on the play Medea, and the music is adapted from the works of Iannis Xenakis by maestro Réne Jacobs. Exciting newcomer Dr. Ruth makes her operatic debut as the stinky heroine, and the men in her life are portrayed by Pee Wee Herman, Rufus Wainwright and Liam Neeson.

Generous support for Seattle Grand Opera's cup was provided by the Tony Blair Foundation and the National Endowment for the Grass.

"The Season Brochure" - you be the judge (part 2)

La Cieca was franky overwhelmed by both the volume and the quality of the "Season Brochure" contest entries, so she's decided to ask you, her cher public, to help decide the winner. In this and four other posts, she will present five finalists. Later today, she will post a ballot so you, the cher public, may vote on your #1 favorite.

Orestes writes:

The 1954 season for Selma Grand Opera promises an eclectic mix of patriotic and unfortunate works, as well as a gala funeral featuring the drunk personality Tallulah Bankhead as special queen.

The wicked classic, Giuseppe Verdi's La putana d'Atlanta boasts a new production directed by Margaret Mitchell, with costumes by Ted Turner. This arrogant staging updates the action to Paris in the early part of the 15th century. Soprano Renata Tebaldi stars as Beulah, a virginal mule who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious cowboy. Renata Tebaldi is perhaps best known from TV's Rawhide where she sang the lilting melody "Love for Sale."

The neglected masterpiece Der Grosseschnitzelleben will be revived for only 25 performances. You probably already know the famous "Lesbian Chorus" which was used on the soundtrack of the Academy Award winning film The Women. Due to the length of this work, all performances will begin at noon.

Finally, the company will present the Reno premiere of the opera The Life and Times of Mary Baker Eddy in a co-production with Metropolitan Opera and Teatro Colon. The libretto is by Eleanor Roosevelt, based on the play Suddenly Last Summer, and the music is adapted from the works of Meyerbeer by maestro Herbert von Karajan. Exciting newcomer Mamie Eisenhower makes her operatic debut as the promiscuous heroine, and the men in her life are portrayed by Adlai Stevenson, Harry Truman and J. Edgar Hoover.

Generous support for Selma Grand Opera's dildo was provided by the Marlene Dietrich Foundation and the National Endowment for the Prosthetic.

"The Season Brochure" - you be the judge (part 1)

La Cieca was franky overwhelmed by both the volume and the quality of the "Season Brochure" contest entries, so she's decided to ask you, her cher public, to help decide the winner. In this and four succeeding posts, she will present five finalists. Later today, she will post a ballot so you, the cher public, may vote on your #1 favorite.

Julian writes:

The 1924 season for Parma Grand Opera promises an eclectic mix of squally and humungous works, as well as a gala glottal stop featuring the flatulent personality Liberace as special dog trainer.

The squat classic, Italo Montemezzi's La Fuoco di Istanbul boasts a new production directed by Coco Chanel, with costumes by Winston Churchill. This wheezy staging updates the action to Rotterdam in the early part of the 7th century. Soprano Dame Clara Butt stars as Fanny, a virginal scheitel who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious waste disposal. Dame Clara Butt is perhaps best known from TV's Six Feet Under where she sang the lilting melody "Come Into The Garden, Maud."

The neglected masterpiece Der Sehnsuchterlebnisbusselhalter will be revived for only 17 performances. You probably already know the famous "Breast Pump Chorus" which was used on the soundtrack of the Academy Award winning film A Horn Blows At Midnight. Due to the length of this work, all performances will begin at the shank of the evening.

Finally, the company will present the Peoria premiere of the opera The Life and Times of Carol Channing in a co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago and Carl Rosa. The libretto is by Isadora Duncan, based on the play Shopping And F**king, and the music is adapted from the works of Engelbert Humperdinck by maestro Arthur Nikisch. Exciting newcomer Condolleezza Rice makes her operatic debut as the smarmy heroine, and the men in her life are portrayed by Bea Arthur, David Beckham and Johnny Wadd.

Generous support for Parma Grand Opera's Inter-Uterine Device was provided by the Bela Lugosi Foundation and the National Endowment for the Iron Lung.

Where Nobody Knows Your Name

In order to stem what seems to be a rising tide of anonymous postings (and to save herself the hassle of deleting them) La Cieca offers these instructions on how to post comments using a Nickname.

When you click on the "POST A COMMENT" link, you go to the "Leave your comment" form. At the bottom of the form, select the second button, "Nickname" and type in the name you want to use on this posting. Then enter your comment in the box above.

When you click the "Publish your comment" button, your comment will appear with your Nickname, but with no other identifying information. Your email address will not be sent to Blogger or to parterre.com.

Another alternative Moment

Joan Sutherland circa 1959, as Lucia, of course.

Fish story

A helpful reader has pointed La Cieca to an interview in the current Opera News, a publication she picks up all too infrequently, alas. But the chitchat between Brian Kellow and Francesca Zambello is just too delicious to ignore. Ms. Zambello is the director of Disney's The Little Mermaid, a show that just last week postponed its Broadway opening for a month. The official reason given was the stagehands' strike, but maybe, just maybe, the musical needed a little more work. Out of town critics hated the show, particularly the direction:

Zambello has allowed emotion, charm and enchantment to be drowned in a sea of bewilderingly over-stylized designs .... visual incoherence, plus some not always useful elaboration of a simple, disarming storyline, make what should have been a slam-dunk for stage presentation a waterlogged misstep .... if Disney Theatrical chief Thomas Schumacher's aim in enlisting Zambello and team was to develop another eye-popping theatrical event to transcend the kid-fare label, he needs to keep fishing. (Variety)

Zambello takes pains to explain "in a remarkably un-defensive tone" that even without a massive marketing effort, a show with the obscure and forbidding title "Disney's The Little Mermaid" still managed to sell a lot of tickets in Denver. The damning review in Variety she dismisses as (literal) nepotism, since, as she points out, the editor-in-chief of the showbiz rag is the uncle of Roger Bart, who is the star of Young Frankenstein: The New Mel Brooks Musical. (Having both shows on Broadway simultaneously obviously would split the the "bazoom and fart joke" demographic so key to the success of a Disney musical.)

"Critical standards are dubious at best," sighs Zambello, whose life partner, Manuela Hoelterhoff won a Pulitzer Prize for cultural criticism at the Wall Street Journal. But, hey, fuck critics anway, because (says Zambello) "Ultimately, the public speaks. What matters is that you make money and that the public is with you."

Zambello, you will recall, directed Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met back in 1992, a staging that lasted exactly two seasons and then was shelved forever. But the important thing to remember here was the reaction of the public on the opening night:

Then again, these people are probably all related to Roger Bart too, so never mind.

While La Cieca is thinking about it, she should mention she's just finished Kellow's Ethel Merman: A Life and heartily commends it to the Mermaniacs in the audience. Not a whole lot of new ground covered here (for the super-scholarly approach, you'll have to go to Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman) but the style is lively and witty. Brian's tome is based on over 100 new interviews with representatives of The Merm's army of friends and foes, with lots of characteristic details about the diva's foibles. (See, for example, Kaye Ballard's pithy critique of Merman's less-than-stellar nightclub act.)

And for those of you who are wondering: Jacqueline Susann? Never happened, except in Jackie's fevered imagination. And Benay Venuta was a big old liar.

Lady in the dark

Not the clearest sound, but, oh my dear, could those girls ever sing back then!

Mostly mediocre moments

In the words of Stella Maria Krazelberg von und zu Brabant, "Renata was robbed!" La Cieca offers a quick reminder of some moments that should have made the Met's "Top 15" list.

"Singing Norma Today"

(with apologies to Stephen Sondheim)

NYC OPERA FANATIC:
Bless her soul,
Bless her golden throat,
All her fans can gloat.
Renée's preparing to chant
The bel canto role.

SIEGLINDE:
Today is for Norma
Norma, the role of the divas of choice.
America's soprano will honor us forever.
Today is for Norma,
As sung by the Beautiful Voice.

RENEE:
Pardon me, is everybody here? Because if everybody's here, I
want to thank you all for coming to my Norma, I'd appreciate
your going even more, I mean you must have lots of better things
to do, and would you please inform my fans, remember fans you know,
they're called the Fleming Flappers, but they're not, because they wouldn't flap
at anyone as wonderful as I am--
Change of plans:
I'm all wrong as a pagan,
Change of plans,
I'll do Eugene Onegin,
Tell the fans,
That I'm not singing Norma today.

We report, you decide

UPDATE: Soprano Renée Fleming has issued the following statement:

"Today, December 3, 2007, is the 84th anniversary of the birth of Maria Callas, the greatest interpreter of the role of Norma in the 20th century. In honor of this great artist, I have decided to reaffirm my decision not to sing Norma indefinitely. As a gesture of respect for this magnificent bel canto stylist, later today I will not visit her grave where I will not leave a wreath in remembrance. Further, at my concert tonight in Baltimore, I will not dedicate any of my encores to her memory. As a soprano and single mother, I feel it is the least I can do."

Fleming's publicist, Mary Lou Falcone, refused to comment on this statement.

La Cieca now continues our coverage of this week's most earth-shaking story, the decision of Renée Fleming not to sing Bellini's bel canto masterpiece Norma. Our latest report is from Fox Eyewitness News Channel 12, WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island:

Renee Fleming ... will join the Boston Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin."

Fleming, however, has decided to ditch plans to perform Bellini's opera "Norma" with the orchestra next summer. Her publicist says the role "just didn't fit."

La Cieca has now received word that "The Story" has just achieved international coverage. In Canada, the Pierceland Herald ("The Voice of the Heartland") reports that "the opera ['Norma'] wasn‘t included in the Tanglewood schedule being released Friday. Instead, Fleming was listed for the Aug. 2 concert performance of Tchaikovsky‘s Eugene Onegin'." The Saskatchewan-based web site goes on to confirm the "just didn't fit" quotation.

Be sure to check back here at parterre.com frequently for new information on the
Mistletoe Crisis" as it unfolds.

Brace yourselves!

Yes, it's yet another Geheimnisregie quiz. Which opera is this?

Mean Girl

Luana de Vol takes center stage as the bullying Ortrud in Peter Konwitschny's brilliant production of Lohengrin. Emily Magee is the hapless Elsa.

Larger and more fun

"... Netrebko is the larger presence. She has an earthiness and impishness — a daredeviltry — that may prevent her from ever attaining the kind of rarefied, disembodied sainthood that has been awarded, for example, to the American sopranos Renée Fleming and Dawn Upshaw but that also makes her more fun to watch." Charles McGrath writes a gazillion words or so about "A New Kind of Diva" in this weekend's Sunday Times magazine.

In other news, Renée Fleming is still not singing Norma.

Sgombra è la sacra selva

As La Cieca's clever public guessed six weeks ago, Renée Fleming is not going to sing Norma.

"The part just didn't fit as she had hoped it would after living with it," Fleming publicist Mary Lou Falcone said Thursday to the Associated Press. La Fleming, 48 (though she doesn't look a day over 20, does she?), will perform Eugene Onegin under the baton of James Levine next summer at Tanglewood instead of the Bellini work.

Running, standing and jumping Gaul

"Legendary maestro Tullio Serafin once said that trying to perform Bellini's Norma without a great soprano is as futile as attempting to cook risotto without rice. This month, the Metropolitan Opera experimented with such a recipe with less than palatable results."

Our Own JJ reviews Hasmik Papian's Druidess in Gay City News.

The Season Brochure

La Cieca presents an all-purpose season brochure for an American opera company, done in the familiar "Mad-Lib" style. Enter text in the boxes below, then click the "Go Mad" button to read your version of The Season Brochure.

YEAR CITY ADJECTIVE ADJECTIVE NOUN ADJECTIVE FAMOUS PERSON NOUN ADJECTIVE COMPOSER ITALIAN WORD CITY FAMOUS PERSON FAMOUS PERSON ADJECTIVE NAME OF PLACE NUMBER NAME OF SOPRANO WOMAN`S NAME NOUN NOUN TELEVISION SHOW SONG GERMAN WORD GERMAN WORD GERMAN WORD NUMBER NOUN MOVIE TIME OF DAY NAME OF PLACE FAMOUS PERSON OPERA COMPANY OPERA COMPANY FAMOUS PERSON NAME OF PLAY COMPOSER CONDUCTOR FAMOUS WOMAN ADJECTIVE FAMOUS PERSON FAMOUS PERSON FAMOUS PERSON NOUN FAMOUS PERSON NOUN

Send your version of the Season Brochure to La Cieca by copying and pasting the resulting text into an email addressed to [email protected]. The author of the Season Brochure judged "most amusing" will be awarded a gift certificate from amazon.com.

Divas on Demand!

The Met announced this morning yet another media partnership, this one with iN DEMAND Networks "to offer all eight new performances from the Met's second season of Metropolitan Opera: Live in High Definition to on-demand subscribers in the United States in both standard and high definition formats." The basic idea is that the video from the Met's live movie theater simulcasts will be offered on a pay-per-view basis within a month after the original performance date. The series will kick off with the December 15 performance of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, broadcast on iN DEMAND on Wednesday, January 16, 2008.

Never at a loss for a sound bite, Met General Manager Peter Gelb quipped, "With this agreement, we are creating the opera equivalent of a Hollywood movie roll-out." The Met will join such established iN DEMAND attractions as major Hollywood films in HD, Major League Baseball, World Wrestling League, and original video programming such as America's Next Hot Pornstar: Naked Tryouts.

Your pathetic, your loathsome, your despicable majesty!

Dame Kiri te Kanawa embraces her inner Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan for this scene from the Handelian pastiche The Sorceress. Despite the film's 1993 release date, the sensibility is pure '80s: massive hair, voluminous frock, garish lighting design... and don't overlook the multitude of smirking supers! (Just so you know, the aria is "Ah, Ruggiero crudel... Ombre pallide" from Alcina).

Diva, from head to mistletoe

Our Own Gualtier Maldè reflects on Maria Guleghina's first Met Norma.

True confession: I love Maria Guleghina, I really, really love her. I know her flaws but her strengths are such that they sweep aside severe demerits that would consign any other artist to filth. Among contemporary singers she is one artist who thinks big, sings big with a big voice and gives everything she has even when it is more than she can afford vocally or artistically. She lives dangerously onstage and at the end of the night there is blood on the stage floor, sometimes hers, sometimes the composer's. She may flirt with vocal disaster but she is never routine or boring.

When she was announced as Norma, I felt some trepidation - would this be the breaking point in my love affair with the Russian diva? This is a role where guts and temperament can only get you so far. A lot of the substance of the role is written into the notes and the range of vocal demands is superhuman. Guleghina's rough, approximate singing at the "Macbeth" new production premiere had earned her critical brickbats (the second performance I attended was much better) and it seemed that bel canto was something beyond her reach at this point. Guleghina has sung Norma before but somewhat outside of the main international circuit and not for a few years.

Now I am sure that over the Sirius network this was not anywhere near a complete musical triumph. However in the house it was certainly impressive and often very, very moving. Guleghina's conception of the role is greater than her technical means of achieving it but she shirks nothing and doesn't shy way from emotional extremes or vocal challenges. As an actress and interpreter she is more consistently successful than as vocalist but she cannot be dismissed as totally provincial or crude. Though a few attempts at delicacy, accuracy and finesse may fail, others will surprise you by succeeding and she scored many points in her acting and singing. The voice is major and imposing and suggests a force of nature. Unlike Papian, she was a fearsome rival and didn't sound like the junior priestess next to Dolora Zajick's majestic Adalgisa.

First of all, she is glorious to behold on stage. She has lost some weight in anticipation of the January "Macbeth" satellite moviecast and the often rather soignée new gowns suited her. Tall and majestic with wide-set flashing eyes, she commanded the stage at all times.

Guleghina is often happiest when she can hurl her voice like steel javelins at the music - preferably in the higher range. Some of these vocal assaults miss the target but the energy and force is always exciting. However as Norma, Guleghina attempted many soft attacks, sustained piano singing and modulated phrasing. This in itself was admirable but years of daredevil oversinging are hard to shake off for one role. These piano phrases - including the opening and ending phrases of "Casta Diva" - suffered from hollow, unsteady tones and fell short of the intended pitch. Whereas Papian was capable of more lyricism and delicacy, Guleghina could sweep you away with passion and terrify you with her rage. The two divas strengths and weaknesses seem to be polar opposites of one another. Neither had pinpoint coloratura control but Guleghina had expressive vocal attack and excitement in her fioritura.

Guleghina's control of her forte top was better than before, none of the many B's and C's turned into a squall though she can sharp. She had good clean attacks on some of the killer high cadenzas which will swoop up to a high note and then spiral downward on a chromatic scale. The downward scale was often smeared and sloppy but the top was responsive including a short but firm high D at the end of the trio climaxing the first act.

Though the first act found Guleghina at times managing the role and thinking through her vocal choices phrase by phrase, the second act showed her in greater command of the role. As the role of Norma goes on the vocal gestures become broader and the phrases grander, better suiting Guleghina's big-boned vocal framework. The scene where Norma ponders murdering her children was a different woman from the proud and almost otherworldly priestess of the first scene - this was a tortured, desperate woman. The maternal aspects of the role were powerfully communicated - the way that she embraced her two boys you knew Guleghina has had children of her own. Maria managed to match Dolora phrase by phrase and staccato scale by staccato scale in "Mira, O Norma".

In the scenes where Norma incites the Gauls to battle showed Guleghina tearing up the stage as the epitome of the warrior diva. The confrontation with Pollione "In mia man alfin tu sei" showed one Norma who was truly in love with Pollione even as her anger turned her against him and eventually against herself. The final scene with the moving "Qual cor tradisti" and "Deh non volerli vittime" plumbed real depths of emotion. Guleghina's Norma was relieved to be able to admit her love and free herself from her lies even at the cost of her life. But then there were her children who were now unprotected. Guleghina's plea to her father could have moved a stone to tears.

Throughout there were pitch problems, phrases broken by inadequate breath control and approximated passage work. But also throughout was a real, larger than life yet very human Norma who was compelling and moving whether alone or interacting with her colleagues. Imperfect? Definitely, but this seemed to be the real thing unlike Papian's often elegant but unconvincing attempt at the role. So though the singing was anything but "casta" in many respects, the "diva" in her human and divine aspects propelled the story. At the end of the night there was blood on the stage but tears too and the fire of Bellini's genius burned brightly. -- Gualtier Maldè

Si, parleremo terribile da queste querce antiche

Don't forget, cher public: tonight La Cieca hosts a live chat on the topic of the Norma broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera, featuring Maria Guleghina's first local stab at the Role of Roles. Join La Cieca in the chatroom La Foresta d'Irminsul beginning at 7:15 PM.

Dare we hope tonight's performance will be as fabulous as this one?

Too many sources!

"My theory: Composers who ignore significant parts of their being - nationality included - cut their creativity off at the knees. Barber was being derivative in self-defeating ways out of deference to the operatic genre. Bernstein, in comparison, was out to tell important stories using the most effective means possible..." David Patrick Stearns adds his voice to the debate about Vanessa in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Oh, and La Cieca has discovered where she read the line about Vanessa being the American Adriana Lecouvreur. It's from the "Goings On About Town" column in the New Yorker. (Since the subject is classical music, one assumes Alex Ross at least contributed to the piece, though it's unclear whether the "Adriana" mot is an authentic Rossism.)

And finally, La Cieca was just remembering something she was giggling about during the performance of Vanessa at the NYCO. One couldn't help noticing that Lauren Flanigan was, well, just a little on the zaftig side, and that her costumes were not exactly slenderizing. So, in the second scene, after the "Under the Willow Tree" number, Flanigan smoothed down her skirt and sang "Erika, I am so happy. I know now..." However, what La Cieca heard was not "happy" but "hippy" which under the circumstances made just as much sense: "Erika, I am so hippy."

Unfortunately, that word "happy" does crop up again frequently again in the libretto, so La Cieca just about disgraced herself snickering:

Vanessa: "Good morning, Pastor, we shall soon be ready. Have some coffee with us. Oh, how hippy I feel this morning, how hippy!"

The Doctor: "I know you will make a hippy couple."

Erika: "Please forget me. Make her hippy, Anatol" and "Goodbye, be hippy, Aunt Vanessa, please be hippy."

Annals of British Criticism

"Ye Gods! In all the annals, can there be an opera containing more unmitigated codswallop than Erich Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane ('The Miracle of Heliane')?" Their Own Rupert Christiansen continues:

Dreadfully overheated and over-loud, the prolix first act has a slavering and maudlin sensuality that gave me the creeps ....

[T]he rapturous sublimity that glows through the last 20 minutes struck me as profoundly bogus and cheap. Why Jurowski and the LPO should wish to waste their talents and time on this tosh beats me ....

I felt slightly sick when it was all over and had to lie down in a darkened room.

Do you come from a land down under?

Here's Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Don Giovanni at Opera Australia. La Cieca is, for once, speechless.

UPDATE: Imagine La Cieca's surprise when she found out there is already video of this production!

Watch out boy she'll chew you up

Unfortunately La Cieca has been unable to find video of the stars of our current Unnatural Act in a staged version of Adriana Lecouvreur. However, here's our other prima donna of the piece, Elena Obraztsova, in a concert performance of the Principessa's aria "Acerba voluttà."


La Obraztsova may be heard in equally full wail opposite Renata Scotto, Giacomo Aragall and Giuseppe Taddei in the second act of Cilea's opera at Unnatural Acts of Opera.

I love Luisa

After you enjoy tomorrow's Black Friday shopping spree at amazon.com, settle back for a little operatic comfort food: classic Turkey Tetrazzini.

• 6 tablespoons butter
  
• 1/2 pound mushrooms thinly sliced
  
• 1 tablespoon Madeira
  
• 4 tablespoons flour
  
• 1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
  
• 2 to 3 cups cooked turkey, cut into 3/4-inch dice
  
• 1/2 pound linguine cooked to al dente stage
  
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese mixed with 2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
  
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet. When the foaming subsides, add the mushrooms and saute, over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes until the mushrooms have absorbed the butter and are tender. Stir in the Madeira and evaporate over high heat.

In another saucepan heat 3 tablespoons of butter. When foaming subsides, stir in the flour and cook for a minute. Whisk in the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cook, over low heat, for about 5 minutes or until thickened. Remove sauce from heat and stir in the cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Fold in the mushrooms and turkey.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 1 1/2 quart casserole. Layer half of pasta, half of mushroom and turkey mixture and repeat with pasta and turkey mushroom mix. Scatter Parmesan and bread crumbs over the top and dot with remaining tablespoon of butter. Heat for 45 minutes or until heated through, sauce is bubbling and top is browning. If you wish, slide casserole under the broiler for a moment to brown the top.

Recipe from Food Network.

Something to give thanks for

La Cieca hears that our dear Aprile Millo (who recently had to cancel a Teatro Grattacielo appearance due to illness) is ready to bounce back big time in 2008.

Word on the street is that Millo will join longtime colleague Dolora Zajick for a bel canto duet in OONY's spring gala, followed by a return to the roster of the Metropolitan Opera for the 2008-09 season.

While we wait, here's some prime Millo via YouTube.

Trouser role, or is it?

Stephanie Blythe and Julia Sweeney offer twice the gender confusion.

Revenge of the Regie

No, this opera is not Der Tee und das Mitleid. Rather, it's . . . ?

At least one of you has guessed correctly so far. Let's see if we can reach a consensus with the help of an additional image.

Love has a bitter core, Vanessa

Oh, all right, La Cieca admits it, this is not a photo from a production of Vanessa. She will say, though, that this is what a production of Vanessa should look like, and hold the scrim trees.

In fact, this is a scene from Lyric Opera of Chicago's new Die Frau ohne Schatten, which by the way your doyenne will be hearing next week. Expect a full report the first week of December.

Speaking of Vanessa, here's a representative of The Younger Generation of the Gays with his take.

Sediziose voci

Now, you really didn't think La Cieca would let the occasion of Maria Guleghina's first Met Norma go unmarked, did you? Oh, please, don't be ridic, cher public! Surely the ascent of la Guleghina to the summit of bel canto is an experience that must be enjoyed communally. And since La Cieca has no intention of actually being in the theater for this event, she wants to invite you, you and most particulary you to join her for another edition of La Cieca's Opera Chat. The chat room "La Foresta d’Irminsul" will open at 7:15 p.m. on Monday, November 26 for the 7:30 curtain of Norma as broadcast on Sirius. Please check back on parterre.com on Monday for a link to "La Foresta d’Irminsul."

Moon, June, Spoon

In an unreleased track from Cecilia Bartoli's new "Maria" CD (and you know La Cieca dotes on inédits!), the singer/musicologess performs in English! The song is "Yon moon o'er the mountains," which, as you all know, is one of the hit tunes from Balfe's The Maid of Artois.


In less aesthetically pleasing news, a photo of la Bartoli that should have remained unreleased instead currently graces Opera Chic.

Musa! Diva! Sirena!

La Cieca's all-time favorite soprano, Renata Scotto, in one of her greatest roles, Adriana Lecouvreur -- if you can think of an operatic experience to rival it, La Cieca hopes you will let her know what you're having! La Scotto is heard in her first Adriana Lecouvreur, from San Francisco in 1977, partnered by Elena Obraztsova , Giacomo Aragall and Giuseppe Taddei under the baton of Gianandrea Gavazzeni. The first act of the Cilea weepy is the centerpiece of the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera, but is La Cieca satisfied? Hardly! Bonus features include rare early recordings of Scotto singing Bellini arias (I Capuleti e i Montecchi and I puritani) and your doyenne's admittedly somewhat vague reminiscences of the glory that was San Francisco gay life in the seventies.

"Today is dedicated to Uranus"

You know that Vivaldi opera everyone's been talking about? (Yeah, La Cieca realizes that sentence looks absurd, but read on.) Anyway, here's the already infamous nude scene for tenor Zachary Stains from the opera Ercole sul Termodonte, or, as it is more generally known in this country, "Hercules versus the Dental Hygienist." (NSFW, obviously, since Mr. Stains' "original instrument" is clearly visible.)

Lord help the sister who comes between me and my man!

Not the newest observation, but perhaps relevant again at the moment. So, tell me, what do these two ladies have in common (besides the family resemblance, of course)? [UPDATE: I've traded out the original image of Joyce Castle for something more representative.]

Sorge il tremendo fantasma

Another challenge from La Cieca: who is this Miss Lucy? The cher public will make their educated guesses in the comments section, please.

JJ and the City

"Soprano Lauren Flanigan turned her vaunted acting skills to the task of portraying the sophisticated allure of Vanessa, hampered more than a little by a stiff auburn wig and dowdy costumes that left her looking like Nellie Oleson's mother. Happily, on November 8, Flanigan was in superb voice, sailing fearlessly up to fiery high B's and C's and plunging into a well-projected chest register." Our Own JJ reviews NYCO's Vanessa and Cendrillion for Gay City News.

Please do try to forgive the weird é characters that somehow crept into the text; the editors at GCN are working on transforming them back into their original e aigu (é) state.

Good diva

"And so for you opera trivia lovers out there, you'll be interested to know that the outfit 'Octavian' was wearing for the 2007 Tucker Gala's 'Presentation of the Rose' was actually the outfit the 'Sophie' wore to the theater that night! Diana [Damrau] actually gave me the clothes off her back, right down to her shoes, and THAT, ladies and gentlemen, was my first outfit!"

That's Joyce DiDonato blogging, and this opera trivia lover will check in daily for further updates. The lady writes as well as she sings!

"Did you get her innuendo?"

"Ms. Fleming's soprano has gotten bigger and richer since her Dallas debut 15 years ago. 'I was replacing Carol Vaness in a lot of Mozart repertoire she couldn't sing anymore,' Ms. Fleming says of her early years."

You can read more of The Tactful Voice's audition for the remake of The Women in an interview with Scott Cantrell in The Dallas Morning News.

Utter a word

Create a caption for this photo:

Who's the missing star?

La Cieca was just wondering about something yesterday on opera-l, and doggone if Anne Midgette wasn't wondering about the same thing today in the New York Times. (That woman haunts my dreams, I tell you. It's like she's inside my head. Now, where was I? Oh, yes...) The point that dear Anne and I (among others) have mulling is this:

There was a time when Norma was considered a rarity or at least an opera that could be revived only when a very special prima donna was available and willing. The first Met Norma, for example, was Lilli Lehmann, the house's biggest female star of that era. Even given Lehmann's réclame, her appearance as Norma was considered by at least one critic (W. J. Henderson in Times) to be a sort of stunt:

The opera was chosen by Fräu Lehmann for her benefit, and from a financial point of view her selection was a very wise one . . . . From an artistic point of view the choice does not seem to be so commendable. There is no artistic reason why Lilli Lehmann should present herself to the New York public as a colorature singer. She may have been actuated by a not unnatural desire to display her versatility, but to get up a performance of Bellini's "Norma" for her benefit savors rather of self-esteem than of a strong devotion to honest art . . . . She demonstrated that her voice possessed far more flexibility and that she had a greater command of the pure ornamentation of signing that anyone suspected ... It must be said, however, that Fräu Lehmann took many of the elaborate ornamental passages at a very moderate tempo and sang them with very evident labor, thus depriving them of much of that brilliancy which the smooth, mellow, pliable Italian voices impart to them. Fiorituri without brilliancy have no "raison d' étre," and no Italian diva of standing would have received half the applause that Fräu Lehmann did for singing these passages as she did. The audience was excited by astonishment at the fact that she could do it at all.

Well, that was a longer pullquote than La Cieca originally intended to use, but, goodness, that is such excellent critical writing, isn't it? Anyway, back to the argument. Lehmann, Rosa Ponselle, Gina Cigna, Zinka Milanov and of course Maria Callas were all big established stars when they took on Norma at the Met. So were Joan Sutherland and Montserrat Caballé. If Shirley Verrett, Renata Scotto and Jane Eaglen received mixed reviews for their Met performances of the opera, it wasn't because of lack of star power or clout -- they were all extremely important names on the Met roster at the time of their casting.

Then there are performances from the likes of Adelaide Negri and Marisa Galvany -- (covers who had to go on) and Rita Hunter, one of the many jumpers-in for Caballé. The presence of Hasmik Papian at the beginning of this year's run of Norma should be understood in the same spirit, i.e., a late-in-the-game substitution.

Papian is going on for Maria Guleghina, who was pulled out of the beginning of the Norma run to perform the new production of Macbeth. So the question is, who ever dreamed up the notion of Guleghina singing Norma at the Met? True, she won a big popular success here with Abigaille back in 2001 and she more or less owned the role of Tosca at the house for about five years. But nothing in those performances (or, to be frank, her few attempts at the Bellini opera elsewhere) really shouts "this woman must do Norma at the Met." So why would a revival of Norma be put in the pipeline five years ago for a singer who neither then nor now promises to display anything special in the role?

Which is why La Cieca poses the question: was this revival of Norma originally planned for a different singer? And if so, who? Deborah Voigt? Violeta Urmana? Renée Fleming?

Too much casta, not enough diva

Last night's season premiere of Norma at the Met restored Bellini's opera to musical and vocal distinction but the dramatic fire was burning only fitfully.

Hasmik Papian is a hugely experienced Norma who some consider to be the best contemporary exponent of the role. But the key word here is contemporary not best. Her voice is not the conventional soprano drammatica d'agilita (with more or less agility) that has been associated with the role in the past. Instead it is a bright, high-placed floaty soprano of medium size. The tonal quality is an intriguing and not unattractive mixture of copper and silver. Gold and platinum probably are the elements needed for this role but she wasn't dealing in base vocal metals.

However, it is a voice without a great deal of variety of tonal color and the lower middle register is weak and colorless. This meant that this druidess shone in moments of reflection, tenderness and lyricism like the "Casta diva", "Ah, rimembranza" and "Deh, non volerli vittime" but fell way short in moments of wild anger and dark threatening command. The coloratura was decent but not brilliant. Some of the tricky runs were finessed and the climactic high C's were short and hardly effortless. Vocal thrust and command were in short supply all night. Her weakest moment of the evening was the second act trio with Pollione and Adalgisa. Here Papian seemed lost and clueless as to how to make an effect. She lacks really exciting vocal attack and could not dominate the ensemble. However, Papian did stronger work in the final scenes with solid vocalism and shone in the final moving scenes of renunciation and self-sacrifice.

Papian, a slim shapely woman who was sporting three newly designed and created gowns in blue crushed silk, russet velvet and scarlet velvet with gold accents was an unusually youthful and feminine Norma. One wondered what Pollione and the Gauls were intimidated by. Her anger came across more as agitated distress and her threats seemed mere sarcastic insinuation. The real emotional depths of the part seemed sketched in skilfully but not fully plumbed.

This was contrasted against the heroic yet vulnerable Adalgisa of Dolora Zajick who had the attack and vocal breadth but also depth of feeling and variety of color as the junior priestess. I think in the 19th century Zajick would have been a Norma with whatever adjustments to the vocal line were needed for her comfort and endurance in the role. Zajick showed herself a mistress of vocal coloration and dynamic control. Like Cossotto she removed a lot of the steel and chest coloration from her tone and sang Adalgisa with gentle purity to suggest a virginal, innocent and youthful woman. The soprano-like tone did not preclude power and richness when appropriate but informed the tonal palette - she most often chose to end phrases piano rather than forte and didn't slam into low notes. She performed a flawless messa di voce on "Io l'obbliai" and also managed a pianissimo high C in the second act. Dolora had the grandeur both vocal and physical that Papian lacked.

Franco Farina is a confounding artist, seemingly a Jekyll and Hyde vocalist. A superb musician with excellent technical control in lyrical legato lines and piano singing, he devolves into a braying, wobbling, unmusical shouter when he attempts robusto heroics. At times it seems that a Pertile or Bergonzi are within him fighting for his soul against Baum and Mauro. The whining, blown-out upper middle tones were contrasted against a firm, bright and expert shaped line in cantilena. He managed a superb piano tone in the duet with Adalgisa and when striving for line and style was really impressive. But here or there a loosening tone or shouted high note would intrude and remind you of his dark side. The costume suited him and he worked well with both ladies.

Vitalij Kowaljow poured on rich velvet tones in the musically rich but dramatically uninteresting role of Oroveso. Juliana di Giacomo gave notice of a major soprano voice in the small role of Clotilde in her Met debut. The two boys playing Norma's children were given more specific direction including reaching out for their mother in the last scene with moving results.

I happened to like the conducting of Maurizio Benini who stressed the dramatic weight and symphonic qualities of the score while not slighting elegance and forward movement. This score too often has fallen into the hands of routiniers and this was a step in the right direction.

I won't devote much space to John Copley's production and John Conklin's sets because they don't deserve it. Norma is an opera that seems to confound modern directors. Why Norma decorated her house with wooden crates painted black is not something this inquiring mind wanted to know. Sometimes it looked like a high school production of Shakespeare's Macbeth or a minimalist Camelot. Laurie Feldman who staged this revival attempted some creative choral movement but it was pretty much park and bark. Despite the cheapo minimalist look they might as well have been singing in front of musty old drops of Stonehenge and paper maché rocks.

After the dismal last two outings with a way past-it Renata Scotto (please no historical revisionism here - she could not sing the role by the time she got to the Met) and a never-really-had-it lumpen Jane Eaglen, last night restored Bellini's opera to musical respectability. One could get a sense of its greatness, particularly when Zajick was center stage. But the real fire and ice was last seen with Caballé in 1976 and we are still awaiting her successor. -- Gualtier Maldè

Return of "Name that Regie"

Three photos from the same production this time. Guesses in the comments -- and if you know the answer, please keep quiet while the others play!

I'm still waiting for the good news

Only a month before her farewell to Las Vegas, pop hurleuse Céline Dion is already making plans for her future. According to Newsweek, "in February, she'll begin an international tour. Then she plans on settling down in Florida, where she'll see if she can turn herself into a movie star (her dream project is a biopic of the Greek singer Maria Callas) . . ."

And hit "send"

Washington Post classical music critic Tim Page ripped DC Councilman and former Mayor Marion Barry in a widely-distributed company email recently, calling Barry a "crack head" and "useless."

The trouble began with an email from Barry's Communication staff that went out as a "blast" to several dozen reporters and media organizations. Page received a copy of the Barry email even though he doesn't cover the former Mayor or the DC government and apparently wasn't too pleased to hear from Barry. According to veteran newscast Bruce Johnson, Page fired off an email response to Barry's Communications Chief:

Must we hear about it every time this Crack Addict attempts to rehabilitate himself with some new--and typically half witted--political grandstanding?

I'd be grateful if you would take me off your mailing list. I Cannot think of anything the useless Marion Barry could do that would interest me in the slightest, up to and including overdose.

Sincerely, Tim Page

Johnson also says Page has confirmed that his supervisors at the Post have already taken disciplinary action against him. According to a source, Page has been placed on leave.

Gaia, isolata, bianca

Legendary opera diva Anna Moffo spreads her wings in a straight film role -- but as a gay character. La Moffo plays the lesbian "Lia" in Das Mädchen Julius. The film concerns the heroine Jules (a girl with a boy's name) who, according to the plot synopsis, as a teenager had a lesbian experience with her governess, Lia, who has taught her to hate men, whom she considers beasts who can bring nothing but harm to a woman.

So, if you ever wondered what a Moffo performance of Gräfin Geschwitz might be like (especially in a production set in the minimalist late 1960s) here's a scene from Das Mädchen Julius.

Finishing Lulu

La Cieca finally got herself back into the studio this evening for a podcast of the second act of Berg's Lulu. This performance features the Orchestra and Chorus of the Vienna State Opera conducted by Karl Böhm on December 16, 1968. Anja Silja stars as the irresistible Lulu, with Martha Mödl, Ernst Gutstein, Waldemar Kmentt and Hans Hotter rounding out a classic cast.

As a bonus on this episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera, La Cieca introduces a clip from the rarely-heard Samuel Barber opera Harriet Craig.

Those of you who have recovered from the recent Ernani vocal identification quiz may want to jump back into the saddle to guess the identify of the singer of the "Lied der Lulu" in the following sound clip.


Hint: it's not Anja Silja! If you think you know the identify of this singer, send your guess to [email protected]. La Cieca will award an amazon.com gift certificate to the first correct responder.

UPDATE: Too easy! The singer of the "Lied der Lulu" is [click]. Congratulations to Judy who was first with a correct answer (barely ten minutes after the clip went up), and to Daniel, Richard, Paul and Oliver who all got it within the hour. Now La Cieca is off to devise a more challenging quiz!

Regie roulette

Once again, La Cieca asks: can you name that opera?


UPDATE: As several of the cher public have guessed, this is a production of Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Specifially it's a new staging at the Hamburg Staatsoper, directed by Christine Mielitz with sets by Hartmut Schörghofer and costumes by Renate Schmitzer. In the above photo, Giuseppe Filanoti is seen in the title role, with Benjamin Hulett (Cochenille) and Elena Mosuc (Olympia).

Two more images from the production depict Hoffmann and Nicklausse (Nino Surguladze) and Filianoti and Mosuc in the "Venice" act. All photographs by Klaus Lefebvre.

And all he said was "woof"

In a controversial performance (condemned by Stephen Colbert, praised by Andrew Sullivan), bass-bearitone Kurt Rydl grrrrowls the role of Hagen.


Legendary diva Rosa Ponselle was so impressed by this Götterdämmerung that she dedicated an encore song to Herr Rydl.


The (ahem) versatile basso replied with a video tribute to Nancy Sinatra:

Desert song

Charles MacKay will become The Santa Fe Opera's General Director beginning October 1, 2008. MacKay, currently General Director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, succeeds Richard Gaddes, who is retiring. MacKay comes to Santa Fe after 23 years in St. Louis, where he followed Gaddes as that company's general director. More details on the appointment may be found at Playbill Arts.

Night of the Living Dead

La Cieca's spiritual godmother Tessi Tura (or, more accurately, Ms. Tura's alter ego George Heymont) has finally emerged from a "retirement" of over a decade. George has turned to the blog format to complete a project he's had on the back burner since 1990 or so, "a murder mystery set at the Metropolitan Opera House." La Cieca is sure her cher public will want to follow the progress of this latest Heymontiana (Heymontade?) at A Dying Art Form.

Time to say hello?

La Cieca hears that Andrea Bocelli dropped by the Met yesterday to audition for Peter Gelb. The accompanist, on dit, was none other than James Levine!

Wheels within wheels

This is why drag was invented. The artistes are James Bondage and Bella ToDyeFor.

Or was it... MURDER?

The death of Ludwig II of Bavaria has been considered a suicide for over a century, ever since the meshugeneh monarch's body was found in Lake Starnberg near Munich on June 13, 1886.

But did the kooky king really take his own life -- or was it TAKEN FROM HIM? [sfx: music sting]

An article from Spiegel Online posits "fresh doubts," based on, well, not much of anything, but the story involves a mysterious countess, so you can hardly expect La Cieca to forego repeating it.

There's this Munich banker named Detlev Utermöhle, see, who is now 60 years old. Herr Utermöhle "has made a sworn deposition in which he recalls an interesting incident from his childhood."

He was 10 years old at the time [the Spiegel's gripping account continues] and had been taken by his mother, Gertrud Utermöhle, to a tea party hosted by her friend Josephine Gräfin von Wrbna-Kaunitz, a countess who had managed the assets of a line of the royal House of Wittelsbach, King Ludwig's family.

Detlev recalls that after the coffee and cakes the countess drew her guests together and said in a whispered tone: "Now, without the knowledge of the descendants of the former King Ludwig II, you can all find out the truth about the circumstances of his death. I will now show you the coat he wore on the day of his death."

The party walked to a chest and the countess took out a gray woollen coat and held it up against the light. Detlev Utermöhle says he saw the coat "with two bullet holes in the back."

So, are we about to learn the truth about the Campy König? Well, actually, probably not. Ludwig's descendants, the Wittlesbach-von-und-zu-Spoilsports, "steadfastly refuse to allow the king's corpse to be exhumed from its tomb in Munich's St. Michael's church to be examined." And it gets even worse, you see, because

unfortunately, the mysterious coat [Geheimnismantel] has disappeared as well. Countess Wrbna-Kaunitz and her husband died in 1973 in a house fire and the coat was lost in the aftermath of their deaths.

Least appealing headline of the week (so far)

"Opera's 'fat lady' is a Madison cash cow"

In other news: has anyone ever heard Natalie Bancroft sing opera? Ms. Bancroft is the scioness of the family who recently sold their controlling share in Dow Jones (and thus the Wall Street Journal) to Newscorp for a thousand million gazillion pounds or whatever it was. Anyway, in all the news stories, she is called "opera singer," but there's no sign of a review or cast listing with her name accessible to Google.

And here's a fun photo. No, it's not Vera Charles (though the lady does have a certain air of "What the hell have you got back there, reindeer?) And it's not Cruella DeVil. (Nice guess, though.)


In fact, it's Jane Henschel as Klytemnästra in the Deutsche Oper's new Elektra.

Sweet November

La Cieca's DVR hard drive will be overflowing by the end of this November since the indispensable Turner Classic Movies has scheduled a whole month of "guest programmers." Among the celebrities gracing the tube to introduce their favorite flicks will be some of particular interest to the parterre crowd. For example, this Thursday, November 8, playwright/actor Charles Busch will take a brief respite from his Die Mommie Die duties on the New York boards to present a quartet of women's pictures: I Could Go on Singing, The Hard Way, Escape and A Woman's Face.

Iconic Harvey Fierstein arrives on November 26 to introduce The Catered Affair (upon which his upcoming Broadway musical is based), as well as the camp classic The Women and two lesser-known pictures, The Boy with Green Hair and The Devil is a Sissy.

November 18 heralds the arrival of "one of the world’s most beloved and recognized figures in the worlds of opera and jazz," Renée Fleming. Films featured that day will include Red Dust, Captains Courageous, Test Pilot, Gone with the... oh, La Cieca begs your pardon, that was Victor Fleming.

In fact, "The Beautiful Cineaste" has selected for our enjoyment a quartet of musical extravaganzas: The Great Waltz, Song of Love, Interrupted Melody and Maytime.

Perché non ho del talento?

This performance of the "alternative" entrance aria from Lucia di Lammermoor illustrates why the road not taken probably wasn't such a good idea in the first place. Note, too, how the technical quality of the video production so aptly complements the efforts of the artiste.

Geheimnisregie

So, what's this opera? (Guesses only, please - if you recognize the photo, sit this one out!)


UPDATE: Well done, Atomic Wings! Indeed, this is a production of Norma, starring Olga Makarina, as produced at the National Theatre, Prague.

Lookism? Again?

Yet another rehash of the great voice vs. waistline debate, this time in the Chicago Daily Herald. Nicole Cabell laments the scarcity of European gyms, while "hunken-tenor" Joseph Kaiser plants his feet firmly on both sides of the fence by declaring, "Essentially if you can be healthy about being healthy, that's the balance to find because there's a lot of unhealthy ways to be 'healthy.'"

Usual suspects Deborah Voigt and Nathan Gunn offer no comment, but "bari-hunk" Mariusz Kwiecien is willing go on the record that he is "not an extremely good looking guy." (Obviously he didn't take a good look at this photo accompanying the article!)

Is anyone surprised to hear that the most sensible one of the bunch is the mezzo? "There is no denying the influence of the mass media culture of today on opera, but I think it's naïve to think that the idea of 'glamour' is nothing new to opera," says Joyce DiDonato. "Look at all the old diva photos from the 1920s and '30s and you see many svelte, sexy ladies at the height of their powers."

La Cieca herself couldn't say it more eloquently, so she'll turn the program over to radiant Rosa Ponselle. The diva is 39 here, just a year before her retirement from the Met:

Macbetty

"When the Met last offered Verdi's Macbeth a quarter century ago, the New York Times slammed Sir Peter Hall's staging as 'the worst new production to struggle onto the Metropolitan Opera's stage in modern history' and the opening night audience greeted the curtain calls with some of the loudest boos in the theater's history. On October 22, the company neatly avoided a reprise of this notorious fiasco when they offered a bland take on the opera unlikely to rouse much strong feeling at all. "

Our Own JJ reviews Macbeth in Gay City News.

The work wasn't the only thing that was hard

"Samuel Barber . . . for decades remained Menotti's closest friend and most trusted colleague. Having first met when they were teenagers studying at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the two men established an enduring friendship and shared homes . . . where they lived as hard-working artists and professional composers." Oh brother!

In other news, Tab Hunter is still hoping to find a nice girl who wants to settle down and get married.

No, but thanks for axing

Playbill Arts reports more intrigue out of San Francisco: Natalie Dessay will not do the Mary Zimmerman production of Lucia di Lammermoor there next summer as originally announced. Oh, don't worry, la Dessay will indeed sing the role, but the SFO is substituting a Graham Vick staging, citing "the physical dimensions of the [Metropolitan Opera] production and extensive rebuilding required to adapt the sets for the War Memorial Opera House." Ah, yes, of course. The extensive rebuilding, that's it.

Hereinspaziert!

Was seht ihr in den Lust- und Trauerspielen?!
Haustiere, die so wohlgesittet fühlen,
An blasser Pflanzenkost ihr Mütchen kühlen
Und schwelgen in behaglichem Geplärr,
Wie jene andern - unten im Parterre...

La Cieca salutes the successful launch of Alex Ross's The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century with a podcast of one of her very favorite operas of that era, Alban Berg's Lulu. It's a 1968 live performance from the Vienna State Opera, Karl Böhm am Pult. Anja Silja is the femme fatale, with Waldemar Kmentt, Ernst Gutstein, Hans Hotter, Manfred Jungwirth, Oskar Czerwenka, Heinz Zednik, Hilde Konetzni and Martha Mödl among the ensnared. Unnatural Acts of Opera.

Enter Madame

One of La Cieca's intricate network of spies has been keeping his ear to the ground in San Francisco where a supernumerary friend whispered to him that "there was concern amongst the SFO backstage ranks that since La Gheorghiu had yet to show up for any La rondine rehearsals, that she may go the route of of her recent Lyric Opera contretemps and be dismissed as a no-show."

Signor Spy assured his super friend that Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna "were merely enjoying a personal idyll in NYC ... that once Mr. Alagna finished up with Pinkerton last Saturday, she (or both) would probably be winging to the West Coast to keep the SFO commitment." He then passed along to La Cieca a report on the soprano's "first rehearsal appearance."

UPDATE: Well, now it seems our original spy has reconsidered the hearsay he shared earlier and asked that the "Super" quotes be removed. Fair enough, La Cieca thinks, since she's not entirely clear on whether Super gave Spy carte blanche to share the "insights" in the first place.

La Cieca does not plan on making a habit of putting the toothpaste back in the tube, but this appears to be a special case. Okay with you, cher public?

Remember, La Cieca is just the messenger

Writes a spy:

Today at the final dress, it was pretty obvious why Reneeeeee would cancel her Normas – the "Sempre libera" was SCARY bad – completely off the voice for the mewing and really sloppy coloratura, and then she had to go back on-voice to try and get to the Bb/B/C/Db area. The repeated C’s were especially hair-raising, and she didn’t actually get up to the pitch on any of them in the whole aria. A friend [also] watching the dress said it was uncomfortable and worrisome to have to listen to her try and get through it. While she can still produce creamy sounds in her basic rep, her ability to sing fioritura (which, while totally wrong for bel canto, was impressive at one time) is basically gone.

"Brokeback" it is!

An interview with director Krzysztof Warlikowski in the current issue of Takt, the house magazine for the Bayerisches Staatsoper, confirms that you, cher public, were exactly right about the "slant" of his new production of Yevgeny Onegin opening tonight in Munich. In the interview (available online, as is the rest of the magazine, in pdf format), Warlikowski draws parallels between Tchaikovksy's life and several plot points of the opera, concluding

Homosexualität verbergen zu müssen und nicht verbergen zu können, das ist für mich der Schlüssel zu diesem Werk. Denken Sie nur an den Film "Brokeback Mountain" von Ang Lee: kein Schwulenfilm, sondern die Geschichte von zwei Menschen, die gegen ihre Leidenschaft ankämpfen müssen, weil die Gesellschaft sie ihnen nicht erlaubt – zwei Menschen, die ihre Liebe zueinander jahrelang nur in Blicken oder kurzen Berührungen leben dürfen.

The interviewer, naturally enough, goes for the followup: "Was hat das mit Tatjana und Onegin zu tun?" As it turns out, Warlikowski's take is pretty much standard queer theory:

Auch Tatjana will gegen die Regeln der Gesellschaft leben – genau wie wie beiden Jungen aus "Brokeback Mountain". In der Briefszene bietet sie Onegin ihre bedingungslose Liebe an, sie will sich das Recht nehmen, ein glückliches Leben führen zu dürfen – in einer Zeit, in der die Frauen, siehe ihre Mutter oder die Njanja, eben nicht glücklich waren und nicht aus Liebe geheiratet haben. Tatjana will genau das . . . . Für mich ist [Onegins] Duellszene mit Lenski fast eine liebesszene. Ist es nicht bemerkenswert, dass Lenski fast nie Olga ansingt, sondern immer nur Onegin? Für mich ist Onegin verliebt in Lenski . . . . So tötet Onegin Lenski in einem verzweifelten Akt der Selbstbehauptung, mit dem er nichts anderes herausschreit als "Ich bin nicht homosexuell!".

The Staatsoper's website offers a short video trailer for the production (unfortunately at the moment available only in a skimpy dialup-size stream) and the audio of the opening night will be webcast live beginning at 2:00 PM (via OperaCast).

Robert Goulet, 1933-2007

The Broadway baritone, star of Camelot, died yesterday at the age of 73. Goulet won a Tony Award for for the 1968 Kander and Ebb musical The Happy Time, and most recently appeared on Broadway as Georges in the 2004 revival of La Cage aux Folles. An obituary and appreciation of the performer can be found at Playbill News.

Jessye is dressy, but Curtis is pertest

Curtis Rayam as Arnalta in L'incoronazione di Poppea, directed by René Jacobs.

Tales of the Pearl Necklace

"1,000 faces and ten years of Kumm at the National Opera" is the intriguing headline of what disappointingly turns out to be a review of a rock concert.

And La Cieca was so sure this was in some way connected with the impending prima of the Krzysztof Warlikowski production of Yevgeny Onegin.

Un chien mord un homme

Opera performances in Paris are canceled due to strikes.

Nibble, nibble, mousie, who's nibbling at my gallery?

The Gallery Met -- you know, that space off to the opposite side of the box office, over near the State Theater? Oh, didn't you know there was a gallery there? Well, in fact, neither did much of anyone else, judging by the sparse attendance there ever since they removed the lesbian erotica (that is, the Richard Prince piece about Madama Butterfly, which La Cieca thought was kind of fun). Now, let's see. La Cieca knows she asked you here for a reason... oh, yes, of course! There's actually a new exhibition opening at the Gallery Met, a sort of tie-in with the New Yorker, which certainly sounds like a nice intersection of target audiences.

Gallery Met has assembled together artists from the venerable magazine, plus a few special guests, in a colorful exhibition of new, original artworks titled Hansel and Gretel. The exhibition features such familiar New Yorker names as Roz Chast, Ian Falconer, Jules Feiffer, Ana Juan, Ed Koren, Anita Kunz, Lorenzo Mattotti, Christoph Niemann, Lou Romano, Owen Smith, William Steig, Gahan Wilson, and Bob Zoell. The exhibit also features new works by artists John Currin, George Condo, and William Wegman—also inspired by Hansel and Gretel.

The Met's new production of the Humperdinck opera opens December 24. The gallery exhibition will be on view Friday, November 16 through February 2006.

Filth in a supporting role

La Cieca hopes you aren't under the misapprehension that only stars (or would-be stars) are capable of filth-level performances. A true "sporcizianista" can fuck up even such apparently foolproof music as the few lines of Ines in the first act of Trovatore:

Name that Regie!

Well, no, Charles Wuorinen has not finished his Brokeback Mountain opera quite yet. In fact, this photo is from a new staging of a standard repertory work. Can you identify it? (Guesses only, please -- if you know this production, please recuse yourself!)

Click to enlarge.

I know a Malibran, she drives a moving van...

What can take a sunrise / Sprinkle it in dew / Cover it in chocolate / and a miracle or two? The Malibran Van!

Does a big voice need defending?

Our Own Little Stevie reflects on the Met's new Macbeth.

I'd like to admit a guilty pleasure of mine: I've secretly been waiting with a lot of anticipation for Maria Guleghina to sing in Macbeth and Norma this year. I have not told this to many people because it seems that the common expectation has been that she would be just short of a train wreck in both roles. Many of my wise opera buddies have commented on her wild/out-of-control/harsh/shrill/screamy/erratic voice and technique, and her inability to execute coloratura work. Yet anyone who saw Trittico or Cavalleria last season must have realized she's in prime mid-late career voice at the moment. Many who already commented on the Sirius broadcast from tonight (10/26) heard it right - she had a GREAT night in Macbeth.

I am an advocate of giving artists the benefit of the doubt when they have an off night because I am aware of the pressures and intricate details that can affect the voice at any given performance. I hate to be present when it occurs (who does at these prices) but it happens. I refused to comment in depth about the singing in the Lucia two weeks ago for just that reason. My return visit to that opera last night unfortunately confirmed most of my initial impressions (excepting of course the pleasure of Stephen Costello's debut as Edgardo and the secure high acrobatic singing of Annick Massis), however my impression of Macbeth, especially in regard to Guleghina couldn't be further from the negative reviews I read in major publications.

Most of the press fell over themselves in praise for Dessay in Lucia, yet claim the new Macbeth is "flawed", "lacking", and "sub-par" due to the performance of Maria Guleghina. To put Dessay on such a pedestal and then savage Guleghina just isn't right. As told to me by a Met employee Mme. Guleghina was very hurt and upset by the press reaction to her performance. Tonight she took the opportunity of being in voice to prove them wrong.

As seen and heard from Parterre Box 5 Guleghina gave penetrating insight, virile sexuality, and a HUGE voice to the part. I'm not much of a fan of "heroic" style belting (you all can keep Dimitrova and her like), but there is something to be said for the visceral thrill of hearing Maria hurl off her high notes at maximum tension. I heartily welcome it in the age of Fleming, Gheorghiu, Netrebko, et al. And OH how that sound dominated the ensemble at the end of the Banquet Scene (Turandot anyone?) And she certainly does have the ability to sing many florid passages extremely well.

What I particularly appreciated was how she took her big voice and scaled it down for certain passages in order to execute some of the coloratura. She did this quite successfully in "La luce langue" and the Brindisi, less so in "Vieni t'affretta!" because she was using too big a sound. But come on people, give her a few minutes to warm up! Honestly, she did some stuff vocally that I didn't think she could do - the acuti in the Brindisi were really crisp, and I particularly enjoyed the way she used the staccato to pop up to the top note of the scale and how she beautifully handled those melismas.

On the acting side she totally showed her lust and love for Macbeth. This was not a cold hearted Lady - but more a victim of her blood lust through their greed for power and passion for each other. When Marton played the role (my only other experience with the opera in live performance) I recall her as coming off very sexless - not to say without passion - but lacking in femininity. Guleghina uses her body and her sex appeal openly in the role and it brings just the right edge of warmth to make you believe that she's not in it for herself, she's in it because she loves her man (and this sex appeal and femininity will no doubt add the flame to her Turandot in the 09/10 season). It makes the Sleepwalking Scene really tragic. This aria was concentrated, intense, without being all over the place as many an operatic mad scene can be (no I will not mention any names). She doesn't have a pianissimo D flat to end the scene, so she opted to get the note at full voice securely for a moment facing upstage and then take the scale down. Aside from that my only criticism is that she doesn't really possess any chest voice, and I miss that dark quality in the low lying notes of this part. "Chest Nuts," as Marilyn Horne refers to them, may wish to skip this performance.

Banquo appears to be much more suited to John Relyea's current vocal state than Raimondo in Lucia was the night before. He didn't polish all the wool out of his tone, but it seems to lie in a warmer, lower place of his range. He looked really handsome too. This was probably my favorite of the performances I've seen from him.

I've heard impressions from people of Zeljko Lucic as Macbeth that range from excellent to miscast. I found his voice very pleasant - warm, excellent dynamic control, emotional - if perhaps lacking Verdian "boom" for the biggest moments. I liked his portrayal as a wounded king at once hungry to ascend the throne yet unable to live anymore with the burden of his bloody actions. He doesn't shy away from playing his emotional wounds and softer side. The phrasing in "Pieta, rispetto, amore" was superb. Staged with him sitting in a chair he communicated in a unique way Macbeth's need to believe the prophesy of the Witches and the underlying resignation that everything is about to fall apart. It was heartbreaking in its simplicity and received the biggest amount of solo applause of the evening.

Dimitri Pittas as Macduff was a surprise - bright and clear voice (with maybe not the best Italian vowels), and the lament for his family was a nice moment. The orchestra is in top form, and I'm not crazy about James Levine conducting Verdi most of the time, but the dynamic range was extraordinary - dead silent pauses leading to giant chords bombasting out into space, heavenly strings, and all very carefully calibrated to the singers onstage (another thing I noticed that differed from many pro reviews). From my box I could actually see Levine singing along with most of the singers for a good portion of the evening, very much enjoying making music with them.

And now for the bad news. The sets incorporate a mishmash of stylistic elements, from moving pillars of black stone that have light-up fluorescent bands in them, to green lasers projected onto the black sky for the arrival of the eight Kings from on high (straight out the The Saint circa 1979), a blue egg that raises from the stage to illuminate the apparitions, a jeep that is pushed around onstage, with all of this taking place on a giant black rock disk. It's a tidy and minimal production, not cheap looking, relying on simple props, set pieces, some nice back drops and sometimes elegant lighting effects (and a lot of stage smoke).

But what got me were the witches. They are dressed in a get up that I really don't understand. Were they bag ladies? A coven of local fishwives that meet secretly to conjure spells (and practice spastic dance moves)? While I liked Adrian Noble's direction of the principals, some of his choices just don't cohere with the rest. I don't mind updated or abstract productions if it is all of a whole. Granted I am not versed on post WW2 Scotland, so maybe it made sense, but I wish we'd been let in on what was up with those witches.

On the plus side Noble could give Mary Zimmerman a couple of pointers on how to deal with a static chorus. It looked like he had twice as many people on stage for the Banquet, most of whom must stand and watch in disbelief as Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo, yet there was a fluidity and tension that didn't exist in the Mad Scene I saw again at Lucia the night before. This Macbeth plays well in spite of the questionable taste and stylistic incongruities which are at worst mildly annoying but really don't affect the commitment of the musicians and singers in producing a fine evening of Verdi. -- Little Stevie

Sob sister scoop!

Adept arbiter Anne Midgette has announced her farewell to The New York Times, moving on up to the Washington Post where she will reign as interim chief critic beginning January 1. The WaPo's current chief critic, Tim Page, is off to teach a semester at USC and, who knows, may extend his stay in academe to something more lasting. We here at parterre.com will miss la Midgette's pungent and always well-supported critiques of New York performances, and we look forward to her take on the WNO.

The solution to the "Ernani involami" quiz

All right, cher public, now that the competion is closed, La Cieca will reveal the 20 singers performing the composite "Ernani involami." First, you might want to listen to the original clip one more time. Now, ready? Here are our 20 divas, pictured and named. Just click on the YouTube clip to play.

Holy....!

More photos of Erwin Schrott and (by the way) a story about the Washington National Opera's new production of Don Giovanni at PlaybillArts. (A Don G. this hot may well transform DC to AC!)

Now this is more like it

Totally pulled together. Class act. Doing what comes naturally. Well played!

Call it what you will, but, fair is fair: this is great stuff.

Di faci tuttavia splende il Costello!

Our Own Gualtier Maldè reflects on last night's Met Lucia:

The Met has often been accused and rightly so of ignoring young talent and waiting too long to hire up-and-coming new stars while hanging on to declining old favorites well past their sell-by date. Occasionally a promising new talent from the Young Artists Program will blossom quickly and get chances - Dwayne Croft fifteen years ago is an example.

However, it was a surprise when James Levine announced 26 year-old Stephen Costello for one performance of Edgardo in Lucia this season. He had definitely made an impression as Arturo on opening night and I have been told did impressively subbing for Giordani as Edgardo in some early rehearsals. It was with a mix of trepidation and excitement that I attended last night's performance. Making a starring role debut at age 26 in a house the size of the Met is a daunting experience for anyone.

Well, how was he? This much can be said - he immediately got the audience on his side and got the biggest ovation at the end (admittedly many family members, schoolmates and friends were in the audience but not that many). His youth, sweet timbre, precocious poise and emotional involvement communicated to the audience. However, the role of Edgardo, though lyric, is demanding with a wide range of dynamics, vocal coloration and requires both declamation and floated legato. Costello's voice seemed a size too small for the role in a house this large. Though he wasn't inaudible, he definitely seemed lightweight vocally. He seemed boyish and slight next to Annick Massis who is hardly a Lucia in the Sutherland/Callas heroic mold.

The elegant phrasing and poised musicianship were juxtaposed against a voice that could turn shallow and a touch insecure when pressures mounted. Lyrical moments like "Verranno a te" and "Fra poco a me ricovero" were sweet and pleasing. Declamatory moments like the outbursts in the "maledizione" scene and confrontation with Enrico in "Wolf's Crag" found the young man working close to his limits. The fact that he didn't push well beyond those limits and lasted in fairly fresh form to the end of the opera speaks well for his pacing and intelligence. A naturally appealing and graceful stage presence, he gained in dramatic authority as the evening progressed culminating in a moving death scene.

However, at this juncture he might be wise to leave the Edgardo to smaller theaters and concentrate on roles like Ernesto, Nadir and Nemorino that could capitalize on his soaring upper register and boyish charm and let himself grow into roles like the Duke of Mantua, Edgardo, Rodolfo and Alfredo with time.

A salutory example currently singing on the Met roster is Matthew Polenzani who started modestly at the Met seven or eight years ago singing parts like Jacquino and Lindoro and now in his thirties is moving into Romeo, Edgardo and Alfredo internationally with superb notices. It isn't a splashy overnight star trajectory but it worked for him and the Met and when the big star roles came, he was fully formed and ready to do them and himself full justice.

The evening really belonged to the elegant Lucia of French coloratura Annick Massis. Her voice is creamier and softer-textured than that of Natalie Dessay but she has a fuller and more reliable upper extension. A patrician stage figure, her acting was detailed and intelligent but lacked the "in the moment" intensity and spontaneity that Dessay brings to her work. There were pluses both musical and dramatic to Massis' more calculated approach - she never lost vocal poise and beauty and her performance was consistent and beautifully paced.

The loss of some dramatic excitement definitely had musical gains and resulted in a performance that gave overall pleasure. The flute obbligato in the cadenza of the mad scene was reinstated for her as was about 95% of the traditional Mathilde Marchesi cadenza minus the top E flats. Those were abundant elsewhere and held to exciting effect.

Kwiecien shows greater command and suavity in his Enrico, singing more judiciously in the beginning but having lots of power when needed - especially in his climactic top notes. John Relyea has a hint of graininess and dryness in his tone that is worrying in an artist who is still fairly young. I miss the vocal velvet of his earlier days. He was solid but not exciting.

Mr. Costello came through his trial by fire with grace and made some new fans. Now, he needs to pace himself wisely singing lighter roles at the Met and letting his voice and technique mature in the smaller and medium size houses until he is ready to tackle the major lyric repertoire here and internationally. The stuff was definitely there last night, but in embryo. -- Gualtier Maldè

Happy birthday Barbara Cook!

The legendary lady of musical theater and popular song is 80 years old today!


Ms. Cook celebrates this milestone next month on November 19 and 20 when she appears as a guest artist with the New York Philharmonic.

Gli enigmi sono venti

UPDATE: Here's the "Ernani involami" vocal identification quiz -- 20 singers in seven minutes. As of Wednesday night, the two leading entries are tied at 17 correct answers each. Remember, the competition ends at midnight on Friday!


La Cieca (not pictured) is practically beside herself (also not pictured) with glee now that she has published the most recent episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera. Why, you ask? Well, not only does the show include the final two acts of Verdi's Ernani (starring Anita Cerquetti, Mario Del Monaco, Ettore Bastianini and Boris Christoff, with Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting), but this time around there's a very special edition of "The Enigmas of La Cieca," one of the composite vocal identification quizzes you so adore. The winner of this quiz will be the (no doubt overwhelmed) recipient of the three-DVD set Cult Camp Classics 2 - Women in Peril, which includes Joan Crawford's final theatrical film, Trog.

You can as always listen to the show on the Unnatural Acts page, or, if you're feeling particularly competitive, you can download it from the Archive page.

UPDATE: as of 8:00 AM Monday, the contestant to beat is "MC," who submitted 14 out of the 20 correct answsers. As Milton Host explained to you all during the podcast, the competiton continues until midnight on Friday, October 26, 2007. If there is no entry with all 20 singers correctly identified, La Cieca will select a winner by means of a random drawing from the tying entries with the most correct answers. La Cieca's decision is (as in all things) final and irrevocable. That email address again [email protected].

Radamès, non è deciso il tuo fato

Latest casting news from the Met: Stephen O’Mara will sing Radamès in Aida on Wednesday, October 24, replacing Marco Berti, who has withdrawn from remaining performances due to illness. The role of the Egyptian captain for the the remaining performances of the season (October 27 - November 8) will be sung by that popular man-about-town TBA.

La Cieca's idle speculation: it should be simple enough to get someone in to sing a single performance of Pinkerton on the evening of October 27, which would free up Roberto di Nazareth. La Cieca's prediction: not bloody likely, but she's been wrong before.

Greeks bearing bids

According to the Guardian Unlimited, the "cash-strapped" government of Greece is scrambling to raise sufficient funds to purchase over $1 million worth of Maria Callas memorabilia at a Sotheby's auction on December 12.

The "voluminous" collection to be auctioned includes "a fabulous array of intimate letters, jewels, evening dresses, furniture, paintings, photographs, unseen stage notes and annotated musical scores released by the estate of Callas's husband, the late Italian industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini." The auction will include a number of items Meneghini purchased at the first estate sale of the diva's possessions back in 1978.

La Cieca's favorite part of this story is the name of the Sotheby's spokesperson: "Esmeralda Benvenuti."

Lassée Come Home

Or, "Fleming Subjugates La Scala." Note the "polite" applause at the end of the performance.

Put our service to the test

The unsinkable (and apparently unflappable) Birgit Nilsson sings what turns out to be an aria from Verdi's Macbeth -- despite makeup design from Valley of the Dolls and a costume recycled from the "Be Our Guest" number in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.


La Nilsson's performance (as awesome as it is!) is only an opening gambit, of course. La Cieca wants to throw the floor open to discussion of last night's Macbeth at the Met.

Princess

Maury D'annato asks "How high does the Simionato role [in Adriana Lecouvreur] lie? Could Podles do it?

Well, judge for yourself. Here's a clip of mezzo Oralia Dominguez singing the Principessa's aria "Acerba volutta."

You tell me

Which Met diva has just vetoed her renascence as a bel canto grande dame? So daunting a role must have given her cold feet, or at least mistle toe.

"Bizarre and nondescript characters corralled from every stratum of society"

La Cieca thanks the visiting Enzo Bordello for pointing out to her some recent updates to the indispensable Met Futures Page so painstakingly maintained by Bradley Wilber. Most of it sound plausible enough, but every now and then a piece of casting leaves La Cieca so stunned she hardly manage to quote a Waldo Lydecker quip. Such is the case with a projected 2009 revival of Adriana Lecouvreur with Maria Guleghina and Jonas Kaufmann.

That show at least seems possible actually to transpire, unlike the new Carmen in 2010. The announced team for the Bizet, which includes Matthew Bourne, Richard Eyre, Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, Barbara Fritolli and James Levine, surely adds up to ten pounds of diva in a five pound bag!

A waist is a terrible thing to mind

Tenor Marcelo Alvarez is seen just after reading a Bloomberg News review of his performance in Luisa Miller at the Verdi Festival in Parma. Was it really all that bad? Well, you decide.

Critic James Amott had nothing but praise for Alvarez's singing, rhapsodizing "Alvarez gave everything, from delicate pianissimo moments to dramatic Italianate wailing. He made the most of the aria 'Quando le Sere al Placido'.''

However (and this is a big however), Amott went on to complain that Alvarez is "falling into the classic singer's trap: a rapidly expanding waistline.

"The myth that great opera singers somehow gain from being fat has been proven false by the likes of Alfredo Kraus, Maria Callas and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Alvarez's size undermines his performance by making his acting look clumsy and comical."

La Cieca confesses she is a bit confused by the mixed signals sent by critic Amott, since later in the review he drools over ". . . Parma Ham and Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese. As you walk down the high street, stick your nose into one of the many delicatessens and you'll never forget that scent."

Now, in the interest of fairness (and La Cieca thinks her cher public will agree that she has always professed an interest in fairness), it should be pointed out that Alvarez was not the only target of Mr. Amott's ire. "Soprano Fiorenza Cedolins, as Luisa, sang beautifully," Amott opines, "but she had an awful hairdo and a frumpy costume, making it tough to see why Rodolfo was so smitten."

Veteran baritone Leo Nucci, one presumes, brought in his own costumier and hairdresser, since Amott has nothing unpleasant to say about his toilette. In fact, the critic calls Nucci "very watchable" and reports that "the audience went bananas" at the end of Miller's cabaletta.

Alagna, Anna again to bed

Of course, cher public, you heard it about it here a few weeks ago, but La Cieca has just read a press release from the Met announcing that, yes indeed, Roberto Alagna will reprise his Roméo opposite Anna Netrebko on December 12 and 15. (Our Own Gualtier Maldè, as you no doubt recall, confirmed the rumor when he spoke to Alagna after Aida on Tuesday night.) The December 15 matinee of Roméo et Juliette is the first of this season's "Live in High Definition" transmissions to movie theaters around the world.

Joseph Kaiser is Roméo on December 8 and 20, and finishing up the batting order will be Matthew Polenzani on December 27 and 31.

Back to the futur

This is what tomorrow looks like: a live opera telecast over the web. It's France 3's transmission of a performance of Il Sant'Alessio performed by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, starring "le contre-ténor à la voix d'ange Philippe Jaroussky, tout auréolé de sa Victoire de la musique d'Artiste lyrique de l'année 2007." Watch it live!

Note, too, that the webcast will be available for on-demand play for the next 24 hours. More information on how that works may be found on France 3's Sant'Alessio mini-site.

Hollanderizing

La Cieca is nothing if she is not open-minded. So can someone please explain (or at least excuse) the following statement from Bernard Holland in today's NYT?

Verdi has a way of testing his singers at the opening curtain. (See also "La Traviata," Act I, Scene 1.)

Santuzza offers a prayer of thanks

"Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense," a specialist on Catholic canon law has explained.

The expert was speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle in the wake of a scandal involving San Francisco's Archbishop George Niederauer and the activist group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. On October 7, Niedarauer delivered the Eucharist to "two men in heavy makeup and nuns' habits."

The Archbishop almost immediately issued a letter of apology to Catholics, but not soon enough to prevent Fox News screaming head Bill O'Reilly from grabbing the opportunity to sneer at San Francisco's "far-left secular progressives who despise the military, traditional values and religion."

Following up on the story, the Chronicle spoke to Rev. Jim Bretzke, professor of moral theology at University of San Francisco, a Jesuit Catholic university.

"The general sacramental principle is that you don't deny the sacrament to someone who requests it," Bretzke explained. "The second principle is that you cannot give communion to someone who has been excommunicated . . . .

"While I can see Bill O'Reilly and others might be offended, the sisters do not meet the criteria the church has for denying Communion. Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense."

Norma Rai

Culminating the month-long Maria Callas mania over at Rai 3, this Saturday the Italian radio network will broadcast a newly restored version ("il cui audio verrà restaurato per l'occasione") of the celebrated June 29, 1955 concert of Bellini's Norma.

Co-starring with La Divina are Mario del Monaco and Ebe Stignani, under the baton of Tullio Serafin. That broadcast should begin at 2:30 PM New York time; everyone else will have to puzzle it out from there.

While this Norma is hardly an "lost performance," currently available dubs of the broadcast are of frustratingly poor quality. Some are pitched incorrectly; others substitute bits of other performances from Callas commercial recordings or other sources. If this Saturday broadcast indeed presents a complete and cleaned-up version, joy will indeed be unconfined.

Oh, and here's a direct link to the Rai 3 player. (La Cieca thanks dear Herman Melville for both the tip and the headline.)

Bobby takes one for the team

So, was last night a triumph or a disaster? Well, it was neither since the role of Radames doesn't play to all of Roberto Alagna's strengths but it was a very fine showing by a distinctive and sensitive artist in a repertory that isn't his natural metier. The evening's biggest triumph was scored by old reliable Dolora Zajick who got the biggest hand at the end. As she should.

Was Alagna overparted or inaudible? Not at all. Really in some ways the role of Radames is easier than Romeo in that the tenor gets some rest here and there as other major characters take the stage, the tessitura is lower and there are intermissions to give the vocal cords a rest. The orchestra is often less dense than Puccini's orchestration in Butterfly and conductor Kazushi Ono was stressing string articulation over brassy blare. Was Alagna lacking in metal and heft for the role? - not really, the top was there (veering sharp occasionally) and the vibrato was wider than it was (but not really too wide and not only in this role).

Oddly enough, despite its reputation as being a "robusto" tenor role, the part of Radames has long stretches of lyrical singing. "Celeste Aida" is a love song, not a call to arms. The Temple Scene is prayerful, the Nile scene love duet is romantic and impetuous. The Tomb Scene also requires lyricism and pianos. I think that Karajan or somebody told Carreras (or was it Pavarotti?) that the only phrase that requires real dramatic declamation is the last phrase of the Nile scene "Sacerdote, io resto a te!".

In the best lyric Radames tradition (think Gigli, Bjorling and Pavarotti - though not quite in their league) Alagna treated "Celeste Aida" as a love song sung mostly mezza voce with a lot of sensitive coloring and phrasing. He hit the final B flat forte and repeated the phrase softly an octave lower as Richard Tucker did for Toscanini.

It helped that he had the most romantic appearance of any Radames since Corelli. In the first scene he was bare-chested (and looking slimmer than he did last year at La Scala) with a gold metallic collar, cape tucked around his shoulders, gold arm bands and leather peplum and gold sandals (not elevator sandals as he wore at La Scala). He looked very sexy with nice pecs with just the right amount of chest hair. The applause at the end of the aria seemed to please Roberto no end and he smiled joyously at the audience and seemed to feel vindicated and happy to have a chance to put last year's disaster behind him.

Then he made the first of a few musical mistakes (understandable given the circumstances) in the duet with Amneris before Aida goes on. (This is the same piece of music that marked his exit at La Scala) Dolora and the conductor got him back on track and things went quite well from there on. Alagna was occasionally covered by Dolora but reached a pretty good balance with Angela M. Brown.

His lack of an easy and integrated piano was a problem in the Temple Scene which was just okay. His contribution to the Triumphal Scene was solid but Radames doesn't have much to do there. The Nile Scene had his biggest challenges and most distinctive successes. Alagna's top carried him well in this scene ringing out reliably though his lower range can get grainy and woolly-sounding. The duet with Aida was full of interesting nuances and verbal expression that many Radames miss or ignore. Here finally he got some nice diminuendos. The final outburst to Ramfis was broad-phrased and ringing with a prolonged final note.

The "Gia i sacerdoti adunansi" duet with Amneris was well-done though Dolora definitely held back a bit for him and both she and Roberto got out of sync with the conductor. The final "A Terra Addio" duet with Angela Brown was some of his best singing of the evening matched by Brown, both spinning out gorgeous piano phrases. He didn't seem tired at the end and gained strength as he went on.

He acted more than most Radames do and he was visually credible as the romantic bone of contention between two passionate women (less so as a warrior and leader of men). However, the role still is two dimensional and more complex, vulnerable heros like Romeo, Rodolfo in Boheme and Des Grieux in Manon show better what Alagna can do as an actor. His timbre is a little odd-sounding in Verdi. It has a white wine quality - a combination of bright-toned forward tartness on the top with a hint of fruity mellowness below that is ideal for French repertoire but a little exotic in standard Italian opera.

The whole performance was a refreshing change of pace from business-as-usual tenor bombast and highlighted qualities in the role that are often missed. Was it ideal?, was it what we are used to? No. But it was interesting and I mean that in a good way.

Ms. Brown has all the vocal attributes of a great Aida but couldn't pull together an even line as she moved from high to low or forte to piano or declamatory to legato. Whenever she had to change pace (which is often in this demanding role) Brown had a momentary loss of vocal control and focus while the voice changed dynamics or register. This meant that unsettled phrases were then followed by swaths of gorgeous tone. But the bumps did take their toll, particularly on the high C in "O Patria Mia" which started to go badly awry and then was truncated.

Dolora was the pro she is and has been for a very long time giving more vulnerable colors to Amneris but still sounding the brass when needed. Dobber had a handsome compact tone and suave phrasing as Amonasro with a nice mahogany finish to the timbre but also needed a bit more bite - Di Luna might suit him better. Kowaljow was sonorous and solid as Ramfis and Reinhard Hagen had a pleasing but somewhat unimposing debut as the King. Ono does better with the orchestra players than he does with the singers and lacks the slancio and dramatic phrasing that Italians have in their blood in this music. He is a very intelligent musician and, once again, this wasn't a routine reading of the score. -- Gualtier Maldè

There's opera outside of New York?

Well, yes there is, and La Cieca apologizes for her recent Manhattancentricity. For example, there's the Liceu in Barcelona where Fabio Armiliato and Daniela Dessì are tearing the place up in Andrea Chenier. (The video is of the distant single-perspective persuasion, which is okay because the production looks sort of like Starlight Express. But the sound clearly conveys the excitement this duo generates onstage.)

Tenor-go-round

La Cieca has just heard that Roberto Alagna will sing his first Met Radames tomorrow night, replacing the ailing Marco Berti. Which means, if you haven't guessed it yet, that Marcello Giordani is jumping into tonight's Butterfly. By the end of the season, Giordani will have five different roles in his Met repertoire for 2007-08: Edgardo, Roméo, Pinkerton, Ernani and des Grieux (Manon Lescaut.)

"Waves of technological euphoria"

Prolific pundit Alex Ross is at it again. The cropped-headed critic's latest New Yorker piece is all about The Well-Tempered Web. (And pity poor La Cieca, who in the wake of all the Alex-related news of late, has had to force herself not ever to use the headline "Call Her Miss Ross.")

When I started stripping they hollered "put it on!"

One of La Cieca's pet peeves (and you know she has so many she has to keep them organized with a spreadsheet), well, anyway, one of La Cieca's pet peeves is that operatic orgies so rarely bear even the vaguest resemblance to orgies in real life. Why, just last week, La Cieca was viewing the Met's DVD of Tannhäuser, and, my dears, what a snooze! If ever a show needed a jolt of HPG, this is it.

Well, anyway, it does seem that finally La Cieca got her wish. Opera Australia just presented a new production of Tannhäuser by Elke Neidhardt. If photographs are to be trusted, Ms. Neidhardt has attended some of the same orgies La Cieca once graced:

Pop-top frocks

New York-based artist Nikos Floros has created an artistic tribute to La Divina herself from 20 thousand beer and soft drink cans for an art exhibition in Athens.

The exhibition includes a sculptural gown inspired by Maria Callas's costume for Iphigénie en Tauride featuring ring-pulls that become a lace-like collar. A kimono sculpture is inspired by Madama Butterfly.


"Today’s temples are supermarkets, malls and department stores," the artist says. "That's where you exist."

Over a period of five years, Floros purchased more than 200,000 aluminium cans of soft drinks and beer and turned them into large-scale sculptures dedicated to La Divina’s spirit, among other things.

"Opera Sculptured Costumes" is on display at the National Bank of Greece’s Melas Mansion through October 19.

Paris tout en fête

Missed the Met's cattlecall for War and Peace supers? Don't worry! All the really cool kids are going to Toronto to be extras in the opera house sequence of Repo! The Genetic Opera, lensing this week.

According to the myspace site of director Darren Lynn Bousman (auteur of Saw II), the production is looking for "200 people to volunteer each day as opera patrons on: WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17 and THURSDAY OCTOBER 18. It is an opportunity to see an amazing cast of renowned artists perform on stage during the making of a feature film .... We're looking for men and women between the ages of 25 and 75, and the wardrobe requirements are tuxedos/black suits for men and formal attire for women."

Bousman promises no pay for the two days' work, but participants are promised glimpses of such "renowned artists" as Paris Hilton, Sarah Brightman and Paul Sorvino, who are featured in the opera house scenes.

Ladies love the lowered larynx

"If Marilyn Monroe was the 1950's' blond bombshell, Grace Kelly was the era's tenor sex -- sleek, sophisticated and above all, cool." -- New York Post

The season begins. Finally.

"The Metropolitan Opera's opening week offered two super-starry nights that more than offset a misfired new production across the plaza at the New York City Opera." After some rather frustrating technical delays, our JJ's reviews of the Met's Roméo and Lucia, plus the NYCO's Cav/Pag, are at last online at Gay City News. (Perhaps at this point they can be read for historical significance, if nothing else.)

Mama, I'm not going to warn you again

As if Tomotaka Okamoto weren't enough, here's another countertenor looming on the horizon: Max Emanuel Cencic. Now, don't get La Cieca wrong. She loves her some countertenors, and she frankly adores how Herr Cenic rocks the tête de peau. She warmly congratulates him on his burgeoning discography and of course wishes him well in his impending Lincoln Center appearance (opposite Philippe Jaroussky!) with Les Arts Florissants.

But, seriously, dude, Moby called and he wants his album cover back.

And while we're on the subject, maybe you should revise your official online bio. Probably, it's just La Cieca, but that last sentence gives her the creeps:

Max Emanuel Cencic started his vocal training in early childhood, appearing publicly for the first time at the age of six. He sang the aria "Queen of the Night" in a television show. Subsequently, Max Emanuel Cencic appeared at several concerts and had guest roles at the Zagreb Opera. From 1987 to 1992, Max Emanuel Cencic was a member of the Vienna Boys' Choir. In 1992, he started pursuing a solo career. By employing a special technique, he was able to continue singing soprano.

Yeah, ow. You know, it's just like, ow.

UPDATE: Since La Cieca first informed her cher public about Mr. Cencic's "special technique," she has received an email from, ironically enough, the lovely and talented Herman Melville. Dear Herman encloses scans of album covers depicting the artist "before" and "after."

Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be countertenors

Comme des garçons

Metrosexual maestro Phillipe Jordan, currently gracing our Gotham at the helm of the Met's Le nozze di Figaro, has been named for the next music director of the Opéra National de Paris, effective with the 2009-10 season. His appointment was announced Wednesday evening at a meeting of the company's board of directors, according to PlaybillArts.

Maestro Jordan is not yet 33, which in conductor years is about 11.

The Paris Opera has been without a music director under the current Gérard Mortier administration since 2004, when James Conlon (now at Los Angeles Opera) departed the post. Since that time, Mortier has used a series of guest conductors, most notably (if that is indeed the correct word) Sylvain Cambreling.

PlaybillArts also spills the beans on an upcoming live webcast by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants of Stefano Landi's 1632 music-drama Il Sant' Alessio, already one of the season's hottest tickets for its Lincoln Center stand on October 29 and 30. The television channel France 3 will transmit the Thursday, October 18 performance of the work, live from the Théâtre de Caen. France 3 Normandy's webcast begins at 19h45 Central European Time (1:45 pm US Eastern Time) with an introductory program (in French only). The performance itself begins at 20h00 Central European Time (2:00 pm US Eastern time ).

Don't let's ask for the moon

La Cieca performs a dramatic reading from The Greatest Opera Novel Ever Written -- and that's merely a curtain-raiser to the second act of Verdi's Ernani, starring Anita Cerquetti, Mario del Monaco, Ettore Bastianini and Boris Christoff, under the baton of that icon of gaiety Dimitri Mitropoulos. Well, what are you waiting for? Go directly to Unnatural Acts of Opera.

Chi vi frena in tal momento?

La Cieca notices there are only a few tickets remaining to the Met's October 25 Lucia, featuring, as if she has to tell you, Stephen Costello's role debut as Edgardo. Don't waste any more time, cher public.

Hunkentenor manqué

In the words of the immortal Leonard Pinth-Garnell, "Monumentally ill-advised!"

UPDATE: The video has, perhaps unsurprisingly, been removed from YouTube. There are a few stills, however, on the tenor's website.

By the way, if you think the costume looks familiar, that's because you've seen it before.

She gets too hungry for dinner at eight

La Cieca's spy backstage at the Met burbles about the most interesting spectacle so far at the new Macbeth: "Maria Guleghina’s rehearsal garb! One day she sported a green spaghetti-strap midriff top (that’s right, she wore a belly shirt), with a sequined crown across her tits."

Noise candy

Worlds collide, or maybe converge, when Alex Ross (right) the New Yorker's classical music go-to guy sits down with Doree Shafrir (not pictured), gawker gossip girl emeritus, for a confab about life, love, Ugly Betty and, of course the long-awaited The Rest is Noise, skedded to drop October 16. Look for the interview in the current issue of The New York Observer. Bad news first: he's married, girls. Sigh! The good news: he owns 13 recordings of Salome, so if you ever should hear Mr. Ross laughing across a crowded room, you'll at least have something in common with him to start the conversation rolling. (It's either that or Donnerstag aus Licht, and believe me, sweetie, you don't want to get him started on Donnerstag aus Licht!)

Someone else does the heavy lifting for a change

La Cieca introduces a new feature on parterre.com, the guest review. First up to bat is longtime print zine stalwart Little Stevie, who saw Lucia di Lammermoor last night.

Take this as you will: based on this evenings performance the new Met Lucia is pretty bad. The acclaimed Ms. Zimmerman simply doesn't know how to direct opera. The chorus work was among the WORST I have ever seen in any theatre - no motivation, and some of the most boring groupings you can imagine - very static. The highly touted "nuanced portrayals" of the principles translates to "can't get the performances past the footlights". As viewed from Parterre Box 12 tonight, my impression was that the relationships were so poorly realized that everyone was acting in their own opera with no connection happening between any of them. Dessay and Giordani hit the mark in the Act 1 love duet, but prior to and after that the opera turned into an emotional black hole.

As each act came about I could feel the performance slipping away dramatically. This was unfortunate for Ms. Dessay's Mad Scene - which was very well sung, with reinstated pages of music new to my ears, and extremely interesting and difficult coloratura tailored to her abilities. If the opera had actually built up to this scene it would have been an experience to remember. The production lets her down, and the scene is an island in a vast ocean of emptiness. You really must experience Act 3 Sc. 1 between Edgardo and Enrico to believe it. Passionless, limp, "cross the stage on this line" type of directing - no conflict, no danger. It played as thought they were an East Village avant garde opera troupe making fun of the structure of the piece in a deconstructionist production. There was barely enough applause to cover the time to black out and raise the scrim (see below) on Sc. 2.

I have read that Ms. Zimmerman traveled with her designers to Scotland to soak up local color and get inspiration for this production. Well the only thing they seemed to have soaked up are several hundred gallons of sea foam green paint, and not a very stage worthy or pleasant shade either. Based on the designs released prior to opening I was expecting darkly foreboding landscapes, expressionistic backgrounds, gloomy yet appropriate spaces. The grassy mound in Act 1 works, yet I couldn't shake the feeling that it was the anorexic sister of the Met's Parsifal set. Act 2 is a deluge of the aforementioned "sea foam green" - from the floor to way up past our site lines - all three walls of the set.

Act 3 is where it really falls apart. Scene 1: Lightning out of your local carnival's "spooky house" housed in a black scrim that materializes into Wolf's Crag Castle thanks to two cutouts at top and bottom with part of the Scene 2 stairs sticking out. Edgardo enters to a bare stage with your uncle's ugly yellow wing backed chair the only piece on stage. Scene 2 was the most confusing - the costumes, giant wooden stairs and balcony (read faux-finished cat walk) seemed to place the scene in the Wild West and looked to be straight out of Miss Kitty's Saloon from Gunsmoke!! Perhaps up close the impression was richer, but from my seat it sure didn't read as Scotland. The Ravenswoods cemetery was a particular embarrassment - 2 or 3 cutout headstones that looked to be supported in the back by 2x4's. Cheap cheap CHEAP!

The singing was OK. Myers (as Normanno in Act 1 Sc. 1) was inaudible when the ensemble was singing, and weak on solo lines. Relyea was wooly and tended to go flat. Giordani was Giordani - very good but just shy of superstar tenor quality. Kwiecien - I wish I could rave - but he has one dynamic - mezzo forte - a short breath line - and was quite cardboard tonight. He also really sang over Dessay in their scenes together. Stephen Costello projected youth, vigor, and a super fine tenor that has alot of ring top to bottom, though the absolute top didn't quite bloom bigger as one might want - but what a fantastic sound. -- Little Stevie

If you would like to be a guest critic on parterre.com, please contact La Cieca. First priority will be given to regular commenters.

We'll need no castles in Spain

Autumn in New York means many things to many people. To some, it's glittering crowds and shimmering clouds in canyons of steel; others reflect upon upon jaded roués and gay divorcées who lunch at the Ritz. To singers it's the height of the allergy and cancellation season.

But to us, the most echt of all opera lovers, autumn in New York heralds the announcement of "The F. Paul Driscoll Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence." Luminaries receiving this accolade for 2007 include Stephanie Blythe, Olga Borodina, Thomas Hampson, Julius Rudel and "retired soprano legend" Leontyne Price.

TFPDAFOAITFOE, or, to use its perhaps less amusing but certainly cumbersome original title "The Opera News Awards," will hold its annual gala reception and dinner at the Hotel Pierre in New York City on Thursday, January 24, 2008. In what La Cieca applauds as a heart-warming effort at outreach to the lesbian community, the ceremony will boast Sigourney Weaver (above) and Susan Graham (not pictured) as co-hostpersons.

Maestrogate

La Cieca is pleased to note that her little soupçon about the maestro's errant email has now made it as far as the New York Daily News. True, it's way down at the bottom of the Gatecrasher page ("Don't Shoot the Messenger"), but, after all, classical music isn't exactly "Pedro and Stifler want to par-tay with YOU!" material, is it?

Pat of butter

La Cieca only knows what she has heard so far on Sirius (i.e., through "Che tua madre"), but, my dears, Patricia Racette is such an improvement over last season's Butterfly! Your doyenne will definitely make another visit to Minghella-land this season.

So, who caught the prima in the house? What's your take? And, those of you listening at home; is La Cieca right or not?

UPDATE: Applause after "ei torna e m'ama!" Well, yes, that is an improvement over last year!

Hunkentenor des jours passés

One of La Cieca's dear colleagues (a Signor Maldè) forwarded some interesting information about this early but definitive example of the hunkentenor.

The name of the gentleman (the tenor, that is, not the informant) was Eddy Ruhl, and he is perhaps best known for his recording of Cavaradossi in the notorious Vassilka Petrova Tosca. A protégé of the legendary Rosa Ponselle, he sang Des Grieux opposite Beverly Sills' role debut as Manon in Baltimore. Ruhl's talent was recognized as early as his teen years when he performed "at functions and concerts for people such as Mrs. Evelyn Walsh McLean (last private owner of the Hope Diamond)."

But, more to the point, according to the a website in tribute to the late tenor, "At one time Eddy Ruhl had been asked to play the role of Tarzan in the motion pictures; however, true to his art, he turned it down and continued singing."

Don't come knocking!

Admittedly, this item is ancient history, but here goes. Which curious, sexed-up Met hunks invaded a star dressing room and immediately got their original instruments a whole lot closer than an octave apart?

Serial monogamy

La Cieca has just heard that Marcello Giordani goes on tonight (i.e., two hours from now) as Roméo at the Met, jumping in for Joseph Kaiser who presumably is ill. That brings the total number of lovers for Anna Netrebko's Juliette to three after only four nights of the 10-performance run. By the end of December, Anna may be giving Elizabeth Taylor a run for her money!

UPDATE: The Met's website (already!) reports on Giordani's "rescue act" and, incidentally, provides a few minutes of the opening night Lucia on video.

The names he used to call me!

Aided and abetted by Noel Coward, the scintillating Mary Martin crosses over into operatic territory.

"Hunkentenor" makes broadcast debut

UPDATE: And now, my dears, we've even reached the AP! (How long before we're on the UP and every other damn P?)

La Cieca's young, young, young friend Maury D'anatto writes: "Too funny, La Cieca: did you coin hunkentenor? Because there was just this intermission interview with Joseph Kaiser that went somewhat off the rails as Margaret Juntwait asked JK if he had heard people call him a hunkentenor, and then through some rather complicated chain of associations, he revealed that he sleeps naked. It was awkward/hilarious."

Well, yes, La Cieca will have to plead "guilty" to coining this suddenly mainstream term; however it is you, cher public, who have catapulted it into the lexicon. Brava, you go on like this!

I cc what you did there

Which world-class maestro is about ready to throw himself off of the roof since he accidentally cced a private email exchange to his entire list of contacts -- including Mrs. Maestro?

The exchange was eventually forwarded to La Cieca, who redacted some of the details for the sake of privacy, and now presents it for your perusal:

-----Original Message-----
From: [Maestro]
Sent: Tuesday, October 2, 2007 05:12 PM
To: [The Maestro's entire contact list!]
Subject: Fwd: OCT4

-----Original Message-----
From: [Maestro]
Sent: Tuesday, October 2, 2007 12:15 PM
To: [Maestro's friend]
Subject: Re: OCT4
Don't take a bag for this short trip ,it will be easier at airport and NO LIQUID in your purse .
When you enter in the ST Regis hotel ,turn left .The FIRST COUNTER on thr left (about 5 meters from thr main door) is the CONCIERGE.I'll leave an enveloppe with an electronic key under YOUR NAME.
THE ROOM NUMBER IS [redacted].
Wait for me in the room .You'l find a bath robe .I WANT TO FIND YOU NAKED when I arrive.

-----Original Message-----
From: [Maestro's friend]
Sent: Tuesday, October 2, 2007 06:11 AM
To: [Maestro]
Subject: OCT4
Did you already arrive at Beijing?
Is it cold in Beijing?
I'm packing now.
I'll visit you on Thursday.
My cell is usable in China. [redacted]
Looking forward to seeing you.
See you soon!
Kisses. M

Retail therapy

In her ongoing efforts to monetize parterre.com, La Cieca has now partnered in a new and unusual way... with amazon.com, that is. The idea is that your doyenne selects products she thinks you, the cher public, will like; these items are then advertised on the site. Whatever purchases you make after click-through will result in a commission for La Cieca. Here's a sample of La Cieca's "must have" recommendations:

Tous les trois réunis

Cecilia takes "the Bartolettes" out for a night on the town.


Now, to be perfectly honest, La Cieca must admit that the above photo is an obvious fake. It's easy to see how in fact it's a composite of two other photos, as seen below:

Whatever happened to Marwdew Czgowchwz?

Ever since everyone's favorite apocryphal diva (with the possible minority exception of Lena Geyer), the oracular Oltrano herself, Marwdew Czgowchwz, vanished across the ocean at a time (time out of mind) that was somehow both 1956 and 1975 and yet neither, La Cieca, like all the rest of you, has reread her first copy of James McCourt's novel to tatters, purchased the sempiternally-awaited reissue, and wondered, wondered... well, after all, what's left for her?

Cher public, we're about to find out. This month, Turtle Point Press releases Now Voyagers: Some Divisions of the Saga of Mawrdew Czgowchwz, Oltrano, Authenticated by Persons Represented Therein, Book One: The Night Sea Journey. This flamboyant followup tells the story of the charged atmosphere surrounding the legendary diva (and possible CIA agent) turned psychoanalyst. According to Publishers Weekly, the novel

resurrects the literary, musical and gay scene of 1950s New York. About half relates to Czgowchwz's 1956 trip across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary with her consort, Jacob Beltane, to Ireland, where she is to star in Pilgrim Soul, a Douglas Sirk–like movie about the Irish revolt of 1916. Much of the rest relates to the Gotham-centered peregrinations of Mawrdew's friend, the gay poet S.D.J. Fitzjames O'Maurigan .... The most stylistically astonishing chapters are intermezzos of conversation caught on the wing at Everard's Bath house, the book's pre-Stonewall place to meet and greet in gay New York.

This fall's must-read is now on sale at Amazon.com.

I mulini di Signa li lascio al cara ... Nicoletta Mantovani!

How sad that Luciano Pavarotti's final role should be Buoso Donati!

Too darn Schrott?

Reactions to last night's Figaro prima? Anyone?

You Shouldn't Be Dancing

Ah, yes, of course La Cieca remembers the 1970s, or bits and pieces of it, anyway. Your doyenne fondly recalls that everyone spent that whole decade coked up and 'luded out, and she's in no position to condemn anyone. But even the hedonistic, anything-goes '70s Zeitgeist cannot explain the following video; specifically, why Franco Bonisolli should believe that Manrico is a long-lost member of the Village People.


Mr. Bonisolli models another look from the International Male collection here.

Opera Queens

A composer I know, a neighbor,
once dropped the electrifying news
that the great Anna Moffo has sung his songs,
and telephones him every New Year's.

Whenever I see him on the street,
scurrying along with music scores
clutched to his chest,
I stop him to ask
if Miss Moffo, as I,
in my utter adoration, like to call her,
has phoned him yet
to wish him a Happy New Year.

But he invariably
dismisses my ultimate goddess
with a flick of the hand,
and switches the subject
to Zinka Milanov --
he accompanied Milanov on the piano
during the years of her retirement
as she coached divas with their vocal problems.
"They all came to her,"
he says, in utter worship,
"and Madame Milanov
told everyone the truth.
When Anna," --
my Miss Moffo is merely "Anna" to him,
in distinction to Milanov,
who is always Madame Milanov --
"When Anna came to her
for coaching,
Madame Milanov asked," --
here the composer's voice purrs bitchily --
"'How old are you, my dear.'
'Fifty-four,' Anna answered.
'My dear," the composer's eyes
search poor Miss Moffo's neck
for wrinkles, her face for evidence
of a face lift,
"we must be truthful
with each other,
or I cannot help you.
Sixty-four?'"
He cackles in triumph,
as Milanov must have cackled
every time she repeated the story,
and goes on to say
that the last time Anna called him
she said she was working on Norma.
"Norma! "
He howls with laughter
at the thought.
My tattered queen....

His latest story
is of Renata Scotto
arriving to ask Madame Milanov for help
in singing the dramatic role, La Gioconda.
"You want to sing La Gioconda?"
purred Madame Milanov.
"Yes," said the reigning diva of the Met,
"it suits my voice."
"My dear," said Madame Milanov,
"Cats are cats
and dogs are dogs,
and you
will
never
sing
Gioconda!"

And with a dismissive wave of the hand,
he sails down the street
gasping
with Milanovian mirth.

-- from A Frieze for a Temple of Love by Edward Field (www.edwardfield.com). His latest, just released, is After the Fall, Poems Old and New (U. of Pittsburgh Press).

Marked Down Woman

La Cieca's old, old, old friend and role model Charles Busch returns to the boards this month in the New York stage premiere of one of his greatest film triumphs, the eponymous matriarch of Die Mommie Die. Busch (who is of course the author as well) stars as Angela Arden, a legendary screen chanteuse bedeviled by adultery, incest, blackmail, murder and the servant problem.

The play is a send-up of those 1960s horror films (sorry, "psychological thrillers") like Dead Ringer and I Saw What You Did, with the added twist that the plot is "borrowed" from the Oresteia. In other words, this is the funniest version of Elektra you're ever likely to see.

Die Mommie Die opens at New World Stages for a limited run beginning October 10, and for an even more limited time you can purchase tickets for this not-to-be-missed theatrical event for only $35.00! To take advantage of this near-felonious discount, Click Here and enter code DMTMC35. You can also phone 212-239-6200 and mention code DMTMC35.

Lyon's share

La Cieca hears the good news that Ruth Ann Swenson has recovered well enough from her cancer treatment to jump into a couple of performances of Maria Stuarda at the Opéra de Lyon this past week.

Voices of Springfield

Placido Domingo stars as "himself" in what looks to be a steamy episode of The Simpsons this Sunday, September 30 on Fox. It seems Homer Simpson is tranformed into a tenor after he suffers a freak head injury (in other words, he's no different from most tenors) and seeks the advice of maestro Domingo. Not about singing, mind you; rather, how to fend of unwanted groupies.

In honor of Domingo's debut in one of the few media he has not long since mastered, La Cieca presents an Unnatural Acts of Opera podcast featuring one of the tenor's most spectacular live performances, Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana from Munich in 1978. Opposite Domingo is the Santuzza of Leonie Rysanek, with none other than Astrid Varnay sinking her teeth into the role of Mamma Lucia.

Mood swings

Only rarely can a writer inspire first violent agreement and then equally fervent disbelief in the space of a couple of short paragraphs, but Kyle MacMillan of the Denver Post can now claim credit for La Cieca's current bipolarity:

Renée Fleming just might be the the world's most undivalike diva. [well, duh!]

Much like, say, Audrey Hepburn, the 48-year-old soprano manages to gracefully balance sophistication and poise with an appealing sense of grounded genuineness. [whaaaaaa...?]

E Susanna vien

La Cieca predicted a cast change earlier, and what do you know, so it came to pass! Soprano Lisette Oropesa will sing the Tuesday prima of the Met's revival of Le nozze di Figaro and at least one more performance. She is jumping in for the enceinte Isabel Bayrakdarian. Ms. Oropesa is not only a member of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program but (even more impressively) she is La Cieca's homegirl since she is a graduate of LSU in dear old Baton Rouge! It should be noted, however, that she and La Cieca matriculated in different centuries.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, Angela Gheorghiu has been fired from Lyric Opera's production of La bohème which is scheduled to open Monday, October 1. Thundered General Director William Mason, "Miss Gheorghiu has missed 6 of 10 rehearsals, including the piano dress rehearsal and both staging rehearsals with the orchestra. She missed one of the most critical stage-orchestra rehearsals when she left the city for New York without permission, a direct violation of her contract." La Gheorghiu was in fact spotted in the audience for the Met's prima of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette on Tuesday night.

The news is somewhat less dire for other members of the Gheorghiu famille. Those of you cher public who missed out on Roberto "Million Dollar Legs" Alagna's stylish Roméo this week may get another chance at seeing his collaboration with Anna Netrebko in the Gounod love story. La Cieca hears that Alagna will return in December to fill the "TBA" slots on the 8th, 12th and 15th, including the broadcast and HD telecast. Matthew Polenzani, La Cieca hears, will take over the role on December 20.

Don't wait up for La Cieca

The regularly scheduled podcast from Unnatural Acts of Opera will be delayed a bit, not really because of "technical difficulties" but rather because La Cieca is getting herself out of the house for once and attending the opera. Tonight it's the seconda of the Met's Lucia di Lammermoor, and your doyenne (squired by Milton Host) will be on hand to take in all the Dessayesque dementia.

Unnatural Acts of Opera will be updated tomorrow night (Friday) with a classic performance of an Italian warhorse, starring a veteran tenor who this very weekend will make his debut in a new medium. La Cieca hopes you are intrigued enough to check back here tomorrow; until then, "Verrano a te sull'aure!"

While we're on the subject of "Lucia"

The stuff you find on YouTube!

Oh the tenor and the cowhand should be friends

According to Rush & Molloy in the Daily News, Annie Proulx has given the go-ahead to an opera based on her story "Brokeback Mountain." Charles Wuorinen will compose.

UPDATE: Now PlaybillArts is confirming the rumor, complete with quotes from Howard Stokar, Charles Wuorinen's agent.

La Cieca would boast that she called it, but alas that was the same posting that provoked Met insider NOT_GAY (well, that narrows it down) to complain that "this flaming, gay personality comes out and everything worthwhile that you wrote loses its meaning." So now it looks like we were both right!

Buzz

Stepdaughter Sieglinde summarizes the critical reaction in blog and print to Stephen Costello's Met debut. No surprises here for La Cieca, who observed equivalent ecstasy in real time during her Monday night online chat:

Repertory riddle

So La Cieca asks: if you're a guy known as one of opera's hottest hunks, who better to choose for a romance than an alluring superstar soprano? It's sure hot when this pair are booked at the same opera house!

Bendel bonnet, Shakespeare sonnet, Mickey Mouse

Maury D'annato: "Isn't there probably some sort of unspoken crypto-paleo-musico-semantic rule governing that baritone=top and tenor=bottom?"

Nel l'occhio tuo profondo io lego il mio destin

There's more (including a trailer for an upcoming Lego Tosca) on YouTube.

The winner and new diva

La Cieca wasn't "in the house" for the Lucia prima last night like so many of her colleagues; instead she hosted perhaps the most popular of all her online chats thus far. Approximately 120 of you cher public logged in at some point during the night, with 75 or so on average staying for the long haul. Say what you will about Natalie Dessay or even Stephen Costello, there was really only one genuine "star is born" moment last night, and here, as dear Mathilde Marchesi would say, is "la nouvelle Melba" --


Our nomination for Camp Diva of the 2007-2008 Season: Miss Blythe Danner!

Another Opening, Another Chat!

Thanks for joining La Cieca for the first online chat of the 2007-2008 season. If you enjoyed the chat, please visit the Amazon Honor System to help support parterre.com.

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now

Struggling downtown artiste Robert Wilson has been rendered homeless since his recent "eviction" from the 6,000 square foot loft he leased since the early 1970s. The space is located in a building on Vestry Street in trendy TriBeCa that's scheduled for demolition to make way for, what else, luxury condominiums. The bereft avante-gardiste has been reduced to "traveling in Europe for work when not staying with friends in New York" but is "resigned to the idea he won't be able to find a new place with as much space," according to Page Six.

Having apparently dismissed the notion of leasing warehouse space in an outer borough (shudder!), the Lohengrin director is divesting himself of a few of the more than 3,000 tchotckes currently cluttering the place, including "20th-century furniture, tribal art, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, contemporary glass, Asian art and contemporary drawings, photographs, works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Man Ray, Frank Gehry, Frank Lloyd Wright, Agnes Martin and Richard Serra." (It's an encouraging sign that even in deepest despair, Wilson retains his protean name-dropping ability.) Selected items will be auctioned on Sunday at tony Philips de Pury.

Wilson, putting his storage problems in perspective, reflects, "It is a tragedy that all this will be destroyed."

"C'est elle ou moi!"

A Met insider whispers to La Cieca, "Don't be surprised if there are changes to the current layout of the 2008-2009 season, especially when one soprano, after what she considers a catastrophic rehearsal process, vowed not work with the director again."

Something to chat about

La Cieca's chat returns Monday night to welcome in the new Met season. Topic of discussion: the evening's prima of the new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, as broadcast on SIRIUS Internet Radio. Please check back on this site after 5:00 pm Monday for a link to the room, which will open at 6:15 pm for the 6:30 start of the opening night performance.

Note that any of you who do not have a current subscription to Sirius can get a trial 3-day pass in time for the Opening Night chat. The event is also broadcast on RealNetworks.

Are any of you cher public attending this Lucia at one of the outdoor simulcasts? If you are, why not bring a laptop along and chat along with the rest of us? It's easy, now that the Lincoln Center plaza has WiFi!

Happy Birthday, Anna Tomowa-Sintow!

Why did I ever buy him those damn long pants?

La Cieca is suffering a mild case of Empty Nest Syndrome this afternoon, since she just found out that parterre.com fave Stephen Costello is all grown up. It turns out that Stephen is the "TBA" who will sing Edgardo (his very first!) in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met on October 25. In this spectacular followup to his scheduled house debut as Arturo next week, Stephen is joined by Annick Massis, Mariusz Kwiecien and John Relyea in a performance conducted by James Levine and broadcast live on Sirius.

In other TBAlicious news, an artistic administrator or two is breathing a little easier this afternoon as the Met has finally announced completed casting for their new production of Verdi's Macbeth -- only a month before the October 22 opening! Maria Guleghina will sing Lady Macbeth in the "Live in HD" January 12 matinee performance relayed to movie theaters around the world. She will also sing the role on January 9 (which had not been previously announced) and on October 22, 26, 31, and November 3 as scheduled. Andrea Gruber will sing the role of Lady Macbeth on January 5 and 15 (which also had not been announced) as well as on the previously scheduled dates of May 9, 13, and 17. The new production of Macbeth is directed by Adrian Noble.

Return to Oz

Teddy Tahu Rhodes stars in the first Australian production of Dead Man Walking.

To which La Cieca can only respond, "Nathan Who?"

Oh! che volo d'augelli

La Cieca's little bird sang true: yesterday it was announced that James Robinson will be the new Artistic Director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Moving on to another story that you heard first from your doyenne, ze bad-boy of ze opéra Gérard Mortier spilled his plans for his first NYCO season yesterday. In 2009-2010 he will offer Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach and John Adams's Nixon in China. Ian Bostridge will slouch into town to headline a production of Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice.

Also in 2009-2010, the Park Avenue Armory and Drill Hall will serve as venue for Messiaen's St. Francis of Assisi. Future commissions include a new Glass opera, plus a work from Bernice Johnson Reagon of Sweet Honey in the Rock. A full account of Mortier's press conference may be found at The New York Sun.

Meanwhile, the intendant's latest effort in Paris, a new production of Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, was not, as they say, taken in with pleasure. The headline for the Musical America review reads "Another Mortier Disaster at the Bastille."

UPDATE: La Cieca just changed the headline for this article (from "Charmant oiseau") to reflect the fact that yet another birdie has opened her little beak, spilling more details of the first year of Mortierie. Further twentieth-century works on the schedule include Vec Makropoulos, Pelléas et Mélisande, and Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, the last of which will be performed by alternating casts at City Center. (Hmm, did someone say Patti LuPone?)

"She runs upstage screaming and then sits on the stairs laughing maniacally" is the new "weeping bitterly, she consents to the horrible bargain"

That's a bit of the description of Natalie Dessay's Lucia mad scene, as dress-rehearsed at the Met earlier today and reported by La Cieca's spy. The complete report (including SPOILERS!) follows:

I'm sure some people will be up in arms over the production. It is set in the mid-19th century. The costumes are decent. Mariusz Kwiecien sounded good although he seemed to oversing at times, but I attribute that too the before noon rehearsal time. At any rate, he sounded amazing. In "Regnava nel silenzio," Zimmerman has an actress appear as the ghost that Lucia sings about. I'm sure some people will get their panties in a knot over it, but I think it was done pretty well.

In the mad scene, the set has a grand spiral stairway which leads to an open hallway which runs the entire length of the stage. Stage left is the bridal room. The top of the stairs is downstage right. Lucia enters wiping the blood of the dagger on her veil and then crosses to the top of the stairs. Just before she sings her first line, she runs down the stairs almost to the bottom of the stairway.

On the lines, "Un gelo me serpeggia nel sen! trema ogni fibra! vacilla il piè!" She slowly slumps to the stairs. She lies down on the step and then, fainting, rolls down the two steps to the stage floor. She eventually crosses downstage to the prompter's box where she sings much of the scene on her back. She sings, "Sparsa è di rose!" after holding up her bloody veil.

Later, she runs upstage screaming and then sits on the stairs laughing maniacally. Between verses of "Spargi d'amaro pianto", a doctor administers a shot (morphine?) which prompts the ornamentation of the second verse. Dessay is completely committed to the stage directions, so it works. I think she sounded good. I wish I had remembered my opera glasses. I was in the family circle.

Sans amis gais

A full account of "A Tribute to Beverly Sills" may be found at PlaybillArts though, curiously, the "photo journal" (from which this image was yoincked, and which includes a look at la Netrebko's more tasteful garb) seems to have vanished into the ether.

Watch out boy she'll chew you up

“Jossie is a wild girl," says a former MetOpera colleague. "You never knew what gutter you’d wake up in when you went out with her." .... As her career began to escalate, so did, by many accounts, her outlandish party lifestyle and behavior. Like Carmen, Pérez moved fluidly from man to man, boasting to colleagues and former schoolmates about her conquests onstage and off. She got a reputation for her mouth, her "independent spirit" and for doing it her way.

Anna Netrebko better watch her back, if this article in Williamette Week is to be believed.

And, my dears, you haven't lived until you've seen the splash page on la Pérez' website!

The new Callas?

Maria and Anna, morphed.

Pregnant with meaning

Expect yet another major cast change at the Met in the next couple of weeks. La Cieca won't spill the details at the moment, but let's just say that the problem is a soprano who got knocked up before the marriage!

Man of letters

Our Own John Yohalem is the subject of a quizzical posting on dishy gawker.com today. Dear John (whom La Cieca likes to call "The Ragin' Pagan") wrote a letter to the New Yorker in response to a mention in an article on Asperger's syndrome. It seems that author Tim Page recalled John's erstwhile(?) habit of scribbling the dates and lineage of the dear Hapsburg dynasty on the walls of the New York subway system and came to the conclusion that he must have ended up homeless or institutionalized! While John is hardly homeless, he certainly can be considered an institution, both on his own blog and here at parterre.com where he is one of our most prolific commenters. (As always, La Cieca will respect her cher public's privacy and will not divulge the relevant nom de plume.) The Gawker writer finishes by warning, "Watch your ass, Alex Ross," a sentiment La Cieca echoes, though not perhaps for the same reason.

Off her Crocker

Assoluta

Sunday, September 16 will mark the 30th anniversary of the death of that most significant of all opera singers, Maria Callas. In honor of the diva, Unnatural Acts of Opera presents one of her rare New York performances, a concert version of Il pirata as performed at Carnegie Hall on January 27, 1959.
Unnatural Acts of Opera

Tony forgot to take the cluephone off "mute" (again)

"And the charismatic, powerful baritone Gregg Baker, a compelling Robert, seems on the brink of a big career. " New York Times, September 13, 2007.

Gregg Baker made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1985, creating the role of Crown in the company premiere of Porgy and Bess. ("Gregg Baker, as the villain Crown, looked magnificent, sang very well, and provided some acrobatic stage fights a light year away from the usual operatic pussyfooting." -- Patrick J. Smith, Opera.) Since then he has sung over 70 performances with the company in roles including Escamillo, the High Priest in Samson et Dailia, Belcore, Donner, Silvio, di Luna and Amonasro. He's a mainstay at Opera Company of Philadelphia, where in addition to Macbeth, Sharpless, Nick Shadow and Jokanaan, he recently sang his first Porgy. Other engagements in the last couple of decades include Glyndebourne Opera, New Israeli Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Stuttgart Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Vancouver Opera, Michigan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Greater Miami Opera, and the Arena di Verona. Prior to his operatic career, Baker toured nationally in The Wiz, Raisin and Timbuktu (opposite Eartha Kitt.)

No answer?

Curiously, the response to La Cieca's challenge to identify the ten "wrong numbers" she reached whilst trying to phone Milton Host has evoked something less than the usual excitement associated with an Unnatural Acts of Opera quiz. As such, your doyenne will make it easy for you by making available an excerpt from the Vestale podcast with just the "riotously funny" bits. So, it's up to you, chers commentateurs: who are all these people?

La Cieca plays phone tag

Flash Mab

The Met's star-crossed revival of Roméo et Juliette has just hit another bump. Nathan Gunn, announced for Mercutio, has dropped out of the September and October performances of the opera due to illness. Jumping in will be baryhunque Stéphane Degout, who performed Mercutio in this production back in 2005. Gunn is still on the cast list for the December portion of the run.

UPDATE: It just gets worse. Rolando Villazón is now off the Met roster for the season. His Roméo performances (December 8, 12, 15 and 20) have been updated to TBA; the tenor's Carnegie Hall recital is also canceled.

Gossip elsewhere on the web suggests that Villazón may be off the stage for as long as a year.

Anything I can do, she can do better

Multifaceted Aprile Millo has branched out into blogging, and her site, operavision, includes some of the smartest online opera commentary La Cieca has seen. Currently she's expounding on Opera in 3D, a fascinating article if you can tear yourself away from the image of Renata Tebaldi shaking hands with an astronaut! La Millo naturally has penned a most moving tribute to her late colleague Luciano Pavarotti and includes some rare video of the legendary tenor (and other great performers, including herself!) on the site. Explore!

"TBA" about to be announced?

A source close to the Met whispers to La Cieca that Maria Guleghina will step into the TBA performances of Macbeth in January 2008 including the HD transmission on the 12th. Your doyenne also hears that la Guleghina has been approached to take over the May performances of the Verdi thriller, currently announced for Andrea Gruber. "The word is that Gelb felt Guleghina was exceptional in the broadcast of Trittico and wants her to build on her prominence at the opera house," our source concludes.

While You Were Out

Your doyenne La Cieca goes it alone on the current podcast of Unnatural Acts of Opera, doing her best to introduce the third act of Spontini's La Vestale starring Leyla Gencer. Co-host Milton Host, it seems, was unable to reach the studio, and so La Cieca attempted to contact him via the telephone.

An unfortunate tangle of crossed wires and a voicemail system from Hell led to, well, quite a bit of confusion. In the course of her fruitless search for cher Milton, La Cieca managed to speak to no fewer than 10 celebrities over the telephone.

So as to transform fruitlessness into fruit punch, La Cieca proposes the following challenge: can you name all ten boldface "wrong numbers" that she reaches in the course of the current podcast? If you can, please email your answers (in the correct order) to [email protected].

The first email received with all the correct names will receive one of La Cieca's widely-coveted gift packages. The podcast may be heard at the usual Unnatural Acts of Opera site or downloaded from the Archives page.

Photo finish at Lincoln Center

The results of the "Must See" poll are in, and La Cieca is declaring it too close to call and therefore a tie: Vanessa at the New York City Opera and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met are now officially the hottest tickets of the fall 2007 season. The complete results of the utterly unscientific poll:

Which opera event in New York this fall is the most promising?

Vanessa (NYCO)	24%	214
Lucia di Lammermoor (Met)	24%	213
Agrippina revival (NYCO)	12%	107
Iphigenie en Tauride (Met)	12%	106
Macbeth (Met)	9%	82
I due Foscari (OONY)	6%	51
Margaret Garner (NYCO)	4%	37
Romeo et Juliette revival (Met)	4%	32
Madama Butterfly revival (Met)	3%	28
L’oracolo/L’incantesimo (Teatro Grattacielo)	2%	15
total votes: 885

A "premiere" tribute

La Cieca's old, old, old friend Ed Rosen of Premiere Opera writes:

In tribute and loving memory to Luciano Pavarotti, I am proud and humbled to present a complete recital given relatively early in Pavarotti's career, 1973. He had just finished the first big step toward super stardom by triumphing as Tonio in Donizetti's Fille du Regiment at the Met, and this was one of his first ever recitals in NYC.

The program for this 1973 recital includes arie antiche; songs by Bellini, Respighi and Tosti; arias by Verdi and four encores. A podcast of the recital can be found on the Premiere Opera podcast site, and Ed adds that he is happy to offer the recital on CD to anyone who wishes to make a donation to any cancer charity. He explains:

Make a contribution, of any size, to any cancer-related charity of your choice. Send us a copy of the receipt for your donation, and we will immediately send you this CD, free and clear of any charge, anywhere in the world. Send the copy of your receipt with your complete name and mailing address to:

Premiere Opera
163 Amsterdam Avenue #275
New York, NY 10023

What's your "Must See"?

Voting is now closed on this poll. The results may surprise you!

Not a comeback, a return!

Fans of red-haired three-named sopranos d'un certain âge will rejoice to hear that at least a couple of the mainstays of the Volpe Era have been asked back to the Met under the Gelb Aegis. (And after all that naughty gossip about firings and buyings-out! Who ever heard of such a thing?) Anyway, not to delay the gratification any longer, La Cieca can reveal that the Titian-tressed trinominates in question are Hei-Kyung Hong and Ruth Ann Swenson.

La Hong was announced only a couple of days ago as a substitute for the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro on October 2, 6, 10, 13 and 18, replacing Dorothea Röschmann "who has cancelled all engagements for three months for health reasons," per the Met's press office. Less officially, Ms. Swenson is rumored for the 2008-09 season as Musetta in La bohème as a followup to next spring's Violettas, which were at one point assumed to be her farewell to the company.

Luciano Pavarotti 1935 - 2007

Tribute to Pavarotti at Unnatural Acts of Opera

Eisen zu pumpen

Here's the original (or, La Cieca supposes she should say, Das Original) of that endlessly-forwarded and endlessly-discussed article about alleged "doping" in the opera world, as published in Die Presse. Now, what catches La Cieca's eye here is the description of the beta blocker whistleblower quoted in the article: "Der Tenor und Bodybuilder Endrik Wottrich."

A Google image search for "Endrich Wottrich" yielded this photo (click to enlarge):

Discuss?

On the cheap

Those of the cher public who want to attend opera on the cheap or who just want to get a jump on the season should check out New York City Opera's Opera for All program. The NYCO is offering three performances this week with all tickets priced at $25: a gala concert on September 6, La boheme on the 7th and Don Giovanni on the 8th. The outreach effort continues during the rest of the season when the NYCO plans to offer "50 or more" orchestra seats to each performance at the $25 price.

What's the use of wondering?

Which stage director fled a rehearsal in tears last week after the prima donna's metamorphosis into a screaming harpy?

Bella è quell'ira, o vergine!

Wow! Who is this Odabella?

As several of you quick-witted commenters have divined, the mystery Odabella is none other than Eva Marton, who performed in Verdi's Attila in 1972. As you watch this YouTube clip of the entire aria, thrill to la Marton's precocious mastery of diva body language!

Where is style? Where is skill? Where is forethought?

Yes, another YouTube posting, but this one is something very special indeed. Legendary Zarah Leander is seen in a few moments from her 1975 triumph as Madame Armfelt in Das Lächeln einer Sommernacht (A Little Night Music) at the Theater an der Wien. La Leander also cavorts about a studio, lipsynching a medley of her hits with Les Boys. Once she lights up the cigarette, doesn't she look exactly like Bette Davis doing a musical version of The Little Foxes?

Sheep may safely graze (or maybe not)

There's some bit of information that La Cieca's missing in this story, or maybe it would be obvious to readers in the "This is Wiltshire Network." But here goes. "Yet another" rural opera festival in Britain (this time, in "Somerly Park," which is where La Cieca imagines the Maggie Smith character lives when she's not sponging on her in-laws in Gosford Park) has been canceled due to renewed fears of "the foot and mouth crisis."

Yes, yes, of course La Cieca knows that "foot and mouth" is an infectious disease of domesticated animals. What she misses is why people can't go to an outdoor opera because of it. Anyway, here's some of the story in question.

Marketing director for the [Somerly Park] estate, Rosalind Nott, said . . . "We're stuffed but there's nothing that we can do.

"We are hugely concerned about the number of people who will turn up on the night."

She stressed that there are over 1,000 sheep on the site and that they are "all over the park".

"When you have livestock you've got to protect them at the end of the day when we've got people arriving from all over the place.

"We all remember the last time it happened."

. . . . A spokesman for The Garden Opera said: "Obviously we are disappointed with the cancellation given the work that has been put into the event but we understand the seriousness of the reasons for cancelling the event."

Well, actually, that's the problem: La Cieca really doesn't remember the last time it happened and so she can't quite grasp the seriousness of the reasons. Anyone care to explain to her what's the danger here?

On a lighter note, devotees of high culture can rest easy that at least some of the events of the Romsey Show are going forward. Although the "display of sheep and cattle" is canceled (this La Cieca understands), Romsey Show secretary Annie Carder assures us that Wiltshire may still enjoy "the food show, helicopter displays, Titan the robot and, thanks to our president this year, Lawrie McMenemy, Saints in the Community coaching sessions."

Hedge fund

Congratulations to NYT writer Michael Kimmelman, whose post-mortem on Katharina Wagner's Bayreuth Meistersinger contains a sentence that beats all world's records for running, standing and equivocation:

The approach is not, in the abstract, without merit, Beckmesser having always seemed a proto-Jew to Wagner, awaiting modern redemption; the opera’s end comes across as the screed it always seemed.

La Cieca leaves it to her cher public to debate whatever ideas might be teased from this morass of weak passive voice; she'll get the ball rolling by asking, "What exactly is a 'proto-Jew' and what qualities of the character of Beckmesser would tend to make him "seem" proto-Jewish?"

(More on Kimmelman's column over at Sounds & Fury.)

Metallica

1962: "Il compositore Joseph Kosma ... ha composto un'opera con musica elettronica, rappresentata a Berlino, in cui viene cantato l'amore di una donna per un robot." (Thanks to A7Sogno for sending this clip!)

Microgroovy

That utterly addictive web presence Vinyl Divas has just updated their fascinating, wide-ranging collection of operatic LP covers with high-quality scans of albums featuring every opera lady you've ever heard of (and more than a few you haven't.)

The latest set runs the gamut from Alla Ablaberdyeva (performing Bach, Purcell and Handel with the assistance of the intensely bearded Alexander Fiseisky and his massive organ) to Virginia Zeani (rocking a hot-pink cocktail dress and Jackie Kennedy flip for a Verdi/Puccini recital.)

UPDATE: Although the Vinyl Divas site does not include any sound clips to complement the dizzying collection of album covers, La Cieca thought you might enjoy a sampling of late '60s crossover at its best. Ferocious Felicia Weathers is heard in a psychedelic single:

Up, Up and Away!

Flame on

Tending the sacro fuoco this week at Unnatural Acts of Opera will be that priestess of the primo ottocento Leyla Gencer. The diva sings the title role in Spontini's La Vestale in a performance from Teatro Massino di Palermo, December 4, 1969. Ferando Previtali conducts, and the young Renato Bruson is heard as Cinna. Also in the company: Robleto Merolla (Licinio), Agostino Ferrin (Il Sommo Sacerdote), Franca Mattiucci (La Gran Vestale), Enrico Campi (Un Console) and Sergio Sisti (Un Aruspice).

For those of you in a more contemporary mood, Unnatural Acts of Video presents Denise Duval in one of her Poulenc specialties.

Rose Bampton, 1908-2007

The American dramatic soprano is heard in the final scene of Daphne (R. Strauss) in a performance from Buenos Aires, 1948. Set Svanholm is Apollo; Erich Kleiber conducts.

Rose Bampton sings Daphne

Geh! Geh!

This just in: you know who else was schwul? Herbert Janssen!

Kaiser's role

La Cieca has just learned that tenor Joseph Kaiser will make a "surprise" Met debut October 3, singing the role of Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. He will also sing performances on October 6 and 11, replacing the ailing Rolando Villazón.

Kaiser stars as Tamino in Kenneth Branagh's film of The Magic Flute and will reprise this Mozart role later in the Met season. He appeared as Narraboth in Lyric Opera of Chicago's Salome last season, a performance about which the always reliable David Shengold wrote, "The most consistently satisfying vocalism came from Joseph Kaiser, a young tenor on the brink of stardom . . . he sang the challenging high phrases with clarity and shine."

Isn't it ironic?

BTW, this film is called La donna più bella del mondo, and it's very loosely suggested by certain events and characters in the life and legend of Lina Cavalieri. (In other words, it's utter and pure fiction.) But anyway, la Cavalieri is portrayed by Gina Lollbrigida, who certainly lives up to the title "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World."

It's not clear whether la Lollobrigida does her own singing in this movie. But here's an example of what the real Cavalieri sounded like. And here's more of Gina as Lina.

E sempre Laura!

Our new correspondent Miss Laura Hope Cruisey finishes her report from Santa Fe.

Everywhere we look there is Nicole Cabell – so exotic! Wow! Very interesting looking woman; and her new arias CD is the most advertised classical record around, and it is getting good reviews. She was kind of a Mrs. Obama on stage as Musetta – slap them men around and tell 'em off! Boy, I want her on my side! And if you want high B-naturals, she’s your gal.

Only problem is, when she’s not above the stave, she isn’t. Musetta's little prayer in Act IV disappeared under the orchestra (as you know there is virtually no orchestra at that point). Miss Cabell, who has a huge mouth and beautiful teeth, is big in the recording studio, and not so big otherwise. Better direction might make her a better artist. Why do I think she needs to go back to the vocal studio and sing a lot of Mozart?

Other ladies: Keep your ear cocked for Katharine Goeldner, a really "together" package of solid mezzo voice, nice looks, excellent stage demeanor; she’s the real thing. Be aware of Susanna Phillips; tall, nice shape, from Alabama, and a spritzy, big lyric soprano voice that knocked the spots off Fiordiligi vocally, perhaps not otherwise – but there was that conductor problem.

The second cast of La bohème boasted a Mimi from Lucca, Italy, one Signora Serena Farnocchia. Not bad; and I was so grateful for her understated death scene. No histrionics, she just – died. Nice to hear Puccini in its native tongue. Maybe a little passagio problem with Sra. F., but I'll not be picky. Also interesting was a nice looking young man named Alexander Vinogradov who has a lovely warm bass voice. He was too young to sing Colline, but the audience let him get away with it and so will I.

Later: I have had lunch and I ate some posole with a lot of green chile to make my tongue sharper. Here goes: I have to talk about Jean-Philippe Rameau's comedy ballet, Platée. Surprise! It was the best (only?) show of the summer! M. Laurent Pelly, designer-producer from gay Paree, was the hero of the piece and he made it a romp, an intelligent one. You know the story about a "romance" between Jupiter and the frog-lady Platée, that really didn’t happen tho' she thought so? It’s silly stuff, and without a clever tenor to drag the female frog role you are in trouble.

Happily Santa Fe had Jean-Paul Fourchécourt, a whiz of a comic actor. Singer? Hell, Ira Siff can sing the notes a lot better; frankly I wondered why they didn't cast a counter tenor in the part? But, then, he/she has to be funny, and little M/M Fourchécourt surely was that. What an impressive, giving performance! I want to hear him again, but I can’t think of a role; maybe more French baroque?

A Liverpool limey named Harry Bicket (who conducts in all the big houses), was a whiz-bang music director for the Rameau. It was long, loaded with dance numbers, male near-nudity and all kindsa stuff, and was a damn good show. Too bad you missed it.

Well, that’s a hop-skip-'n-jump thru the Santa Faux season! I omitted a lot of detail, but this is already too long. Was this the worst season SFO has had in a very long time? Some have been saying that. Lots of talk around Santa Fe about the retirement of General Director Richard Gaddes, long associated with SFO, and much in the mould of founder John O. Crosby; yet he leaves after seven years. He just hired Edo de Waart as chief conductor to run the orchestra. Alan Gilbert, whom New Yorkers have heard a lot about lately, and who is just announced to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera next season (Dr. Atomic), left SFO at the end of last year. What IS going on? The new theatre is lovely, the money is plentiful, it’s summertime and the living is easy.

I’ll ask La Cieca’s distinguished readership a fantasy question: Should the SFO board make a deal with the San Francisco Opera board to take over and run Santa Fe as a satellite company, and meld their two distinguished young artists’ programs and shift the management away from New York (whence SFO has always been run) to The West? Think about it! And remember, you heard it first here (or did you?)

Tennis balls

A Faithful Reader writes:

"Went to the closing performance of Deuce today and during one quiet moment I thought I heard a familiar snore. Sure enough, as I was leaving, there was Lois, wakened by the ovation . . . .

"I'm sure she was headed back to get autographs as she was looking in her purse for what I assume was her pen."

Estivation at high elevation

La Cieca's Gal-pal del Golden West, Laura Hope Cruisey, sounds off on Santa Fe, 2007.

Can we talk like this? Has Carl Rove turned off the reel-to-reel, before he turned out the lights? Well, since the New York Times seemingly did not cover the Santa Fe Opera Festival 2007, somebody’s got to say what happened ("Ah got plenty o’nuttin..."), just for the record.

No! I am not going to say, "Not my cup of tea." I shall not exclaim, "Weak tea!" Both have been done. How about: "No tea?" That’s more like it, anyway. Yep, this Tan Dun musical hooligan is at it again, pushing off something called Tea: A Mirror of Soul, on those innocents in Santa Fe (having swept through Europe and New York), causing them to hire a bunch of Chinese stage folk and even some singers from Over There to make it all seem genuine oriental opera. I guess y’all know about The First Emperor hoo-hah at the high-cost, high-end Met last year.

Well, more of same this summer out in the lovely New Mexico mountains. Lots of color, lots of people singing high and low, lots of Mysterious East touches with round doors and peony decor and water and stones and paper, and Asian ladies and gentlemen wandering thru the countryside looking for “The Book of Tea.” They find it but the girl reader dies and the male reader goes home and drinks from an empty bowl of tea.

This is true! I mean that is actually what happened. It was accompanied by lots of tinkly-thwacky-gurgly noise and stuff, and a big orchestra pumping out yards of movie music background, and that was all she wrote. Or he, Tan Dun wrote. You know, who is the more foolish? The opera company that pays to do this stuff or the people who give the opera company money? Exactly the same question they are asking about Miss Kitty Wagner in Bayreuth right now. End of non-opera. Next.

Così fan tutte. This is not going to take long. It was the 2004 production by Colorado’s Big Star, Jim Robinson, but with a lesser cast, a far worse conductor and much-much-much more shtick. Boys come on stage during the overture, you know by Mozart, and they are in their boxer shorts. They are all young and handsome (of course, they are Santa Fe Apprentices), and they are having their physical exam in order to enroll in “The School for Lovers!” Get it? As the overture ends, the lads are gone and Big Jim Robinson’s “take” on what was once Mozart’s Così fan tutte begins. Three long hours later it is over. An evening of vaudeville and slapstick.

The tenor is cute, has no top voice; the soprano has a luscious voice, little personality, no direction; the Dorabella is a doll and she needs to go right back to the Met whence she came; she’s wasted here! The Despina was an old bat who probably did the best opera performance of the evening, including at one boggy moment setting the tempo by waving her arms when the maestro seemed to have gone to sleep. I could go on, but I wont. I vowed when undertaking (pun intended), this assignment I would not name names, but this one time I shall: William Lacey conducted and I hope I never hear him again, ever. Pfui!

It was Fat Tenor Summer. Well, OK, I will name names: Dimitri Pittas sang Rodolfo in the Puccini show; some say he has gained 40 lbs over the last two years; I think it is only twenty. Well, last summer as Narraboth he was tending toward the porcine, but wore an old-timey Biblical gown. This summer he was wearing 1920s clothes and he truly looked like a sack of potatoes (as one noted critic described him). Not a bad face; nice black Greek hair. And a truly lovely tenor voice; tad short on top but he handles it well. What is he, 30? Time for that upper extension to grow, and if he can manage to reduce down below and get his act together he could have a good career. He is well schooled, good with text and seems smart. But since when does smart mean that tenors keep their weight under control? Listen, Bud, if Debbie can do it, so can you!

Let’s not ask Gary Sorenson, however, who essayed the role of Leukippos in Richard Strauss’s longueur known as Daphne. I guess Santa Fe is sort of stuck with Daphne; they did the American debut many years ago, so in place of Ariadne or Capriccio – two really good shows – they do this one-act turkey. The music IS lush, you all know that, but no hit tunes or leitmotivs. The tenor writing is impossible; poor Sorenson – nice small light voice, very pretty for Bach or maybe Haydn. When he could be heard the sound was lovely and he has a sweet face; he is otherwise a Chrysler 300.

Another tenor, not quite so hefty and some years senior to Gary, named Scott MacAllister, as Apollo, operative largely in Europe (as in the Venice Daphne two years ago with June Anderson, seeable on DVD), saved his voice for the moments when the orchestra was not so loud (canny guy, this!), and we got some idea of sound and words. Not a lot. Boring performance, did not look his part. Ditto the costumes; no color, no nothing.

In the "June Anderson" role was a sweet young thing born in Calgary, Alberta named Erin Wall. Big voice, kind of English-sounding, you know, very forward and a little "hard," but lots of top. Monochromatic bright; worked hard on piano tones, did not always make it, but I'm sure she’ll get it all right one day very soon. A remarkable young woman named Meredith Arwady sang Gaea, Daphne’s mother, one of the lowest-lying roles in the repertory, and she boomed out the bottom octave like the lady-bass he is. Remarkable. She is the Erda of tomorrow. I guess there were others; I don’t remember. Unit set. Tree. Curtain. I know, you think I am dismissive. It’s true. -- LHC

Miss Cruisey will be back later this week with her take on La boheme and Platée.

Mezzo replacement

Kitty: I was reading a book the other day.

Carlotta: Reading a book!

Kitty: Yes. It's all about civilization or something, a nutty kind of a book. Do you know that the guy said that machinery is going to take the place of every profession?

Carlotta: Oh, my dear, that's something you need never worry about.

Dinner at Eight, 1933

Rocky Mountain low

UPDATE: A source at Opera Colorado informs La Cieca that there is in fact no exodus currently in progress from the company's costume shop. La Cieca apologizes for the confusion.

Earlier, La Cieca reported that her "mile-high informant" whispered that "Colorado Opera's entire costume department just quit in a huff. Or was fired in a huff." Apparently La Cieca was either misinformed or else misunderstood the tip she was given.

In any case, we continue with the latest installment of News of the Hard to Believe. America's Singing Slab Nathan Gunn is quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying, apparently with a straight face, "To be honest, I don't think that much about how I look."

No, John von Rhein wasn't buying it either.

Gayest thing ever ... then and now

Neither is opera-related, but La Cieca just can't help herself.




Nothing really changes.

He will be their tootsie-wootsie

A little bird high in the rarefied air of the Rockies informs La Cieca that James Robinson "will be named come September as the new Artistic Director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, a post held until this Spring by the late and laudable Colin Graham."

Robinson is perhaps best remembered here in New York as the guy who knocked up Lucia di Lammermoor.

UPDATE: In a press release embargoed until 5 p.m. Thursday, Opera Colorado announced Robinson's resignation as Artistic Director to assume "a new position at another American opera company but [he] declined to discuss the specifics as a courtesy to that company until their official announcement next month."

Opera Colorado's President and General Director, Peter Russell is also resigning. Stepping up to the plate will be Greg Carpenter, currently Director of Development, as the company’s Executive Director.

Sai quale oscura opera laggiu si compia?

In fact, the opera is anything but obscure. But the performance has been seen only rarely since 1956.

Bobby, come on over for dinner

Roberto Alagna will jump -- no, not into the swimming pool, but rather into the first two performances (September 25 and 29) of the Met's fall revival of Roméo et Juliette, replacing Rolando Villazón who has withdrawn due to illness. The Met's press office officially announced Villazón's cancellation today, though regular parterre.com readers knew all about it last week. The role of Roméo remains TBA for the performances on October 3, 6 and 11; Villazón remains on the roster for the winter stint of performances including the HD simulcast.

"The muse was definitely not in attendance"

The delightful and greatly missed Madeline Kahn explains how she almost became an opera singer.



The complete version of this 1985 Opera Quiz, also featuring Kitty Carlisle Hart and Charles Nelson Reilly, can be found on Veoh. com.

Villazón out for two months, at least

As La Cieca whispered earlier this week, Rolando Villazón is going to cancel at least the fall portion of his Met Roméo engagement. This morning PlaybillArts.com says the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting a statement from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that the tenor is "ill and has been instructed by his doctor to cancel all performances for the next two to three months in order to make a complete recovery."

In happier news, Anna Netrebko's lissome larynx seems to be healing nicely, thank you. The diva (reports PlaybillArts) plans to go ahead with a four-city German tour this month, albeit minus partner Villazón. Subbing opposite the soprano in various venues will be Marcelo Álvarez, José Cura and Ramón Vargas.

Kunst overload

Nelly Miricioiu sings the second act of Roberto Devereux plus the finale of Rossini's Ermione in the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera. Representing the German wing, Martha Moedl is seen in a rare television appearance, performing Lieder by Wagner and Wolf, discussing her career, and performing a scene from Mahagonny. It's all at Unnatural Acts of Opera.

Escalator to Obscurity

From the 1983 public access TV show "Stairway to Stardom," a singer with a fabulous name, Giuseppe Taormina. You know, a name like that is very hard to live up to, and, what do you know, live up to it he doesn't.

Wherefore?

La Cieca hears that Rolando Villazón, who recently canceled his Salzburg Festival appearances citing "long-term illness" ("einer längerfristigen Erkrankung"), may pull out of the Met's fall revival of Roméo et Juliette as well. The tenor is scheduled for five performances of the Gounod opera between September 25 and October 11, followed by another four in December. Matthew Polenzani has already been announced for the final two performances of the run including the New Year's Eve gala. The matinee performance of Saturday, December 15 is scheduled for HD simulcast with Villazón and Anna Netrebko.

Singing is the lowest form of communication

In what La Cieca chooses to believe is a warmup for the title role of Simon Boccanegra, Plácido Domingo will appear as "Himself" on an episode of The Simpsons to air in the fall of 2007. According to PlaybillArts, the tenor/maestro/intendant will figure into a storyline concerning Homer Simpson's midlife career change to singing opera. (Hilarity surely will ensue.)

Longtime fans of Domingo will recall his duet with Miss Piggy of the Muppets and the running Sesame Street character "Placido Flamingo."

The image of Mr. Domingo at right was created at Simpsonizeme.com.

Royal, with cheese

Which one of these things is not like the others?

[Nathan] Gunn is part of a new generation of performers, including Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, British soprano Kate Royal and Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez, who have helped fuel a debate about the physical attributes of opera singers.

Once again, La Cieca's Rule of Journalistic Insularity* applies: if there's a singer you never heard of, and yet she's being talked about as if she were a household name, chances are she's British. (* Sometimes called "the Jill Gomez paradigm.")

The source of this odd paragraph is a Reuters article about Gunn's chiseled physique. Apparently he also has a CD coming out or something.

As for Ms. Royal, she does exist (she recently signed with EMI Classics) and, oh yes, the homeboys do adore her. "We have cricket. We have strawberries and cream. And we have the English soprano. She’s a rare breed, but instantly recognisable: aristocratic bearing, a golden, elegant voice, an eye for textual detail and a magnetic stage presence. Kate Royal fits the bill perfectly." -- Neil Fisher, The Times. And what of La Royal's future? Only time will tell whether she blossoms into the next Dame Felicity Lott or suffers the humiliation of being merely "another Amanda Roocroft."

Anna's turn

The latest participant in the "Am I the Casta Diva Type?" competition is the lovely Anna Netrebko. Here, from a concert on July 28, is her first public performance of the Bellini aria.

Anna Netrebko sings "Casta diva"

Comments?

Pool boy

It's the Roberto Alagna workout!



(Via Parsifal's)

Ou sont les podcasts d'antan?

Update: beginning tonight on Unnatural Acts of Opera (2007 edition), a return to Italian opera, with one of today's most controversial cult divas starring as (what else) a conflicted queen. Nelly Miricioiu sings the role of Elisabetta I in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, in a 2002 performance from the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

La Cieca has now updated the feeds or whatever it is for the archived 2005 and 2006 episodes of Unnatural Acts of Opera. You can download these episodes in iTunes by clicking on 2005 or 2006. Your iTunes application will automatically launch and you can start listening within seconds.

For those using other podcatchers, you will need the RSS information for 2005 and 2006.

And for those of you who just want to hearken back to the golden age of unnatural acts, you can launch a player for 2005 or 2006 and listen while you continue your browsing.

A quick reminder: like NPR, Unnatural Acts of Opera is supported by your generosity. Won't you visit the Amazon Honor System and help out?

2005 podcasts are back!

In response to overwhelming listener demand, La Cieca is making the older Unnatural Acts podcasts available through RSS subscription. We begin with the first season, 2005. The RSS address for this season's podcasts is http://parterre.com/podcast/2005_archive.rss. La Cieca will update the iTunes podcast directory later this evening so you can subscribe to the archive there -- check back in this space tonight for details. Meanwhile, you can click on the photo of La Cieca to launch a player with the entire 2005 repertoire.

Questo popoloso deserto

As if opera weren't dead enough already, this latest news is sure to finish pounding the stake through its heart. Paris Hilton (strike one!) has been signed for a leading role in the film version of Repo! The Genetic Opera. In this futuristic musical fantasy, La Hilton plays the daughter of organ-transplant tycoon Paul Sorvino (strike two!). The film is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, best known for helming sequels in the Saw horror series (strike three!) Ms. Hilton, interviewed at an event called "Feed the Models, Save the World," commented, "I've been rehearsing every day—seven hours a day. We're just in the studio. We're doing dance and singing. We go shoot next month in Toronto."

Le belting

Régine Crespin does her "New York has neon, Berlin has bars" routine on a French variety TV show "Palmarès des chansons" circa 1967. She sings her version of one of the greatest hits of the evergreen entertainer Mistinguett, the chanson "C'est vrai!".

A video excerpt of this performance (featuring Mme. Crespin "entourée de danseurs avec plumes") may be found on the Place aux Chansons website.

Dutch treat

To wind up this summer's Wagner festival on Unnatural Acts of Opera, La Cieca plans to play the composer's first "canonical" opera, Der Fliegende Hollander. But which live performance, she wonders. That's where you come in, cher public. La Cieca lists below a selection of exciting live Hollanders, and you get to vote on which you would most like to hear. Voting will be open until 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 28, at which time La Cieca will declare a winner and proceed to post the performance.

UPDATE: Voting is now closed, and the winner is the 1955 Knappertsbusch performance from Bayreuth. Here is the final tally:

Be sure to listen in to this special "democratic" edition of Unnatural Acts of Opera.

Judgment at Nuremberg

Well, this is what La Cieca gathers from Katharina Wagner's production of Die Meistersinger (without, of course, having had the benefit of actually seeing it!)

KW's basic idea is that Great-grandfather Richard presented an overly optimistic view of the dramatic action of the opera. Walther is taught by Hans Sachs to moderate his radical musical ideas by adopting traditional forms; that way his music can be understood by his audience. KW sees this compromise as a sellout, so she depicts the climactic singing contest satirically, as an "American Idol" hypefest.

Walther basically grows out of his rebellious phase (e.g., splashing white paint all over the church in Act 1) and becomes just another bourgeois mastersinger. Sachs is played as an aging hippie type who also cleans up his act for the sake of popularity and respectability.

Meanwhile, Beckmesser the pedantic marker is transformed radically by the experience of the Act 2 riot. Depending on your point of view, he is either driven mad or else he has a profound spiritual awakening. The text of Walther's song that he filches for the competion is on a ripped-up sheet of paper, so his performance at the contest is nonsensical and the crowds laughs at him. And yet to him the song is the purest, most genuine music he has ever created -- but nobody else will ever be able to appreciate it. In a way he has become the radical artist that Walther aspired to be.

[La Cieca's earlier remark about Beckmesser appearing nude in Act 3 was mistaken; she apologizes.]

Now, it is safe to say that this is probably not the meaning Wagner had in mind when he wrote Meistersinger, and it is even a reasonable bet that this meaning is at best extremely difficult to convey through this particular text and music. Now, La Cieca doesn't know much about these things, but as she understand its, part of the current Regie philosophy is that a canonical work like Meistersinger is so utterly familiar to the audience that there is no point in performing it "straight," that you have to try to find something new to say through the work. Whether you believe in this philosophy or not (your doyenne is on the fence), you can perhaps agree that it is meant to be a serious way of approaching the work, not a frivolous one.

Another point is that historically the first year's iteration of a Bayreuth production is expected to be an imperfect first draft; the artistic team are expected to do major revisions for the second year's run, based on what they are suppposed to freely regard as the mistakes of the first year. So really we'll have to wait until 2008 for the finished version of the youngest Wagner's vision. (Does anyone know if there are plans to telecast this production? The bits seen so far on video look as if it would adapt well to TV presentation.)

The critics rave, or at least they make loud noises

A few selections from The Opera Critic, demonstrating that great minds do not always etc. etc. That is, assuming you believe that British critics count as "great minds."

Das Traumboot

Bayreuth scion-apparent Katharina Wagner's production of Die Meistersinger opened yesterday at the Festspielhaus.


As you can see, this production is rather curiously cast with David Beckham as Walther and Aprile Millo as Eva.

Oh, well, all right, La Cieca must have her little joke, you know. The tenor is in fact Klaus Florian Vogt, whom many of you heard sing Lohengrin at the Met back in 2006, and, if this photo is anything like accurate, is indeed the "Traumboot" above referenced.


Now, be honest, cher public. If you saw this fellow approaching on a boat, would you even notice that it was drawn by a swan? No, La Cieca didn't think so.

Oh, and of course, that's not La Millo up there with the paint-spattered decolletage. More's the pity, La Cieca must say, because surely if it were Millo singing the soprano part in the quintet, it would be more nearly in tune than this snippet from the Generalprobe.

For those of you interested in Ms. Wagner's Konzept, here's a feature from German TV.

All about Ewa

Our editor JJ's review of the Caramoor concert performance of Il trovatore (featuring Ewa Podlés as Azucena) is in the current issue of Gay City News. And for those of you who long for the gay stereotypes of yore, please note that this opera review is currently the most popular story on GCN's site, beating out items on Ben Affleck, Adam Sandler, Barack Obama, and even Jim Naugle, the mayor of Fort Lauderdale!

Wayback machine

To while away the tedious time of waiting for the next season of Metropolitan Opera HD transmissions, here's a montage recalling the first two decades (1977-1998) of "Live from the Met" and "Metropolitan Opera Presents" telecasts:



This YouTube video originated on the MetManiac site back in 1998.

She got through all of last year and she's here

More proof (as if any were needed) that 70 is the new 50: "Viva la Diva: Gala zum 70. Geburtstag von Grace Bumbry." The concert (performed at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival on July 17 of this year) featured the septuagenarian siren in a demanding program of arias and scenes from Aida, Ernani, Les Troyens and the complete third act of Tosca!

La Cieca offers her cher public a pair of Querschnitten from this historic concert:

"Ritorna vincitor!" from Aida

"Ah! Je vais mourir" from Les Troyens

Don't ax, don't tell

"...the veteran dramatic soprano Gwyneth Jones, who, at the age of seventy, has lost remarkably little of her decibel capacity, made a comic tour de force of the Queen of Hearts. Memories of Jones’s Elektra at the Met added an aura of menace to her antics; when she sings, 'Off with their heads!,' you stroke your own neck a bit nervously." Alluring Alex Ross reviews Unsuk Chin’s opera Alice in Wonderland in the current New Yorker.

Dame Gwyneth and underling in Alice in Wonderland. Photo by Wilfried Hoesl.

Swiss miss

The nice people at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland cannot be happy about last minute changes to this past weekend's concert schedule caused by late cancellations by James Levine and Renée Fleming. Maestro Levine, advertised for concerts on July 20 and 22, tendered his regrets on July 16, noting "My doctors have strongly advised me not to travel but to stay calm and collect my energies." Also collecting her energies (or whatever) was La Fleming, who pulled out of the the July 22 performance on four days' notice, i.e., July 18.

Barbara Bonney emerged from a mysterious year-long hiatus in her career to substitute for Fleming at the July 22 gala, where she sang the soprano part in the Mozart Requiem in d minor. The other soloists, all thankfully enjoying robust health, were Anne-Sofie von Otter, Kenneth Tarver and René Pape. In lieu of Ms. Fleming's art song portion of the program, Thomas Quasthoff performed Schubert lieder. Wielding the baton for this program and the July 20 opener was Manfred Honeck, future Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Teresa Stich-Randall 1927-2007

The American soprano, whose voice Toscanini called "the find of the century," died Tuesday in Vienna.

She is heard here singing "Crudele... Non mi dir" from a 1960 performance of Don Giovanni.

Teresa Stich-Randall

Good Saturday

As if the third act of Parsifal were not enough for a single podcast, La Cieca and her sidekick Milton Host are surprised in the studio by a visit from The First Lady of the American Musical Theatre. Eventually TFLOTAMT has to leave the studio to prepare for her evening performance, and Milton and I can finally get on with the Wagner. It's a 1964 performance from Bayreuth featuring Jon Vickers, Thomas Stewart and Hans Hotter, with Hans Knappertsbusch conducting. Unnatural Acts of Opera.

UPDATE: La Cieca was informed earlier this evening that iTunes was not showing the most recent podcasts, including the previous two acts of Parsifal. She thinks she has the glitch corrected now, so if you use iTunes (or another podcatcher) to listen to Unnatural Acts of Opera, please do check in for these updates.

And now the cover art

... for the upcoming Cecilia Bartoli CD.

Let it snow!

As La Cieca is sure her cher public has heard, the term "to ski" is now used widely in Craigslist personal ads to indicate an interest in recreational use of cocaine. The divine Grace Moore here demonstrates how these ideas became associated.

Gli enigmi sono due

First: who is the singer?

Second: why is she singing this aria?

Who and why?

Melons! Coupons!

La Cieca just received a press release from the Met detailing some of the cast changes and reshufflings already afoot for next season. She is pretty sure than none of this has anything to do with last night's steam pipe explosion in Midtown.

Angela M. Brown will sing the title role in Aida replacing Maria Guleghina on September 29, October 4 and 16. La Brown will sing the role of Aida on November 2, 5 and 8 as previously scheduled; Micaela Carosi will replace her on October 30.

Maija Kovalevska replaces Krassimira Stoyanova as Micaëla on February 4, 8, 13 and 16. Stoyanova will go on as scheduled at all other performances of Carmen. Lucio Gallo will sing the role of Escamillo (role debut) in all performances of the opera this season.

Ekaterina Siurina replaces Isabel Bayrakdarian as Susanna in Nozze on November 10, 14, 17, 21, 24, 28 and December 1. La Bayrakdarian retains her October 2, 6, 10, 13 and 18 performances.

Matthew Polenzani will sing Roméo opposite Anna Netrebko replacing Rolando Villazón on December 27 and 31. Villazón is still scheduled at all other performances of the opera.

Anthony Dean Griffey now sings the entire run of Peter Grimes; to no one's surprise, Neil Shicoff is a no-show.

Now, here's where it get complicated. Do listen carefully, because La Cieca is only going to say this once. Maria Guleghina gets the prima and the fall run of Macbeth (replacing Andrea Gruber) on October 22, 26, 31 and November 3. Gruber is still scheduled for the May 9, 13, and 17 performances. Meanwhile, Guleghina is out of the November 12, 16, 19 and 23 performances of Norma, with Hasmik Papian leaping into the breach. Guleghina tries her hand at the Bellini on November 26, 30, December 4, and 7. Oh, and on January 5, 9, 12 and 15, our old, old, old friend TBA returns triumphantly to the Met... as Lady Macbeth.

Jerry Hadley 1952 - 2007

Jerry Hadley died at 11:20 this morning.

That manzanilla has quite a kick!

Zum Raum wird hier die Zeitgeist

As a warmup for this evening's Unnatural Acts of Opera podcast of Parsifal (Act 1), a short film by Kopernikus1618 demonstrating what happens when "Andy Warhol meets Richard Wagner."


Speaking of Unnatural Acts, La Cieca is once more setting a precedent by offering an alternative to the current program of Wagner's Rienzi, a live performance from Vienna in 1997. Since the Vienna Rienzi is heavily cut and catches Siegfried Jerusalem on an off night vocally, La Cieca has decided to make available the most nearly complete version of Rienzi available, based on a 1976 radio performance of the work conducted by Edward Downes. These mp3s were encoded by the ineffable Mike Richter for one of his invaluable Audio Encyclopedia CD-ROMs. You can download a .zip file containing the five acts of Rienzi here.

If you like what you hear (and why should you not?), you should note that this complete recording is now available in excellent sound on a 4 CD set released by Ponto, and the whole thing will set you back less than a Jackson.

Oh, and did La Cieca mention the video currently on the Unnatural Acts page, a short film in which five divas offer their "regrets" for their non-attendance at the Met's 1983 Centennial Gala? You will be overjoyed (we hope) to hear that this clip includes the celebrated Renata Scotto X-ray Story!

Et nous aussi, honey!

"Je voudrais que le public oublie que je chante" -- Entretien avec Renée Fleming, Opéra Magazine No. 20 Juilliet - Aout.

NYT reports on Hadley

Story now on the Times website reports that last night Jerry Hadley shot himself in the head; the case is being investigated as an attempted suicide. According to a spokesperson for the State Police, Hadley is not expected to survive.

Rhine Gold

The Chuck Jones classic What's Opera, Doc? premiered exactly 50 years ago this week. And did you know that the "Bugs Bunny meet Wagner" motif was first essayed two years earlier, in the wartime short Herr Meets Hare?

Régine Crespin, 1927-2007

Régine Crespin in Recital

• Wolf: Blumengruß - Der Schäfer - Die Spröde - Anakreons Grab -Epiphanias - Mignon I, II and III - Philine - Kennst du das Land
  
• Debussy: Le Promenoir des deux amants: Auprès de cette grotte sombre -Crois mon conseil, chère Climène - Je tremble en voyant ton visage
  
• Milhaud: Poèmes Juifs (exc.): Chant d'amour - Chant de forgeron -Chant de nourrice
  
• Rosenthal: Chansons du Monsieur Bleu: Quat' et trois sept - L'éléphant du Jardin des Plantes - Fido, Fido - Le petit chat est mort - La souris d'Angleterre
  
• Encores: Berlioz: Le spectre de la rose; Poulenc: Fêtes galantes; Wolf: Ich hab' in Penna

John Wustman, piano. Hunter College, New York City, November 11, 1967.

Beverly Sills: Podcasts and YouTube

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."

Beverly Sills, 1929-2007

Video vixen

Natalie Dessay and Rolando Villazon in the St. Sulpice scene from Manon, as telecast from Barcelona Saturday night.

Does anyone still wear only one hat?

Iconic Ira Siff temporarily puts aside performing and his busy teaching schedule this summer to direct Cosi fan tutte with the Tanglewood Music Center young artists, in collaboration with Maestro James Levine. The Mozart comedy runs August 11-14. La Cieca further hears whispers that due to the overwhelmingly positive response to Ira's guest appearances on last year's Met/Sirius broadcasts, he will be promoted to co-host status opposite Margaret Juntwait on that series beginning this fall.

Curiouser and curiouser

Sempiternal soprano Gwyneth Jones creates a role in a world premiere later today! The veteran singing actress performs the role of the Queen of Hearts in Unsuk Chin's opera Alice in Wonderland, to an English-language libretto by David Henry Hwang after the novel by Lewis Carroll.

The production, conducted by Kent Nagano, will be broadcast live from the Bayerische Staatsoper at 1:30 p.m. New York time today over RealPlayer and Windows Media. (As always, La Cieca gets her latest scoops on all things internet radio from the indispensable OperaCast.)

Roman holiday

Unnatural Acts of Opera returns with yet another rarity, Wagner's Rienzi in a performance from Vienna in 1997. Featured are Siegfried Jerusalem and Violeta Urmana, with Zubin Mehta wielding the baton. Unnatural Acts of Opera.

This is very bad news indeed

AP reports that Beverly Sills is "gravely ill with cancer." Sills has always been very hands-on with her PR, so if she's allowing this story to get out, I'm afraid she's basically announcing that the end is very near. (If she's not in control of the story, that's not good news either: she'd have to be very sick indeed to let that happen.)

UPDATE: Sills' long-time publicist Edgar Vincent has confirmed earlier reports of her illness.

Gia i biscotti adunansi

Tu che le vanita project

La Cieca must first of all express how startled she is that this particular item didn't appear first on NYC Opera Fanatic -- after all, Lana Turner as Elisabetta in Don Carlo? Well, in fact, Miss Turner never did sing any Verdi, on- or off-stage (unlike her precursor Joan Crawford), but my goodness, doesn't she just look the part?

It is only with slight disappointment that La Cieca notes that La Turner is not even pretending to be an opera singer here. It's a moment from the beginning of the 1969 film The Big Cube, portraying Lana's character, the celebrated stage actress Adriana Roman, performing one of her celebrated stage roles. (Now, that does seem like a missed opportunity, doesn't it? I mean, with a name like "Adriana Roman," why waste your time in legitimate theater?) Well, anyway, this little scena is only the beginning of a dramatic roller-coaster for Adriana/Lana. Before you know it, her stepdaughter's skuzzy gigolo boyfriend (George Chakiris) will be spiking poor Lana's sleeping pills with LSD in a sinister plot to drive the poor diva mad, mad I tell you.

Now, let's see if La Cieca can remember why she brought all this up just at this particular moment. Oh, yes, now she has it. The Big Cube has just been released on DVD in a boxed set (like Proust!) fetchingly entitled Cult Camp Classics 2 - Women in Peril. The collection also includes our Joan's theatrical swan song Trog and the echt women's prison movie Caged.

Which reminds La Cieca: did you realize that an operatic version of Caged could be cast easily with the singers from Dialogues des Carmélites? (Mignon Dunn as Warden Ruth Benton? Lucine Amara as Matron Evelyn Harper? Régine Crespin as "Vice Queen" Elvira Powell?)

N'est-ce plus Manon?

La Cieca hears that Natalie Dessay has walked out of the current Liceu production of Manon, leaving Inva Mula to sing the company's new production of the Massenet opera. (Given the tight stagione scheduling, though, surely they will need another soprano to alternate.) Our insider whispers that la Dessay found Rolando Villazon (Des Grieux) something less than sympathique, in the sense of "it's either him or me."

Bridge

La Cieca hears that Justin Davidson, classical music critic at Newsday for the past decade, is moving over to New York magazine, where he will take over reviewing duties from the departing Peter G. Davis. Davidson's gig will also include writing about architecture.

Druidesses three times three

La Cieca is startled and delighted to note that there are already some very competitive entries in the "Nine Normas" quiz, including a likely prize winner. So that all you cher public may have the chance to put your vocal identification skills to the test, here's the clip of The Nine Normas.

Feel free to make your guesses in the comments section!

Money Schrott

"Riveting!"
"Seductively handsome!"
"Chiseled physique!"
"Exuding charisma!"
"Unabashedly narcissistic!"
"A stage animal!"
"Opera houses everywhere will soon be clamoring for him!"
"Exposing his muscled chest!"
"Shirtless, dripping with perspiration and looking crazed!"
"An image I’ll take home with me from London!"

How tief is your love

Surrounding the second act of D'Albert's opera Tiefland on the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera is a veritable plethora of special features. First, La Cieca takes a telephone call from an icon of stage, screen and recordings (hint: she was the surprise star of Broadway's Hit the Sky). Then our old, old, old friend Tallulah Bankhead drops by the studio along with none other than legendary, lovely Marlene Dietrich for a Sapphic singalong. After the act, your doyenne introduces the latest installment of The Enigmas of La Cieca, and, yes, it's another vocal identification. Take the quiz and determine your Norma-Q! Unnatural Acts of Opera.

I laughed for art, I laughed for love

"This writer approached the new off-Broadway play The Second Tosca with more than a bit of trepidation, worried that it might amount to no more than second-rate Terrance McNally or, even worse, unfunny inanity like Lend Me a Tenor. What a relief, then, it is to report that The Second Tosca is a delightful, campy, and sincere show, bitingly accurate in its take on opera and the crazy people who create it." Our publisher JJ moonlights as a drama critic in Gay City News.

Rachel deBenedet and Vivian Reed in The Second Tosca. (Photograph by Neilson Barnard.)

Trittichat

La Cieca is delighted to announce the return of the online opera chat, this Thursday June 14 on the subject of Il trittico, as telecast on Channel 13 here in New York. The chat room will open at 7:45 for the 8:00 beginning of the telecast.

Ageless

A glimpse of beloved soprano Gabriella Benackova in an unusual role: Emilia Marty in Vec Makropulos. Tete-de-peau tenor Roman Sadnik is Gregor.

Apotheosis

(a-pŏth'ē-ō'sĭs) n.

pl. a·poth·e·o·ses (-sēz')

1. Exaltation to divine rank or stature; deification.
   


2. Elevation to a preeminent or transcendent position; glorification: Many observers have tried to attribute Warhol's current apotheosis to the subversive power of artistic vision" (Michiko Kakutani)
   


3. An exalted or glorified example: Their leader was the apotheosis of courage.
   


4. Tony Tommasini reviews Death in Venice twice.
   

Stella for star

Just a few quick words about the magnificent soprano Antonietta Stella, the "tie-breaker" in our recent quiz. She is perhaps not quite so familiar to some of La Cieca's readers as the more celebrated divas also heard on the track such as Tebaldi and Price. La Cieca will quote her dear colleague Enzo Bordello, who wrote eloquently about this singer in 1998:

". . . her 1957 broadcast performance [of Tosca] with Tucker and Warren is sensational. The voice is confidently produced, with plenty of healthy, glowing tone. She tosses off the role's many high B's and C's like they were child's play....

"The long and the short of the matter is that I simply adore Antonietta Stella. What did she do well, you ask? Well, I would reframe the question this way: what did she NOT do well? Although I never saw Stella in the theater, I can honestly say that few singers have thrilled me as much as she on records and video. At its best, the voice represents the highest standard of Italian lirico-spinto singing. There is a morbidezza in the sound that is ravishing. In addition to producing focused high notes, Stella sang with unforced resonance in the lower register. The legato is melting and her pianiszimo singing ranks with the best of anyone."

Antonietta Stella sings "Vissi d'arte"

Stella on YouTube

"Life is like an opera"

Who, La Cieca asks, could disagree with this sentiment? Particularly when it is expressed so, well, expressively by the divine Jacqueline van Quaille in Tintin, the Musical (Kuifje de musical). The scene opens as Bianca Castafiore, the Milanese Nightingale, prepares to go onstage for a performance of Faust. She pauses a moment to read a telegram from Captain Haddock informing her of his adventures with Tintin and Snowy as they search for the Temple of the Sun.



La van Quaille may be heard elsewhere on YouTube singing Isolde in 1970!

Die heilige Musik!

The long drought of Richard Strauss operas on Sirius Metropolitan Opera Radio ends with an appropriately post-romantic bang on Monday when the network launches a two-day marathon of archival Met performances of the composer's works. Here's the schedule:

Monday, June 11, 2007

6:00 AM ET Ariadne auf Naxos. 3/20/1976. Levine; Caballé, Remedios, Welting, Troyanos, Dooley, Titus.

9:00 AM ET Der Rosenkavalier. 1/29/2000. Levine; Graham, Fleming, Hawlata, Grant Murphy, Ketelsen.

12:25 PM ET Salome. 1/5/1974. Levine; Bumbry, Ulfung, Resnik, Shadur, Lewis.

3:00 PM ET Die Frau Ohne Schatten. 12/17/1966. Böhm; Rysanek, King, Ludwig, Berry, Dalis.

6:00 PM ET Elektra. 1/22/1994. Behrens, Voight, Fassbaender, McIntyre, King.

9:00 PM ET Arabella 3/5/1983. Leinsdorf; Te Kanawa, Weikl, Battle, Rendall, Dunn, Gramm.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

6:00 AM ET Elektra 3/25/1961. Rosenstock; Borkh, Rysanek, Madeira, Uhde, Vinay.

9:00 AM ET Capriccio 1/31/1998. Davis; Te Kanawa, Harries, Kuebler, Fitch, Brendel, Keenlyside, Rootering.

12:00 PM ET Arabella 12/15/2001. Eschenbach; Fleming, Ketelsen, Bonney, Very, Forst, Halfvarson.

3:00 PM ET Der Rosenkavalier 3/19/1983. Levine; Troyanos, Te Kanawa, Haugland, Blegen, Hammond-Stroud.

6:20 PM ET Ariadne auf Naxos 4/14/2001. Levine; Voigt, Margison, Petrova, Mentzer, Brendel, Oswald.

9:00 PM ET Salome 3/13/1965. Böhm; Nilsson, Liebl, Dalis, Cassel, Shirley.

If you've held out on getting Sirius thus far, now you have an excuse to sign up for a FREE 3 day trial.

Un ballo in mascara

"Eye makeup never looked so good on a man. In the latest installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp trowels on more black eyeliner than a Kabuki dancer. . . . and he is not the only man calling for more kohl. Lately, eyeliner -- that little slick of dark paste -- has acquired a new, more-masculine and more-marketable name: 'Guyliner.' Tobey Maguire wears it in Spider-Man 3. Fall Out Boy bassist and Chicago rocker Pete Wentz gave a step-by-step demonstration on People magazine's Web site recently, showing the uninitiated how to affix it." -- Chicago Tribune, June 4, 2007.

Entendez ma voix!

Alexandrina Pendatchanska summons the spirits!

Meyer wins Wien

Dominique Meyer (currently at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées) and will take over as Intendant at the Vienna State Opera in 2010, with Franz Welser-Möst serving as Musical Director.

Better luck next time Neil Shicoff, Christian Thielemann, Daniel Barenboim and Simone Young! (Via The Europe Channel)

WINNER! Chi e quella donna bruna lassu?

WE HAVE A WINNER!. The lovely and talented Eric M. was the first to identify all six mystery sopranos correctly at 10:15 AM today, followed closely by Fred at 11:47. Congratulations to Eric and Fred, and thanks ever so to all of you who played! (For the correct answers to the quiz, check the comments thread to this post!)

Our sound clip of Soprano #6 was excerpted from one of her seven performances of Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera.

La Cieca is delighted to announce that the lovely people over at The Second Tosca have offered a pair of complimentary tickets to the show to one of you lovely readers. Here's how it works. Listen to the audio clip below of six divas singing "Vissi d'arte" and identify all six, in the correct order. Email your answers to [email protected].

The first entry with all six sopranos correctly identified in the correct order will win the pair of tix to The Second Tosca for Tuesday evening, June 12. (In the unlikely event that there is no correct answer by midnight, Sunday June 10, La Cieca will award the tickets to the most nearly correct entry; her decision in this is, as in all things, final.) Remember, it's six separate sopranos singing, and your hint is that all six of these divas sang the role of Tosca onstage.

Six divas sing Vissi d'arte

Opera Chic recoils in Scala shocker!

Our devoted and prolific little sister Opera Chic reports that, threatened with legal action from La Scala's cadre of highly-paid lawyers, she has removed "offending" content from her site, including photographs taken inside the celebrated opera house and even her own logo. But, as with so many things Milanese, OC tells the story best.

More dust bitten

One of our finest critics has just lost his regular gig. Peter G. Davis has been asked to sign an "agreement of separation" from New York magazine, where he has reviewed classical music for the past 26 years.

Dog Sees Diva

The month of June in New York traditionally offers scant little in the way of operatic entertainment beyond the Met's Parks concerts. And so the premiere of an opera-themed play off-Broadway sounds like particularly good news.

The show is called The Second Tosca, and it is described as "a contemporary comedy that takes place backstage at Opera California during rehearsals for Tosca. Meet a rising operatic star, her rivalrous brother, the controlling maestro who wants to marry her, a diva with a dog, an assistant with a dream, and a meddling singing ghost." The author is Tom Rowan and the "rising star" is portrayed by Eve Gigliotti. The producer is Sorrel Tomlinson, whose first production, Dog Sees God, was one of the breakout hits of the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival.

The Second Tosca opens at the 45th Street Theater (354 West 45th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues) for a limited engagement through July 1. Opening night, June 13th, will be at 6:30pm. All other performances run Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased by calling 212-868-4444 or visiting Smart Tix.

Allo pompo che s'appresta, meco, o schiava, assisterai

Expanding the already bulging operatic repertoire, The Pocket Opera Players have announced the the world premiere of Pumped Fiction, composed by John Eaton with libretto by his daughter Estela Eaton. Pumped Fiction is a fable about the world’s leading patentee-distributor of penis pumps. The one-off performance will be Wednesday, June 20 at 8:00PM at Symphony Space’s Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre (2537 Broadway, corner of 95th Street). Tickets are $25 for the general public and $20 for members, seniors and students and can be purchased online at www.symphonyspace.org or by calling (212) 864-5400. The performance by the (Is That a Gun in Your) Pocket Opera Players will be the opening event and one of the highlights of the American Composers Alliance annual Festival of American Music.

The art of the buried lede

"Mr. Hvorostovsky looked sexy in black leather pants and an open-collared black shirt." Final paragraph.

Shirley Dearest

A belated happy birthday to Shirley Verrett, who so far as La Cieca knows never appeared in such operatic rarities as Gianni Chitarra, La femmina sulla spiaggia or even Che fine ha fatto Baby Jane?

Had it not been for the allergies, though...

UPDATED! Start the coronation without me

La Cieca hears that Ruth Ann Swenson has withdrawn from her autumn performances of Agrippina at the New York City Opera.

This just in... "replacing" Swenson will be none other than the legendary Nelly Miricioiu! The Romanian diva assoluta is seen here in a 2003 performance of Anna Bolena.

Onegin, you're pissing on my shoelace

La Cieca is distressed to inform you that her YouTube account comprising 90 videos has been suspended. The cause of the action was a series of DMCA complaints from someone called "ByOnegin S.L." who claimed "infringement" from three videos featuring Mariella Devia and Montserrat Caballe. La Cieca is naturally distressed that all these favorite videos of hers should be unavailable on YouTube, but she pledges she will re-establish her presence there, thanking you in advance for your patience and support. In the meantime, she reminds you that there are some favorite clips still available at Google Video.

Trema, vil schiava

Although the cult TV hit Gilmore Girls has just ended its run after seven seasons on the CW, La Cieca thought you might enjoy a video featuring the "missing" Gilmore Girl (Miss Gail, that is.)

Witchy Woman

The return of Unnatural Acts of Opera continues with another rarity, Respighi's 1934 grand opera La fiamma. Starring in this tale of witchcraft in medieval Ravenna is American soprano Alessandra Marc as the mysterious Silvana.

According to Will Crutchfield's review of this live 1987 performance in the New York Times, La Marc's "voice is full, beautiful, creamy at times. Her tone is pure: it does not have the overripe, pushed vibrato that afflicts so many singers in weighty operatic roles today. Miss Marc also has a feel for the soaring curves of Puccinian lyrical writing. She is generous with portamento, and she lets her feelings into her singing. One would not be surprised if Zinka Milanov had been one of her models."

The cast also includes Mignon Dunn and James McCracken, with Robert Bass conducting.

Sometimes the cabin's gloomy and the table's bare

"Wall to Wall Opera," a 13 hour orgy of things operatic, inhabits Symphony Space beginning at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Among the festivities is a master class in bel canto interpretation by Renata Scotto, but the moment La Cieca most eagerly awaits will arrive courtesy of Encompass Opera Theatre. We are promised a performance of "The Silver Aria" from the haunting opera by John LaTouche and Douglas Moore, The Ballad of Baby Joe.

Happy (belated) birthday Giulietta Simionato

The legendary mezzo-soprano celebrated her 97th birthday on May 12. In this clip she is seen rehearsing with Franco Corelli for a 1963 production of Cavalleria Rusticana, and then in an interview from 2003.

Before they were famous

A couple of weeks ago we had the chance to see and hear what Juan Diego Florez looked and sounded like at the age of 16. And now, again through the magic of YouTube, here's a rare clip of Rolando Villazon as a boy soprano!

"Well, when you're from Pittsburgh, you have to do something."

Interesting choice of words in this PlaybillArts headline:

Nathan Gunn Pulls Out of Billy Budd in Pittsburgh

Dear Abbé

La Cieca's favorite baby hunkentenor Stephen Costello is back on the YouTubes, this time singing Des Grieux in Manon.

Morris is less

"No one could doubt the sincerity of Mark Morris' admiration for the late mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who was to have collaborated with him on the Metropolitan Opera's new staging of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. However, the opening night performance of this production (May 2) did not convince me that the choreographer can channel this sincerity into meaningful stage direction." JJ's take is in Gay City News.

Crones on notice

A Met insider whispers that new chorus director Donald Palumbo, recently praised to the skies for his "tireless" efforts on Orfeo, may not want to stay tired for long. According to our source, “warning of vocal deterioration” letters have already been drafted to be sent to several members of the Met regular chorus, especially in the notoriously wobbly soprano section. Apparently, this warning letter is the first step in a lengthy contractural process of weeding out unacceptable voices. (Ironically, by the time arrives for Palumbo to rehearse the witches' choruses in Macbeth next season, he may already have fired at least some of the Met's worst crones.)

Continues our spy, "Not a surprising move, but one taken earlier than I would have thought in his tenure, since [Palumbo's] tenure really hasn’t started yet. But thank Goddess for it – the soprano section has been a mess for quite a while."

Which Puritani: discuss.

La Cieca has finally found a way to harness the massive intellectual prowess of her commenters for what she hopes is a good and peaceful purpose. From time to time she is asked for recommendations on, well, this and that, and she's realized that you, cher public represent an paralleled resource for advising, counselling and general kibitzing. Our first question for the group: what's your recommendation for a recording of I puritani? "A.R." writes:

The frisson that Anna Netrebko created at Met recently piqued my interest in the work again- but I find myself dissatisfied with the array of recordings available. Joan I’d have to quickly count out- a lot of the time it sounds like she’s singing the phone book. Not a Bonynge fan either. Ditto La Sills- I just don’t like the timbre of her voice. I own the Caballe/Kraus recording and enjoy it- even without most of the high notes and no trill from Montsy. Despite that she always wins me over and Kraus makes a good fist of Arturo- I don’t understand the negative crits he got for this recording. When are people going to realise that the high D’s and high F were not meant to be sung full voice- I feel sure they were supposed to be sung in head voice- esp as Arturo is at his most miserable when these notes pop up.

Devia is good, albeit a little colourless. Mateuzzi has the high notes- shame everything under a G is flat, flat, flat. Have you heard the Freni/Pav recordings? I’m interested to hear them. I also have the Callas recording- but I can’t BEAR Di Stefano- too much scooping and painful open high notes. Is there a fabulous recording I’ve missed? If only La Scotto had done it- she would have been ideal. (I too am a Scotto worshipper!)

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Wie alles war, weiss ich; wie alles wird, wie alles sein wird

The Met's press office just sent this out:

New York, NY (May 8, 2007) - Bizet's Carmen with Russian mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina in the title role will be revived during the Met's 2007-08 season, replacing the previously announced performances of Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann. The change in repertory is due to the decision by Argentine tenor Marcelo Álvarez to retire the title role of Hoffmann from his repertory. Mr. Álvarez will instead make his Met role debut singing Don José in Carmen opposite Ms. Borodina. Nancy Fabiola Herrera will sing the title role in one performance. Krassimira Stoyanova sings the role of Micaëla at the Met for the first time. Emmanuel Villaume conducts all eight performances from February 4 to March 1, 2008.

Told you so.

"Tales" untold

La Cieca hears that the Met will scrap next season's revival of Les Contes d'Hoffman (scheduled for February-March 2008) in favor of Carmen. A well-informed source suggests that the switch will be done at the behest of tenor Marcelo Álvarez, who would have sung the title role in the Offenbach but will now perform his first local Don Jose. Opposite Álvarez will be the familiar but always welcome Carmencita of Olga Borodina.

News from the underworld

A Happy Shade whispers to La Cieca about the Met's Orfeo (opening tonight):

"This show is awesome. The dancing is really interesting and fits the music very well. Donald Palumbo has really worked tirelessly to make the chorus sound as good as possible, giving notes and comments all through rehearsals. I’m told from long-time members that note sessions during dress rehearsals were quite rare. David Daniels is great in this part, and he sings it so well. Maija Kovalevska is a hottie, and has a beautiful voice. She is tall and striking and pairs physically very well with David. And Heidi Grant Murphy has perhaps the entrance of the season. I won’t give it away, but your jaw will drop. Mine did .... Bring your spyglasses to try and figure out as many of the 'dead characters' in the chorus as you can!"

Esser madre e un inferno

A rare chance to hear Evangelia Callas (mother of Maria) tell her side of the story. This audio clip from a 1962 television interview is in rather dim sound, but we do get a sample of Evangelia's singing voice!

Evangelia

Sweet and low

Gender-bending diseuse Zarah Leander crosses over into opera to sing "Che farò senza Euridice" in this scene the 1938 film Heimat.


It may be noted that the sub-contralto Leander chooses a lower key for this aria than the written C major David Daniels will sing tomorrow night! For more about the iconic Zarah, see Ben Letzler's appreciation of the androgyne goddess.

Tristan und JJ

Our very own editor takes to the airwaves this afternoon when he is interviewed by John Schaefer on WNYC's Soundcheck. As part of "Tristan Mysteries" week here in New York, JJ will play selections from a few of his favorite recordings of Tristan und Isolde, and probably will find time to mouth off a bit as well. JJ is skedded to appear sometime in the second half of the show, after about 2:30 p.m.

UPDATE: Here's the interview.

Sixteen Candles

Before he was famous, tenor Juan Diego Flórez was already puppylicious. Here at at age 16 he sings a pop song on a 1989 televised music festival. (La Cieca can't quite make up her mind if he reminds her more of Duckie in Pretty in Pink or Slater from Saved by the Bell.)

Length matters

"The Met's lavish new production of Giacomo Puccini's operatic trilogy Il trittico (heard April 20) was almost as enjoyable as it was long." Our editor JJ's somewhat contrarian position may be read in Gay City News.

She never does anything twice

La Cieca is totally in awe of the insightful (and totally enjoyable) reporting her baby sister OperaChic is doing on the most recent Angela Gheorghiu scandale. In what La Cieca chooses to regard as an early 50th anniversary hommage to one of the most infamous moments in the career of Maria Callas, la Gheorghiu has, yes, walked out of a production at the Rome Opera. It seems that at the prima, Renato Bruson took a bis of "Di provenza," which (so OperaChic whispers) the soprano interpreted as an act of war. Gheorghiu obtained a doctor's certificate and canceled her second (and final scheduled) performance.

Permit La Cieca to say: maybe this is why they stopped allowing encores in the first place.

Take that, Eurotrash!

The doyen of operatic stage direction has done it again! (Or, to be strictly accurate, he has done it for about the twentieth time, but who's counting?) Thrill to the brilliantly innovative new production of La traviata Franco Zeffirelli just unveiled at the Rome Opera!


Oh, if only we could have a production of Traviata just like this here in New York! Or, even better, if only we could have two productions just like this!

But enough about me

Our editor JJ chats with the lovely and talented Mona de Crinis in an interview for the Palm Springs Bottom Line, a publication whose title contains so many double entendres La Cieca lost count. Thrill yet once again to the saga of parterre box, the little zine that could, and JJ, the editor who would. And did. (Frequently.)

Third base

La Cieca hears that the Met's new production of Il trittico will return in 2010, starring Patricia Racette as the three heroines.

Fuzzy logic

Of course you've all heard of the Afro, the Jewfro and the Gayfro. So allow La Cieca to introduce you to the latest variant of this curly coiffure: the Castratfro, as modeled by countertenor Philippe Jaroussky in the opera Agrippina.



In the interest of fairness, La Cieca should point out that the big hair was probably not the countertenor's idea any more than the "Pippin" makeup. In fact, as himself, Mr. Jaroussky is quite the cutie!

Kitty Carlisle Hart, 1910-2007

Actress, singer, arts advocate, socialite, TV personality (and New Orleans native) Kitty Carlisle Hart has died at the age of 96. La Carlisle made her Broadway debut in 1933 in the musical Champagne Sec (a version of Die Fledermaus), then went to Hollywood for a brief stay highlighted by her turn as "Rosa Castaldi" in A Night at the Opera. (To die-hard opera queens, no performance of the "Miserere" from Il trovatore is complete without the interpolation of "the Kitty Carlisle high C.") In 1948 the mezzo-soprano starred in the New York premiere of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia; later she appeared on the "Straw Hat Circuit" in Carmen and The Merry Widow as well as classic American musicals. On New Year's Eve 1966, Ms. Hart made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Prince Orlovsky in Fledermaus, a role she reprised for the company's Parks performances in 1973, and again in 1980 at the New York City Opera for Beverly Sills' farewell gala.

A more detailed obituary may be found at broadwayworld.com.

Here's Kitty Carlisle Hart in a scene from A Night at the Opera, with Allan Jones (and, of course, the Marx Brothers!)

Great minds

La Cieca has heard from two independent sources who attended today's dress rehearsal of Il trittico at the Met, and the word they both use to describe the show is "wonderful." Production values are lavish yet true to the works, the singing is never less than "very fine" and the orchestra under Maestro Levine sounds "superb." Highest praise went to Maria Guleghina (Giorgietta) and Stephanie Blythe (all three leading mezzo roles, but especially La Zia Principessa). Friday night will likely be a long evening (the rehearsal ran four hours), but the buzz so far is that Il trittico will be "the highlight of the season."

Avant le deluge

La Cieca is no big believer in omens, but she must say that within a hour of Aprile Millo's final curtain call on the Met stage Saturday night, all hell broke loose over New York. Not exactly "stars with trains of fire and dews of blood/Disasters in the sun" but certainly a messy and unseasonable Nor'easter. Time will tell whether this downpour foretells the end of an era. Meanwhile, La Cieca will do her job and report that among La Millo's public she glimpsed Elaine Stritch, Rufus Wainwright and Patti Smith, all of whom made the pilgrimage backstage to meet and greet the diva. Also in evidence were Violeta Urmana and Salvatore Licitra, plus of course every opera queen you might care to mention. A few fans attempted to serenade Millo with "Happy Birthday" during her solo bow, but were inaudible over the applause and cheers.

Curiously, the great moment in Millo's performance wasn't "La mamma morta," (which was very good if a little hectic) but rather the phrase "Benedico il destino! Benedico la morte!" just before the final duet. If you need a definition of what Milanov called "vocal message," that's what Millo demonstrated in this handful of notes. And need I say she communicated more in those few seconds than many other artists do in a whole season.

Mit Schlag

Comeback queen Montserrat Caballe shared a birthday celebration in Vienna yesterday with legendary confection the "Original Sacher-Torte." The diva was born 74 years ago, the cake first devised just over a century earlier in 1832.

The soprano sang a brief serenade to the dessert before sampling the chocolately goodness, quipping, "Calories don't exist!"

Scene of the meeting between the diva and the cake (described as 1 meter in diameter) was the Hotel Sacher, which claims the honor of producing the only authentic version of the Sachertorte, consisting of two layers of dense chocolate dough with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle and dark chocolate icing with shreds of chocolate on the top and sides.

The gala continues

In further celebration of our 200th podcast, La Cieca presents a second program of superstars and their superstardom. Featured in the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera are Karita Mattila, Rolando Villazon, Renee Fleming, Dorothy Kirsten, Renata Scotto, Elena Obratszova, David Daniels, Ruth Ann Swenson, Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe diStefano, Marilyn Horne, Montserrat Caballe, Kostas Paskalis, Alain Vanzo, Krassimira Stoyanova, Marcello Giordani and Aprile Millo.

And don't forget Part One, starring Maria Callas, Cesare Valletti, Rosanna Carteri, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Tito Gobbi, Birgit Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek, Alfredo Kraus, Jeannette Pilou, Cesare Siepi, Jessye Norman, Joan Sutherland and Leontyne Price.

Give me my robe...

La Cieca has just heard that the 2007 Richard Tucker Award winner is tenor Brandon Jovanovich, pictured here at a concert given recently in honor of long-time Tucker colleague Eleanor Steber.

Career Grant winners for 2007 are Meredith Arwady, contralto; Jason Collins, tenor; and Stephen Costello, tenor. La Cieca regrets to inform you that she does not have any photos of Mr. Costello in a towel at the moment, but, after all, summer is just around the corner.

Optional cuts

Which Metropolitan Opera diva has eased her transition into the visual-intensive Gelb era with the assistance of a plastic surgeon recently featured in W magazine and the New York Post? This Park Avenue doctor's "short scar" facelifts promise a dramatically rejuvenated jawline with shorter recovery time and minimal scarring -- just the thing for those high-definition closeups!

The Bartered Bra?

Is it just me, or is Lucia Popp's left nipple peeking out at us?

The Swenson solution

The Met isn't interested in you any more as a lyric-coloratura? Well, in that case, why not try transforming yourself into Marilyn Horne?

Ruth's no stranger to friction

DRAMA on the front page of today's NYT Arts section! Ruth Ann Swenson comes out swinging at the Met for "snubbing" her in favor of younger and less zaftig artists. Her current run of Cleopatras in Giulio Cesare is her final contact with the Met*, apparently the end to a 20-season career there spanning over 225 performances.

And now La Cieca is going to throw this one open to discussion from the floor!

CORRECTION: Swenson is also contracted to sing Violetta during the Met's 2007-2008 season.

Funny Lady

Sempiternal Montserrat Caballe, erstwhile Verdian, bel canto specialist, Straussian, lyric soprano, coloratura soprano, dramatic soprano and pop singer, reinvents herself once more as character comedienne.

Presenting La Superba as La Duchesse de Krakenthorpe in La Fille du regiment.

Sing a little, chat a little

La Cieca (not pictured) reminds her cher public that tonight's 40th Anniversary of the Met at Lincoln Center gala will be the subject of an online chat right here at parterre.com.

The program, starring Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón, begins at 7:00 PM and so the chat room will open at 6:45. Maestro Bertrand de Billy will lead the duo in staged performances of La bohème, Act I (with Mariusz Kwiecien as Marcello); Manon Act III, scene 2 (with Samuel Ramey as the Comte des Grieux); and L’elisir d'amore Act II with Mr. Kwiecien as Belcore and Alessandro Corbelli as Dulcamara.

Overexposed

Anna Moffo in a non-operatic facet of her career, as leading lady in the Italian film Una storia d'amore (released in the United States as Love Me, Baby, Love Me!) In this melodrama, La Moffo seems to be playing the "Lana Turner" role, a sexy matron involved with a good-for-nothing pretty boy gigolo.

A chance for stage folks to say hello

Leave it to La Cieca to offer added value to even so glittering a performance as Act Two of I Capuleti e i Montecchi starring Anna Netrebko, Daniela Barcelona and Joseph Calleja. Your doyenne makes her legitimate acting debut in a new episode of Apocryphal Opera Anecdote Theater in the demanding role of "Lady Capulet" in Romeo and Juliet. Unnatural Acts of Opera.

Finlandia

These two gentlemen (Craig Ramsay and Timothy John Mandala) are among the players in Matthew Passion: A New Play (with music) by La Cieca's erstwhile colleague Phil Hall. The show opens Monday, April 2, 2007 at 8:00 pm for a limited engagement.

Per the show's press notes, "Matthew Passion tells the story of the passion of Christ; the story of Matthew Shepard being picked up at a bar in Laramie, Wyoming, beaten and left for dead on a hillside; and the story of a middle-aged HIV positive survivor who has outlived his life expectancy. Although the three stories take place in three different locations, and are thousands of years apart, they all reflect one another and converge in the final scene."

Tickets for Matthew Passion (only $18!) are available through SmartTix: (212) 868-4444. Visit www.matthewpassion.com for more information.

Dignity returns to the NYC opera scene

On April 17, Dame Kiri te Kanawa returns to the scene of... well, not a crime, actually, more like a triumph: that is, her surprise Met debut in Otello way back in 1974. No, she's not singing, but on April 17 she will make a personal appearance at the Metropolitan Opera Shop, to greet her fans and sign CDs from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm.

The following day, the controversial Kiwi canary will grace this year's Metropolitan Opera Guild Luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria. The alphabetical list of singers and other colleagues who are scheduled to honor the diva includes Licia Albanese, Martina Arroyo, Harry Bicket, Stephanie Blythe, Russell Braun, Lawrence Brownlee, Barbara Cook, Mignon Dunn, Barbara Frittoli, Massimo Giordano, Maria Guleghina, Marilyn Horne, James Morris, Regina Resnik, Julius Rudel, Beverly Sills, Risë Stevens, Ruth Ann Swenson, and Benita Valente. (Apparently Joann Yockey and Linda Zoghby had prior commitments.)

Mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade will do the vocal honors and the program will also include "rare" video clips of the honoree. Tickets to the Luncheon are $250 and $400.

Balcony box

Something new and interesting (La Cieca hopes) on Unnatural Acts of Opera: a 2004 concert performance of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, starring Anna Netrebko (Giulietta), Daniela Barcellona (Romeo) and Joseph Calleja (Tebaldo). Act One is the current podcast, with the second to follow on Friday.

Speaking of the lovely Miss Netrebko, she and Rolando Villazon will headline a gala celebrating 40th Anniversary of The Met at Lincoln Center next Tuesday. The concert will be webcast over the Met's RealNetworks (and of course Sirius) beginning at 7:00 PM. Unfortunately, La Cieca has a prior commitment that night, but she is sure that you, her cher public, will want to chat about the gala here at parterre.com. As such, La Cieca is sending out request to you parterre.com regulars for volunteers to host the web chat. (Quite simple, really: you'll need only to be online and on the chat site beginning at 6:45 and continuing until the finish of the broadcast.) If you're interested in helping out, email La Cieca at [email protected].

Près des ramparts

Opening tonight at Manhattan's Film Forum: U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, a 2005 film adaptation of Bizet's Carmen updated to the present and transplanted to an industrial community near Cape Town, South Africa. The score, somewhat abridged but otherwise not altered, is sung in the Xhosa language. The NYT's reviewer isn't completely bowled over by the film, but he does admit "the overall conception is so original that even when the movie falters in the moment, it dazzles in the memory."

Higher and higher

On the recommendation of tipster La Malipasta, La Cieca presents a snippet or two from a January 14 performance of Meyerbeer's Il crociato in Egitto at the Teatro Fenice. Heard in a duet from the first act of this rarity are two sopranos of differing genders, Michael Maniaci and Patrizia Ciofi.

Part One Ah non ti son piu cara

Part Two Non v'e per noi piu speme

Typography as destiny

Don't get La Cieca wrong: the whole "Opera and Technology" panel last Friday was fascinating. But probably the most interesting bit of information shared all night was done after the formalities were ended. Anne Midgette got to talking with JJ and a few others about the layout style of the New York Times Arts section, and La Cieca has to admit she never realized just how intricate the whole thing is.

Basically there are two kinds of pieces that run in the Arts section: reporting and opinion. "Opinion" includes both reviews and what back in my sob sister days we used to call "think" pieces. It turns out the Times style decrees a number of differences in how these two types of writing are set up.

"Reporting" pieces (like the one on the left, below) have a plain serif headline, a traditional byline directly below the hed, then a series of paragraphs with an even right margin. "Opinion" pieces (right) feature an italic headline, an inset byline without the word "by" and subhead "Music Review." Paragraphs have a ragged right margin.


The meaning of all this? Maybe the Times is saying, "This review is only someone's opinion, so it doesn't need justification."

Met Barbiere on YouTube

... though not the one from last weekend!

You are dead, you know

In yet another dazzling example of counter-intuitive programming, the New York City Opera has decided to exhume their quarter-century old ticky-tacky Hal Prince staging of that overexposed snoozefest Candide to replace their scuttled new production of Ragtime. (Gee, how long is it since we last heard Candide here in New York? It must be twenty minutes at least.) If La Cieca didn't know better, she'd think Paul Kellogg was trying to bring the company crashing down (a sort of sound-enhanced Götterdämmerung) before that meanie Mortier can get his hands on it...

Fabulous invalid

So now it seems there may be a season for Opera Orchestra of New York next year after all. But keep in mind that word "may" because it's not a lock yet. In an email to supporters, Eve Queler says that she and the other OONies "are currently devoted to assuring you a splendid season. We have received major commitments from our supporters, and expect that additional sources will soon permit us to commit to the full season." She asks that audiences save the dates for December 13, 2007, February 27, 2008 and March 6, 2008, when, if all goes well, the group will present I due Foscari (with Dimitri Hvorostovsky?), La sonnambula (Eglise Gutierrez , Dimitry Korchak) and a gala concert.

My son the gypsy

Hunka hunka burning tenor Darío Volonté jumped into San Diego Opera's production of Il trovatore last night, replacing Nicola Rossi Giordano as Manrico. (Does Rossi Giordano ever actually sing anywhere? All La Cieca has ever heard about is his cancellations.) Anyway, this is Mr. Volonté's second time out with SDO, following up on his Calaf in 2004.

The Argentine tenor's Dick Johnson (the role, La Cieca means! Stop it!) can be readily found for downloading and enjoyment on the various opera share sites. Meanwhile, why isn't this guy singing at the Met?

Il trovatore runs through April 4 at San Diego Opera.

Sleeves importante

Even as she toys with the idea of yet another emergence from semi-retirement, Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh is divesting herself of some of her most celebrated frocks. An Ebay auction continuing through March 27 offers such cult couture as the Manon "St. Sulpice" gown and an argentate mantle worn by Madame's hysterically hieratic Turandot. Also included are a pair of pink chiffon and marabou confections (sizes Large and Enormous) suitable for your next Dreamgirls theme party, and a Merry Widow ballgown originally worn by none other than Roberta Peters!

Semi-ubiquitous

Our editor JJ's busy week included a review of the Met's Aegyptische Helena in Gay City News, and that panel La Cieca has been yammering about all week. As his presentation on the topic "Opera and Technology," JJ introduced this little documentary about your own La Cieca.

Mary Dunleavy joins in the fun

La Cieca has just been informed that soprano Mary Dunleavy will participate in tonight's panel discussion "Opera and Technology" at The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University. No word on whether La Dunleavy replaces or supplements the previously announced Lucy Shelton. Our own JJ will be there of course, along with a veritable constellation of opera pundits: Elena Park, Editorial and Creative Content, The Metropolitan Opera; Beth Greenberg, stage director, New York City Opera; Wayne Koestenbaum, poet and writer; and Anne Midgette, critic, The New York Times. That's tonight at 7:30 PM, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue (between 116th and 118th Streets), second floor.

Watch and learn, young divas

From today's Daily News coverage of Naomi Campbell's community service:

"Decked out in a pencil skirt, leather trench coat and cloche hat, the supermodel sure knows how to make sweeping the floor look good every day of the week.

"On Monday, she opted for Christian Louboutin boots, an Azzedine Alaia coat and Chanel cap, while on Tuesday she rocked a chinchilla bomber and fedora. Fashion fans are surely waiting avidly for what the catwalker will step out in next. They're also saving their pennies to bid on their favorite Sanitation Naomi outfit - Campbell is auctioning off all the work clothes she wears this week to benefit the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund."

Annals of g-string jurisprudence: an update

Operatic trailblazer Kiri te Kanawa has won yet another victory for every soprano who doesn't really feel all that much like singing anyway.

The Kiwi canary testified that it was only after agreeing to appear on a concert program with veteran pop icon John Farnham that she discovered that some of his fans expressed their enthusiasm by throwing their panties onstage.

The diva, noting that Farnham collected the frilly underthings "as a sort of trophy," sniffed that she would find performing in such a milieu "disrespectful."

Dame Kiri is pictured at right performing a scene from Mozart's Don Giovanni with a fellow paragon of operatic decorum, Bryn Terfel.

Enchanted April

Beginning April 1, San Francisco Opera will begin broadcasting its regular season again for the first time since 1982. The opener is Manon Lescaut featuring Karita Mattila as the notorious party girl.

Says General Manager David Gockley, "After decades with no regular broadcast series, this is truly a landmark announcement for San Francisco Opera. Through these broadcasts, audiences in the Bay Area, across the United States, and internationally will have the opportunity to experience the great performances that San Francisco Opera is producing."

Following programs through November include Orleanskaya Deva (Dolora Zajick), Tristan und Isolde (Thomas Moser, Christine Brewer), Il barbiere di Siviglia (Nathan Gunn), Un ballo in maschera (Deborah Voigt), Don Giovanni (Mariusz Kwiecien) and Der Rosenkavalier (Joyce DiDonato, Soile Isokoski). Broadcasts may be heard on SF's own KDFC and on the WFMT network. More details.

Je marche sur tous les chemins

"Move as little as possible when performing practical or enticing actions. For example, if you wish to look over at something or someone, move your eyes first until they cannot move any more, then move your head, then your torso and adjust your lower body last and only when necessary." At long last, you too can learn How to Walk Like a Diva. (For a practical demonstration of the results of these 10 easy steps, take a look at what La Cieca posted earlier this month.)

Will work for feud

The latest episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera episode offers, in addition to the second part of Gluck's Armide, the long-awaited return of Apocryphal Opera Anecdote Theater. Our drama this time is based on the real-life story of a feud between two of opera's most celebrated divas!

Le mot du jour

On Torsten Kerl in Die Aegyptische Helena: "The role, as we all know, is unsingable, and so unsing it he did." -- Maury D'Annato, My Favorite Intermissions.

Scandalize my name

Longtime friend of the 'box Joe Conda sends La Cieca a new and exciting example of Filth: Caro nome.

Most grating

Many tears will be shed in heaven today by Nellie Melba, Claudia Muzio, Lotte Lehmann, Adelina Patti and (we suppose) the young Jill Gomez, since none of them made the list of "The 20 Greatest Sopranos of All Time" featured in the April issue of BBC Music. (Don't bother to click on that link, since the content isn't online.) The magazine's panel of "experts" selected the following 20 divas in ascending order of greatness:

20. Elly Ameling
19. Rosa Ponselle
18. Renata Tebaldi
17. Christine Brewer
16. Elisabeth Schumann
15. Karita Mattila
14. Gundula Janowitz
13. Galina Vishnevskaya
12. Régine Crespin
11. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
10. Emma Kirkby
9. Kirsten Flagstad
8. Margaret Price
7. Lucia Popp
6. Montserrat Caballé
5. Birgit Nilsson
4. Leontyne Price
3. Victoria de los Angeles
2. Joan Sutherland
1. Maria Callas

Whatever happened to...

Tiziana Fabbricini? Well, in the words of Charlie Handelman: Mamma mia! What a "Mamma morta!"

At a glance

The 2007-2008 Met season, with casting, all in one place. (Though the Met's own site is very nearly as handy -- by far the earliest the company has ever presented repertoire and casting information.) La Cieca would also venture an opinion that next season threatens a rather lower percentage of "why bother" nights, and certainly a steep increase in dementia opportunities.

Tech talk

Here are more details on the panel discussion "On Opera and Technology," to be held at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue (between 116th and 118th Streets) on March 23. The exact location is the teatro of the Academy (2nd floor,) from 7.30-9.30pm, and the participants, besides our own JJ, will include Lucy Shelton, soprano; Elena Park, Editorial and Creative Content, The Metropolitan Opera; Beth Greenberg, stage director, New York City Opera; Wayne Koestenbaum, poet and writer; and Anne Midgette, critic, The New York Times.

Bigger than the Empire State Building

La Cieca is delighted to divulge that our publisher JJ has been asked to participate in the panel discussion "On Opera and Technology" at Columbia University on March 23. The discussion is one event of the two-day conference "Technologies of the Diva" presented by The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America. The identities of the other participants of JJ's panel have not been revealed to him yet, but, perhaps in tribute to the blind-item style of La Cieca, the organizers of the conference promise "a well-known soprano," a writer for the New York Times, and "representatives of the Met and NYCO." Mysterious, is it not? For more information on the panel and the conference in general (both are free and open to the public), there's a website.

"There's a reason so many operas are named after their protagonists-- you need a great performer to play a great person. The Metropolitan Opera's current revival of Simon Boccanegra fails mainly because there's a gaping hole where the Boccanegra ought to be." More JJ, this time in Gay City News.

The good news about Mortier

Well, let's say the first bit of good news associated with the Mortier appointment. La Cieca is talking about how NYCO is no longer pursuing its bratty, entitled "I SAID I want a BRAND NEW opera house or I'll THROW all my BOWTIES on the FLOOR" attitude of the past decade or so. La Cieca frankly grew weary and then bored and finally indifferent as to what was going on "across the Plaza" because the NYCO slowly ceased to be about opera as they became so utterly fascinated by real estate.

Now, La Cieca will be one of the first to jump on the bandwagon when, as, and if NYCO starts producing such interesting must-see opera that they (as it were) earn a new theater. But it's going to take a major force of will on the part of Mortier and the board to pull the company up even to "pretty good" standards over the first few years following 2009.

Event horizon

Now that we all know what's what for the Met's 2007-2008 season, surely it's time to start speculating about what comes after, right? Well, La Cieca has been in touch with her stable of reliable sources, and what she has heard is more than a little intriguing. N.B. All this is as heard, of course, not an official announcement...

Opening night 2008 will be a Renee Fleming gala showcasing The Beautiful Voice in acts from La traviata, Manon and Il pirata. Also in the season's opening weeks: Karita Mattila returns in Salome, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon team for Lucia (HD simulcast for sure!), La Gioconda with the triple-diva goodness of Deborah Voigt, Olga Borodina and Ewa Podles, plus, for a little 21st century flava, the Met premiere of John Adams' Doctor Atomic featuring Audra MacDonald.

At the other end of the season, late spring 2009, the last revival of the rocks-n-rags Ring with James Levine conducting (start queuing for that one now) and the debut of DGG "It Girl" Elina Garanca in Cenerentola. In between, some hot tickets and some Sternstunden:

• La sonnambula (Natalie Dessay/Juan Diego Florez)
• Thais (Fleming/Thomas Hampson)
• Rusalka (also Fleming)
• La rondine (Angela Gheorghiu/Roberto Alagna)
• Tristan und Isolde (Daniel Barenboim)
• Eugene Onegin (Mattila/Hampson)
• Cav/Pag (Alagna in both operas)

There's more (a lot more) of course, but La Cieca hopes this is enough to get the conversational ball rolling.

It is good that young people should learn

Iridiscent Ira Siff will give (though not too much) a master class under the auspices of the Metropolitan Opera Guild on Wednesday, March 7 at 4:15 - 5:30 P.M at DiCapo Opera, Lexington Avenue at 76th Street. He will coach three young singers on Mozart, Puccini and the bel canto. Some tickets will be available at the door for $10 (whisper "Ira sent me...")

Opernballistic

Part of Anna Netrebko's star turn at the Vienna Opera Ball last month. Note at the end of the clip the lovely and talented Paris Hilton sulking in Richard Lugner's loge.

Sky scheduled to fall in 2009

It's still two years before the dreaded Mortier monster is due to descend upon the city, but right-wing thinktankstress and Giuliani enabler Heather Mac Donaldisn't wasting any time getting the hyperbole rolling. From The City Journal ("the best magazine in America" -- Peggy Noonan), a sample of Mac Donald's heady prose:

While Belgian-born Mortier’s fellow students were trashing universities and other sites of the “establishment” across Europe in 1968, Mortier was disrupting opera productions he considered too conservative, according to a New York Times magazine profile. Now he sits atop the world he once sought to overturn, exploring, as he puts it, “socio-political associations” in opera. Mortier is the musical equivalent of the academic tenured radical—Roger Kimball’s famous phrase for 1960s campus protesters who now run universities.

H-Mac goes on to invoke the usual gang of boogeymen: Peter Sellars, Calixto Bieito, Pamela Rosenberg ... you know, the hate-music leftist crowd. The point that none of these three has the slightest influence in American music or theater at the moment seems to escape Ms. Mac Donald. But, after all, logic has so little place in scare tactics, does it?

This one goes out to Zauscher

Garterdammerung

That Richard Wagner sure had star quality! Even now, 124 years after his death, the composer exerts a fascination that extends even to lively speculation about minutiae about his personal life. In a previously unpublished letter unearthed for the premiere issue of The Wagner Journal, Wagner discusses -- well, what do you think? The Grundthemae system? The influence of Greek tragedy on Gluck's "reform" operas? That old standby, The Jews? Actually, none of the above. The Meister burbles on giddily to a Milanese couturiere about a new frock "with a lace jabot and ribbons; close-fitting sleeves; the dress trimmed with puffed flounces - of the same satin material - no basque at the front (the dress must be very wide and have a train) but a rich bustle with a bow at the back, like the one at the front..." and so forth.

Wait, it gets better. Co-editor Barry Millington, who obviously has quite a bit of free time on his hands, speculates that the 1874 letter "adds weight to the theory that the composer exhibited the tendencies of a cross-dresser". Yes, that's right -- Millington is suggesting that Wagner was ordering the gown for himself, not for Frau Cosima. (The article from the Journal is not available online, but the main points are summarized in The Guardian.) The wealth of girly technical detail in Wagner's letters suggests that even if he didn't intend to swan about in drag, he might have finished in the top three on Project Runway:

... a black satin costume that may be made up in various ways, so that it can be worn out of doors, with or without the cazavoika,* and in the house, even as a negligee, producing a combination of several articles capable of complementing one another

* As La Cieca is sure it is utterly superfluous to explain, a "cazavoika" is a type of polonaise, or decorative overskirt drawn up by invisibly placed inner tapes producing a ruched festoon bustle effect.

Well, as delicious as all this speculation may be, La Cieca remains dubious about Wagner's putative transvestism. It appears that the linchpin of the argument here is that the obsessive diarist Cosima never bothered to note the delivery of the basqueless confection her husband ordered; in other words, he appropriated the finery for himself. Meh, says La Cieca; Wagner had lots of frilly things of his own and would hardly have had to resort to subterfuge. ("Oh, it's not for me, of course -- it just happens that my wife wears the same size I do...")

No, La Cieca prefers to think of the Wizard of Bayreuth as the Jeffrey Sebelia of his day, though thankfully without the neck tattoos.

Avant garde

La Cieca hears that incoming NYCO intendant Gérard Mortier is wasting no time in putting his stamp on the company, even though his tenure is not due to begin until 2009. La Cieca's source whispers that Mortier is sending Kevin Murphy (currently head of the music staff at Paris) to New York to replace the City Opera's "entrenched" John Beeson. Kevin Murphy is the husband of Heidi Grant Murphy, who perhaps not coincidentally has been singing a lot in Paris lately, where reportedly she has met with something less than universal acclaim.

Auteur! Auteur!

La Cieca has managed yet once more to scoop the everloving world. Here, for your enjoyment, prior to its unveiling in the Met's Schwartz gallery: an exclusive sneak preview of the just-completed video portrait of Renee Fleming, directed by Robert Wilson.

While I waste these precious showers

Until the Met gets around to installing their Robert Wilson video portrait of Renee Fleming, we can bide our time with the artist's take on Brad Pitt. (Warning: audio contains wild ranting and screaming, but at least it's not "I could have danced all night.")

Overheard

First Opera Professional: Mortier will be a disaster at NYCO! He has the worst taste in singers of anyone in the business!

Second Opera Professional: Oh, then he must have done the casting for for their 2007-08 season.

The dotted line has been signed

The New York Times reports that Gérard Mortier will become general manager and artistic director of the New York City Opera in 2009. Of course, you already knew that, didn't you?

To infinity, and beyond!

The delectable details of the 2007-2008 season at the Metropolitan (discussed this morning in a press conference with Peter Gelb, James Levine and representatives of the new season's production teams) may be found on the Met's web site. Our publisher JJ was there in the flesh, and he forwards his impressions:

The biggest news this morning was something unspoken. Instead, it was Levine's body language, which (in contrast to previous years) suggested he is both comfortable and secure working with Gelb. Levine stayed for the entire press conference and was particularly attentive when Phillip Glass was speaking.

The press conference was as carefully staged as a Met performance. In fact, a lot more carefully than Simon Boccanegra. The meeting began at exactly seven minutes after 11 a.m.

Mr. Gelb reflected on the successes of the current season, which include:

• An increased audience for the HD simulcasts, now up to 250 screens for Eugene Onegin
  
• The box office (though "not necessarily a thermometer") is running nine percentage points higher than this point last season
  
• This season so far 61 performances have sold out, in contrast to 20 sellouts for the entire 2006-2006 season
  
• Eight HD presentations are booked for next year
  
• Opening night 2007 (new production of Lucia di Lammermoor) will be simulcast in the plaza, and the Met is in negotiations with NYC to show it in Times Square as well.

James Levine chimed in that what he finds "even more exciting" than the many innovations this year is that he sees a strong sense of follow-through. It is one thing to get new audiences into the theater the first time, but to sustain that audience you must offer them quality. He adds that he is pleased with how Gelb works with him on a day-to-day basis on solving problems. Levine will conduct the new productions of Lucia and Macbeth next season, plus revivals of Manon Lescaut and Tristan und Isolde, as well as the Met Orchestra's Carnegie Hall series.

Tweaks to next season include revival of the Anthony Minghella Butterfly with Patricia Racette and Roberto Alagna, Barbiere and (as reported by La Cieca a while ago) The First Emperor.

Mary Zimmerman (funny, unpretentious and smart) talked about her production of Lucia. Scene changes in this staging will be done "a vista."

Glass and associate director and designer Julian Crouch introduced Satyagraha. The composer stressed the political and social content of the work, and Crouch talked about how the set materials of corrugated iron and newspaper were suggested by the themes of the opera.

Stephen Wadsworth waxed un peu teachy-teachy on the subject of Iphigénie en Tauride ("Gluck was an ethnic Czech, did you know that?"), but, as Dawn Fatale pointed out, at least the set does not include a built-in shower. The edition of the score will be based on Gluck's Vienna revision, in which Oreste is a tenor, presumably in order to facilitate the participation of Placido Domingo.

The other producers appeared on video. The most buzzworthy statement from this segment was from Adrian Noble, who says the design of his Macbeth is suggested by photographs by Diane Arbus.

The cutest stage director of the whole group was Laurent Pelly (La Fille du Régiment), with Crouch and Richard Jones (Hansel and Gretel) tied for second.

Zoe Caldwell will the the Duchesse de Krakenthorp.

In response to reporters' questions, Gelb said that the Met has negotiated rights to release all its archival performances on CD, DVD, download on demand and "media not yet invented." Anne Midgette asked if there were updates on new commissions by the Met, but Gelb declined to comment, saying that the Met would have a statement later this season.

And then, finger sandwiches and coffee on the Bass Grand Tier, where yet another of parterre.com's web of reliable sources noted that the Gérard Mortier/NYCO deal is all but signed on the dotted line.

Hello, Mister Wilson!

The most startling news from tomorrow's press conference at the Met (as released early to the New York Times) -- in 2011, a new production of Bellini's Norma, starring Renee Fleming and directed by Robert Wilson. The casting of Cecilia Bartoli as Adaligisa is La Cieca's own whimsy, but, hey, stranger things have happened. (For example, a Wilson/Fleming Norma...)

UPDATE: The role of Adalgisa in the Fleming/Wilson Norma scheduled for 2011 will not, as La Cieca puckishly suggested, be sung by Cecilia Bartoli. In fact she has just been informed by one of her most impeccable sources that the part will go to Elīna Garanča.

And in other exclusive Decca recording artist/avant-garde legend related news, the Schwartz gallery at the Met is awaiting installation of a Robert Wilson "video portrait" of La Fleming. La Cieca will inform you when the Wilson film makes it on to YouTube.

Vilar to "Post"

Ah, dear Alberto Vilar -- remember when he was going to swoop down from the skies and rescue the Metropolitan Opera and The Royal Opera at Covent Garden and, well, just opera, in general? And, more to the point, remember how he never tired of bragging about his munificence, and demanding lavish expressions of gratitude? Well, he's in the news again. To be more specific, Vilar has turned up in the pages of the New York Post. The tab rag reports that the "former philanthopist" is complaining about how cruel and unusual it is to be confined to an 11,000 square foot duplex at United Nations Plaza, with time out only for visits to doctors and lawyers, church services, errands, and of course his daily 90 minute stroll. Vilar wants to spend more quality time with his his "significant other," Maria Muñoz, or, as the Post so vividly puts it, to "play daddy to his gal pal's son while she wages a battle against life-threatening cancer."

Crossing over

Angela Gheorghiu sings "La vie en rose" at the Paris Garnier Gala conducted by Ion Marin, New Year's Eve 2006.

It's not a comeback

The final act of Loreley is hardly the only attraction on the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera. La Cieca also salutes the birthdays of three of the greatest sopranos of all time, and, can you believe it, presides over the return of one of your all-time favorite features, "The Enigmas of La Cieca." Once more, cher public, you can play "opera quiz" from the comfort and safety of your own lovely homes, without the difficultly of slogging through the snow to List Hall, or, for that matter, the difficulty of slugging Anthony Laciura once you get there. (Who knew it was possible to channel Eddie Cantor? Who knew anyone wanted to?) But anyway, as La Cieca was saying, do lend an ear to the new Unnatural Acts of Opera, listen to La Cieca's enigma, and (if you dare) send you answer to the question to [email protected]. The first correct response received will win a tantalizing gift from handelmania.com.

Kiss kiss

YouTube starlet William Zauscher has returned, this time in a more divacentric mood.

Pourquoi me déshabillier?

A quick perusal of the website of Giuseppe Filianoti suggests that the honey-toned tenor might well be dubbed "the Nathan Gunn of Italy." Well, that's not completely accurate, because Filianoti doesn't take off his shirt in every operatic role. But even without singing, he does make something utterly poetic of the dying Werther:

Happy Birthday, Régine Crespin!

The legendary French soprano celebrates her 80th birthday today.

Siren song

Currently on Unnatural Acts of Opera, the ravishing Loreley by Alfredo Catalani in a performance from La Scala in 1968. Heading the cast is perhaps the definitive "meteoric" diva, Elena Suliotis.

La Cieca remembers as a tiny child seeing this late '60s photo of La Suliotis and thinking that she had to be the most glamorous star ever, with her frosted bouffant, nude lips and Barbara Parkins eyeshadow. And in this Loreley she sounds utterly glamorous as well!

Unnatural Acts of Opera

Followup

On Tuesday, in the criminal courthouse in lower Manhattan, Jerry Hadley was cleared of the DUI charge for which he was arraigned on May 10 of last year. After months of procedural appearances in court, the tenor was exonerated when the District Attorney's office moved for dismissal.

Huis clos

Now who, of all people, do you think spent all day today in a hush-hush meeting with George Manahan over at the New York City Opera? (Do you remember the New York City Opera? It's that other company in Lincoln Center, the one people used to pay a lot of attention to before Peter Gelb took over the Met.) But back to the subject at hand. Manahan's all-day tête-à-tête partner was Gérard Mortier, so La Cieca hears. And so La Cieca repeats, though for the life of her she can't figure out what this is all about. Unless it's the sharing of lousy Francesca Zambello productions between now and 2009, when Mortier departs the Paris Opéra. Or might it have something to do with the years following 2009?

Comeback kid

The Metropolitan Opera has just announced that Lorin Maazel will return to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time in 45 years to conduct six performances of Wagner's Die Walküre beginning January 7, 2008. These performances will be Maazel's first with the company since the 1962-63 season. (To give you some concept of how long ago that was, Maazel's assignments that season included Der Rosenkavalier with Regine Crespin making her Met debut, directed by Lotte Lehmann.)

The Walküre performances run through February 9, 2008, with a cast that includes Lisa Gasteen (Brünnhilde), Adrianne Pieczonka/Deborah Voigt (Sieglinde), Stephanie Blythe/Michelle DeYoung (Fricka), Clifton Forbis/Simon Dennis O'Neill (Siegmund), James Morris (Wotan) and Mikhail Petrenko (Hunding).

Lost weekend

A quarter of a century elapses between the prologue and first act of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. By a bizarre coincidence, that's exactly the same length of time since Bernard Holland has had anything remotely relevant or intelligent to say in print. His latest "efforts" are in today's NY Times, but I'm not going to bother to link. After all, La Cieca is pretty sure that you all know the plot outlines of Simon Boccanegra and The Grapes of Wrath. Even though Holland was supposed to review actual live performances of these two operas (the latter a world premiere), he didn't quite get around to writing anything you might call a "critique." Instead, he cribbed a few lines from Cliff's Notes, then slumped back into his usual banana-eared stupor.

Do it again

UPDATE: CORRECTED MP3 PLAYER

The remarkable OperaChic was in attendance for the prima of La Scala's revival of La fille du Regiment, where Juan Diego Florez encored his first act cabaletta "Pour mon ame." This performance marked the first "bis" of a solo aria at La Scala since 1933. Photos and an account of what must have been a truly dazzling night abound on the Chic's website. And here's what JDF's "bis" sounded like:

The chat that never ends

In her unceasing effort to keep you, her cher public, in touch and yakking, La Cieca has discovered a way to set up an always-open, always-active chat room launching directly from parterre.com. (For the technically minded among you, it's an applet called Yaplet, and, yes, La Cieca realizes that it sounds about as silly as "a Woozle named Peanut.") Anyway, to join in the chat, just click here or else on the "Chat Here" Yaplet badge in the sidebar.

OONY thing goes

UPDATE/CORRECTION: La Cieca has just been informed that Mark Risinger (the scheduled Marco) was ill yesterday and his cover, Brian Kontes, sang in his place. There was no announcement made.

La Cieca's spy at the dress rehearsal of L'arlesiana whispers:

Mr. Filianoti muffed the interpolated high note in the famous aria but it was 11:30 a.m. Other than that he used his sweet, compact voice to give a lesson in Italianate singing and in the use of every penny of the vocal interest and not a cent of the principal. And Ms. Cornetti is the real deal -- plenty of molten sound to get past that verismo orchestra on stage with her and the use of a Simionato-like mix on the bottom to score many points, indulging in full chest only occasionally. Too bad there is nothing to equal "Acerba volutta" to get her a more proper response during the opera itself. The Baldassare and Metifio were interesting studies in vocal production. Weston Hurt as the old shepherd owns an attractive sound with an easy top with a lot of "fly" but not enough presence in the middle for a versimo part of this sort. The Metifio, Ihn-Kyu Lee, resorts to a lot of grab to try to cut through the orchestra but then has a top with very little freedom, though he is big on sneering malice. The Vivetta, Latonia Moore, has a voice best described charitably as "dusky..." If she can leap to the top or pick it out of the air she does have a nice party-trick pianissimo (because the sound is so far back). In the brief role of Uncle Marco, bass Mark Risinger Brian Kontes contributes four minutes of pure professionalism and geniality. Ms. Queler is her usual self and the orchestra plays fairly well if not subtly.

No time for "Tragedy"

La Cieca has just heard from one of her myriad of reliable sources that the Met's surprise box-office smash of this season, The First Emperor, will return in the spring of 2008. In order to make room in the schedule, a projected revival of An American Tragedy has been 86ed.

Concussed with talent

Newly anointed gay icon Lisa Milne performs the "Jewel Song" from Faust.
(For any of this to make sense, you need to have heard her interview on last night's Sirius broadcast.)

Blonde Item

Compare and contrast the bel canto stylings of Elizabeth Futral and Anna Netrebko tonight when La Cieca hosts yet another of her live chats here on parterre.com.

The live Met/Sirius broadcast of Bellini's I puritani featuring Futral begins at 7:30 Eastern and the taped PBS telecast with Netrebko begins at 9:00. That's here in New York on good old Channel 13. Don't forget to check your local listings.

Anyway, La Cieca will open up the Duelling Elviras Chat Room at 7:15 for the frenzied festivities.

Blogger cred

This is Felix.

All night long

You know those times when you look at your watch, and it's only about 8:15, and you say to yourself, "Oh, man, this is going to be a long, long, long evening!"

This is one of them.

Cessarono gli spasmi del dolore?

A highly-placed source for Opera Orchestra of New York has expressed the hope that all is not quite lost for the company. In an email sent to a long-time supporter of OONY this morning, the source concedes "big problems because of the dramatic drop in box office" and admits the board is "hard pressed to make up the difference." OONY is is "sure of one opera next year," we are told, but they are "not sure about the other two evenings." The source further suggested that very strong ticket sales for the upcoming L'arlesiana might rescue the 2007-08 season.

UPDATE: An OONY spokesperson confirms that the company has scheduled Bellini's La sonnambula (featuring the well-received tenor Dimitry Korchak from this year's Dom Sebastian) for February 27, 2008 and promises that further plans will be announced "very shortly." Meanwhile, La Cieca has heard that one possible event for OONY's next year would be a gala concert headed by Marcello Giordani and Aprile Millo.

Eve at Twilight?

UPDATE: Opera Orchestra of New York music director Eve Queler has confided the sad news that the company is closing its doors permanently at the end of the current season to cast members of the upcoming L'arlesiana, La Cieca has just heard.

Queler has reportedly spilled the beans to at least one other OONY mainstay, a superstar tenor who (La Cieca hears) is toying with the idea of organizing a gala fundraiser to rescue the company.

When asked to comment on Opera Orchestra's future, press representative Aleba Gartner replied via email "All I can say right now is that OONY will be announcing plans for next season shortly."

La Cieca reported last night that she had just heard "something pretty startling" -- that Opera Orchestra of New York will shut down permanently after this season. According to our source, the board of directors of the company have already made the decision; all that remains is to complete the 2006-2007 program with L'arlesiana on February 21.

In its 35 year history, OONY has presented the American premieres of Puccini’s Edgar, Boito’s Nerone, Smetana’s Libuse and the Russian language version of Tchaikovsky’s Orleanskaya Deva, marking the American premiere of the Russian language version of this opera.

OONY has also presented such rarities such as Wagner’s Rienzi; Verdi’s I Lombardi, I masnadieri, Aroldo, and La battaglia di Legnano; Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles; Catalani’s La Wally; Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine, Les Huguenots, and Robert le Diable; Berlioz’ Lélio and Benvenuto Cellini; Smetana’s Dalibor; Donizetti’s La Favorita; Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini; Dvorak’s Rusalka and Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina.

Tickling the ivories

"I could not have been alone in the audience in responding with something like parental concern when [pianist Till] Fellner appeared onstage. Lanky, rail-thin, wholesome-looking and still boyish at 34, he seemed as shy and awkward as ever . . . . A regimen of free weights at a gym in Vienna, where Mr. Fellner lives, might not be a bad idea."

Writing like this, on the other hand, is definitely a bad idea.

Fan club

In observance of the 100th anniversary of the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Madama Butterfly, La Cieca presents a podcast featuring the original cast of that production: Geraldine Farrar, Enrico Caruso and Antonio Scotti. The three superstars are heard in ten selections from Puccini's score.

Unnatural Acts of Opera

Not only connect...

"At 'Connect at the Met for Gay and Lesbian Singles,' a social mixer at the Metropolitan Opera on February 2, prospective hookups sipped Champagne in between acts of Leos Janácek's 'Jenufa.' This grim tragedy might seem unlikely to kindle thoughts of romance, but even those participants who failed to launch a relationship had the satisfaction of witnessing one of the company's most powerful artistic triumphs in years."

Our publisher JJ's first opera of 2007, reviewed in Gay City News.

Voce di primavera

La Cieca has just heard the delightful news that her #1 favorite singer of all time, Renata Scotto, will grace the airwaves as Quizmistress during the Met broadcast of Il trittico on April 28.