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!

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.

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?

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!

Out in the cold

Which late-blooming soprano, hailed as a savior only last season, has now been stripped of her "prima donna" status? Who knew the winter would come so soon?

Film at 11

First off, La Cieca should tell you that her producer/alter ego JJ will be heard this afternoon on WNYC's talk show "Soundcheck" discussing (what else?) L'affaire Alagna. The program begins at 2:00 PM and JJ is scheduled to be heard in the final segment between 2:30 and 3:00. "Soundcheck" gained notoriety last month when uber-diva Jessye Norman got into something of a snit after a fellow guest questioned the charitable motivations of certain celebrities. La Cieca hopes that this afternoon's show will include comparable fireworks.

Well, now a different version of the "walkout" video has surfaced from Spanish TV:

In the words of dear Alex Ross, "I'm no Zapruder," but La Cieca does note certain subtleties:

• The staging has been modified since the opening night. Amneris (Ildiko Komlosi) does not enter during "Celeste Aida," but remains offstage until the very end of the aria.
  
• Alagna sings the written ending of the aria, i.e., a long high B-flat, without the added "vicino al sol" on the lower B-flat.
  
• Alagna is still onstage when the orchestra begins the introduction to "Quale insolita gioia," though he is out the door within seconds of Komlosi's first vocal entrance.

Now, what, if anything, does all this mean? Well, the first two changes would seem to suggest that someone decided to try to avoid "killing" Alagna's applause after his aria. The quiet ending, plus the presence of another character moving onstage) would tend to put a damper on audience reaction. La Cieca's guess is that Alagna was not happy with the polite applause at the prima and so tried to (as one might say) "give the public a chance to express their admiration." The video thus gives impression that Alagna was going a little mild milking of the applause. The well-timed "bravo" might be an attempt by a fan to build the ovation. Now, going further out into the realm of speculation, perhaps the ensuing "boo" was a scornful reaction to the "bravo" rather than a jeer at Alagna's performance per se.

Here's where it gets particularly interesting, at least to La Cieca's fevered imagination. A feature of these La Scala shouting matches is that the exclamations used are both wildly inflammatory and dangerously ambiguous. We are told that shouts were heard of "Vergogna, vergogna!" and "Questa e la Scala!" But to whom were these cries addressed, and in reaction to what? Were they saying, "shame, shame" to Alagna because his singing (in their opinion) was below La Scala standard? Or was the "shameful" part his perceived disrespect (or cowardice?) in walking offstage just because of a mixed reaction from the public. ("This is La Scala, get used to it!")

Or maybe the yelling was mostly, as we might say, intramural; i.e., various members of the audience yelling at each other, in which case Alagna's walk was really a gross overreaction.

But, speaking of the "walk" issue, I think this video takes some of the heat off Riccardo Chailly. When he starts the Amneris music, Alagna is still onstage. All Chailly can see at that moment is that the tenor is not doing the staging he was taught, which is not exactly unprecedented in Italian opera. For all Chailly could see, it may have appeared that Alagna was just stepping into the wings for a moment to clear his throat or grab a gulp of water -- again, these things do happen.

Had Antonello Palombi not bounded on from the wings, presumably Chailly would have stopped the orchestra, the curtain would have been lowered, and the performance would have continued with Walter Fraccaro, perhaps following a brief announcement. Where La Cieca is going with this is that it doesn't look like Chailly was necessarily conspiring against Alagna along with the three mysterious karate men, the anonymous phone caller and all the other members of the anti-Alagna faction.

Meanwhile, the latest installment of Opera Chic whispers that Stéphane Lissner has given orders to the Scala staff: if Alagna attempts to enter the theater, call the police! In contrast to such hysteria, Riccardo Muti spoke to La Stampa Daily, turning aside questions about Alagna's behavior but sniping at the "moronic" stage production by Franco Zeffirelli.

The other Bobby

Walkout tenor Roberto Alagna is just generally pissed at the whole La Scala Aida experience, frankly. Even before the "buu" incident at last night's performance, Bobby was spewing in an interview with La Repubblica that he (and the other singers in Aida) were being treated like second-class citizens: "La verità è che, in Italia, ormai i cantanti non se li fila più nessuno," Alagna fumed. "Esistono solo il direttore e il regista, quando mai vedi sui giornali una foto dei cantanti? Lo sa che alla cena a Palazzo Reale non eravamo nemmeno stati invitati e che anche lì ho fatto un mezzo scandalo? E poi tutti quegli applausi a Roberto Bolle... Vadano a vedersi un balletto, invece di un' opera."

Yes, it's true. Apparently at a gala dinner-reception following the prima, the singers were shuttled off to a secondary ballroom while Franco Zeffirelli, Riccardo Chailly, Scala intendant Stéphane Lissner and hobnobbed with the glitterari in the "A" room. And the photographers did indeed focus on Roberto Bolle, which is understandable at least on the grounds that "the other Bobby" is more than a little photogenic.


Opera Chic has more (constantly updated) details, including the point that the Scala performances are being taped by Decca for eventual DVD release, a project that will be pointless without Alagna's cooperation. Oh, on the same blogsite, a delightful photo of little Bobby's Scotto Heels.

UPDATE: Now Decca and La Scala are making noises about legal action against Alagna. He says he will show up for the performances scheduled for taping, but not the others (in January). And the Italian news site SKY Life has an online video report about this scandale, including bits and pieces of the gaudy Zeffirelli production, an interview with Antonello "Sul Palco in Jeans" Palombo, plus a tantalizing glimpse of The Other Bobby rocking his triumphal thong.

Ancient Chinese secret, revealed

So, more scoop on that "emergency meeting" La Cieca hinted at yesterday. It seems that the costumes for the Met's new production of The First Emperor arrived from China in the last couple of weeks. La Cieca is told that when the boxes were unpacked, the wardrobe staff complained of a strong chemical odor emanating from the garments. One worker, she hears, had to visit the hospital complaining of "serious respiratory problems," other staffers report rashes, eye irritation and such. On Monday the costumes were transported to a large rehearsal room to "air out," but, according to La Cieca's source, the room "was reeking in about five minutes."

Which brings us to yesterday's meeting, which was chaired by no less than Joe Clark, which suggests that the Met is taking the situation very seriously. According to an attendee, the staff was assured that the costumes were being aired and laundered, even though no one knows for sure the exact nature of the irritant. "Testing" will continue for several weeks. Oh, and our source adds that even after the costumes were removed from the rehearsal room, the odor lingered on. In fact, La Cieca hears that the next group of singers scheduled to rehearse in the room refused to enter, the stink was so overwhelming.

The elephant in the middle of the room (metaphorically speaking, of course) is how Placido Domingo and the other First Emperor artists are going to react when they are asked to don these allegedy allergen-rich garments -- and then sing for three hours.

Improbable, but true

As La Cieca mentioned last month, the 2007-2008 Met season will include a new production of Satyagraha, the Gandhi-themed opera by Philip Glass and Constance De Jong. And now La Cieca has been informed that there is actual basis in fact for her wild surmising. Darling Dawn Fatale drew La Cieca's attention to an announcement on a blog called daytripper of a theater workshop to be conducted by the designer and director Julian Crouch.

Mr. Crouch's CV includes the following fascinating detail: "Currently he is designer and associate director of a new staging of Phillip Glass’s opera about Gandhi, SATYAGRAHA, for the English National Opera and The New York Metropolitan Opera." A glance at the English National Opera's website reveals that, yes, Satyagraha is on the bill, with a production team consisting of Crouch and Phelim McDermott of the theater company "Improbable," best known here in New York for their 2005 production of Shockheaded Peter.

The ENO production is scheduled for April 2007, which suggests that the opera would show up in New York earlier that year -- perhaps for an opening night coinciding with Glass's 70th birthday on January 31, 2007? (Remember, you heard it here first.)

Gloomy Thursday

On this day of Thanksgiving, there are so many things for which La Cieca would like to give thanks. But enough about that. Here's one thing for which La Cieca would like to say, "Thanks, but no thanks."

Among the participants in this year's Macy's Thanksgiving parade: none other than The Beautiful Voice, or, as she is identified on NBC.com, "Renee Fleming, Grandma from the Big Apple Circus." Fleming will lip-synch "America the Beautiful," backed by an Army chorus and band. Also on hand will be Super Grover, SpongeBob SquarePants and Healthy Mr. Potato Head, who will perform scenes from Massenet's Cleopatre.

Thinly veiled at best blind item

Which Met prima donna recently enraged her maestro when she forgot (or refused) to bring him out a curtain call at his final performance of the run? In recounting the story of this obvious snub, the "always friendly and downright jocular" conductor becomes so emotional that he begins to gesticulate as wildly as he does on the podium. The sharp sword of karmic justice is swift, though, because the diva missed her own curtain call only a few nights later!

Bright shining as The Sun

Fred Kirshnit joins the legions dazzled by the radiance that is Millo. In The Sun, Kirshnit writes

People who love Aprile Millo really love Ms. Millo, and so interspersed among the nearly capacity crowd dressed in their finery as the National Italian American Foundation honored the soprano were the occasional young man or pair of young men tastefully outfitted in smart jeans and strategically placed around the hall for maximum claque impact. Whenever their girl appeared, there were noticeable exclamations of pure joy.

. . . .

As for Ms. Millo, she dismissed the printed program as irrelevant and offered an entirely different couple of selections . . . . But the undoubted takeaway memory was her knockout version of the "Suicidio" from the Orfano Canal act of Amilcare Ponchielli's "La Gioconda," which she is currently singing at the Met. This is properly classified as a dramatic soliloquy, and never have I heard it sung quite this dramatically. Ms. Millo, in addition to possessing all of the requisite vocal tools, has a highly developed sense of acting. Her little pauses and flashes of the eyes were mesmerizing. This was one of those rare performances at which I heard a loud exhalation of breath at its conclusion, and realized it was mine.

Those flashing eyes (not to mention the vocal tools) may be witnessed at Millo's first Tosca of the season on November 25 at the Met.

When Ladies Meet

The scene: Backstage at the Richard Tucker Gala.

The situation: Diva X is onstage, singing music from the opera _________, a role for which Diva Y (also on the bill) is famous. Diva Z is among the onlookers while Diva Y "holds court."

[The guests chatter.]

Diva Y: Silence! What's that music!

Diva Z: Why, that's a scene from _________.

Diva Y: __________? Who on earth is singing that?

Diva Z: Oh, that's Diva X!

Diva Y: Diva X? Is Diva X actually singing _________?

Diva Z: Well, yes, but, you know, it's only an excerpt, not the whole role . . .

Diva Y: [interrupting] Never mind, my dear. That was a rhetorical question.

Midweek midtacular

Where else would La Cieca be this Sunday but basking the the star radiance of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation's annual gala? Now! With 100% more Met artists, including Elizabeth Futral, Samuel Ramey, José Cura, René Pape, James Morris, Marcello Giordani, Patricia Racette, Joseph Calleja, Angela Marambio, Sandra Radvanovsky and Aprile Millo. The galalicious fun begins at 6:00 PM at Avery Fisher Hall.

At least one former winner of the Tucker award won't be appearing, darn it, because she's just finished a gala benefit of her own at La Scala. It's Renaaay, of course, and the new (to La Cieca) blog Opera Chic describes the scene:

Interestingly, La Fleming had arranged to be basked in the glow of a peachy, pinkish spotlight. Hartmut Höll instead was replete in the flat, sterile, blue/white light, which by default, is implemented for every other normal recital. I mean, homegirl looked good, but it was like Liz Taylor and her vaseline filters.

La Cieca feels like she was there, I tell you, and wait until you read the breathless paragraphs detailing The Frock (by Gianfranco Ferré, of course.)

And did La Cieca mention that they're bringing back Big Gay Date Night at the Met? For just $95 you get an orchestra seat, pre-performance hors d’oeuvres, intermission champagne and dessert, and, just possibly, some post-performance nooky. Boheme is on November 21, but La Cieca thinks that the best husband material will be found at the February 2 Jenufa. (For that matter, surely the combination of Karita Mattila and Anja Silja will attract an upscale lesbian crowd as well.)

Plus: don't forget the Smart Singer Tricks on The Late Show With David Letterman tonight, beginning at 11:35 pm (US Eastern and Pacific time) on CBS-TV.

Buffman glance

A video of Brad Pitt in wet underpants. Now, you would think that there is no way that such a video would be less than fascinating, right? Well, you'd be wrong, because the video is directed by the only man in the world who could make Brad Pitt in wet underpants look boring.

Robert Wilson, of course. Via Vanity Fair.

UPDATE: Oh, and did I mention that Pitt is furious at what his legal representative calls an "unauthorized" use of a still from the Wilson video "portrait" that Vanity Fair used as the cover of their "Art Issue?" The cover identifies Wilson as an "avant-garde impresario," which of course is zero for two.

Man on Mantova action

La Cieca hosts a chat tonight on the subject of the Met's season premiere of Rigoletto, which also marks the first RealNetworks free streaming broadcast of a Met performance. (The performance will also be broadcast on Sirius.) The room will open at 7:45 PM.

BREAKING: Opera Enjoyed by All

The NYT's ace scribe Bernard "Scoop" Holland breathlessly spills his latest discoveries about that newfangled entertainment called "opera" today. Didja know, for example, that a lot of opera is long and boring, but there's this one opera called Cavalleria rusticana that's not as long as most (" it’s the only opera I know that may be too short")?

Cav, which Mr. Holland types "acts like a single, sweeping transitive verb," has a lot in common with Pagliacci, if you overlook that elusive transitive quality. "Both pieces," Holland confides, "concern triangular adultery. . . . Both leave behind a sufficient number of dead bodies."

Trifles, really. "Indeed, if these pieces can lay any claim to deep thinking, it is that they are at once celebrations of tabloid brutality and of a bygone theatrical artifice since supplanted by machines, the wonders of electricity and the lessened imaginations of spectators."

Holland then rips the lid off the secret of "famous" Franco Zeffirelli's success as a stage designer ("upscale tastes"), though he is maybe a little disappointed at Zeffirelli's "tame" set for this double bill. Alas, the original designs for gold and marble slums paved in mother-of-pearl cobblestones must have got lost in the mail.

Oh, there were some singers too. Holland lavishes an adjective each on the leads.

Another unnatural chat

The Windy City's own Enzo Bordello will host the next Unnatural Chat of Opera this Saturday night (October 21). Topic of the chat will be Lyric Opera of Chicago's performance of Salome, which will be broadcast that evening beginning at 7:30 Central time. This is the prima of a new Francesca Zambello production of the Strauss shocker, but of course the most intense interest here will be Deborah Voigt's first staged performance of the title role.

Sir Andrew Davis conducts and the cast also includes Kim Begley (Herodes), Alan Held (Jokanaan) and Judith Forst (Herodias). The chat room will be open beginning at 7:15 Central time; 8:15 here on the Eastern Seaboard. Check back here on parterre.com Saturday evening for a link to the chat page.

Veils, song

As if those opera queens (you know La Cieca is talking to you, cher public) don't already have more than enough to listen to, what with Unnatural Acts of Opera, plus Sirius Met Broadcasts, plus various streaming radio on the internet -- well, now there's lots more where that came from. Well, anyway, one more from where that came from -- the Lyric Opera of Chicago, which will resume its broadcasts beginning this Saturday night, October 21.

This will be the first series of broadcasts from the Lyric Opera since the 2001- 2002 season, and LOC is kicking off the new broadcasts with a bang -- the opening night of Salome, featuring Deborah Voigt's first staged performance of the title role. The live broadcast will be on WFMT, 98.7 starting at 7:30 PM Central Time, and La Cieca has just learned that the broadcast will be streamed live over wfmt.com.

This works out particularly well, since there is no live Met Sirius performance that night. La Cieca knows how harried you get, cher public, when you have to choose which broadcast to listen to, and one at a time is all she can handle as well, at least until someone invents the internet radio equivalent of Tivo.

Well, that's Saturday night, but right now it's Monday, and La Cieca has some podcasting to do. Tonight's program, La Cieca hopes, you will find a special treat. The fabulous Regine Crespin is heard in recital at Hunter College on November 11, 1967, partnered by John Wustman on the 88s. This Unnatural Act of Opera program will be available beginning tonight, October 16.

Blind ambition

Ewa Podles shows how it's done.

Va! laisse couler mes soupcons

Which young diva's career ascent has been (if not completely, certainly a lot) via her alleged willingness to let the intendant of a certain European opera house into her trousers? Her star turns under his regime have not been well reviewed (as a whole) and her detractors whisper that even her upcoming U.S. engagements would never have offered had her sexuality been as exclusive as her recording contract.

What a difference a deity makes

The Deutsche Oper, which last week cancelled a production for fear of protests by Muslims, announced Wednesday it was reinstating their Hans Neuenfels production of Idomeneo, but set no date.


Opera house spokesman Alexander Busche said, "The earliest slot for the production is in December, but first we need an okay about security from the police." City police are expected to mount a strong guard at the theatre if there are any demonstrations outside. Via Monsters & Critics.

There's a kind of rush

This just in: the Met will offer $20 "rush" tickets to selected Monday - Thursday performances beginning with the tomorrow's season premiere of Faust. According to a release from the Met's press department, 200 Orchestra seats -- regularly priced at $100 -- will be offered at $20 per ticket at the Met box office beginning two hours before curtain on the day of the performance. The discount ticket program is underwritten by Agnes Varis, a managing director of the Met's Board of Directors, and her husband, Karl Leichtman, the same folks who sponsored the "Open House" two weeks ago.

Again per the Met's website, "Purchases will be limited to two tickets per customer and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The program does not apply to performances for which $100 tickets are no longer available. Information about availability is provided online at http://www.metopera.org/ or by calling Met Ticket Service at (212) 362-2000. "

Return from the Plaza

La Cieca is back in her beloved Sunnyside late this evening, even though the Metropolitan Opera opening night began at 6:30. By her watch, the performance of Madama Butterfly ran not quite four hours including intermissions and curtain call. Oddly, though, the evening didn't seem unnaturally long -- maybe because La Cieca enjoyed a disco nap prior to the performance, or maybe because her seat for this opening night was in the plaza, watching on the big screen video, or, as we have come to call it, the Plazatron.

First things first: quite unlike most free events in New York, and on the Upper West Side in particular, the crowd was mostly very well mannered, attentive and appreciative. The weather, La Cieca must say, was simply superb, with just the hint of a cool autumnal breeze. The much-ballyhooed Red Carpet was somewhat underwhelming, hidden as it was over near Damrosch Park. La Cieca did catch a glimpse of Jude Law in the flesh, looking very dapper in black tie, and on the Plazatron, she noticed our own Dawn Fatale looking very boyish indeed against a backdrop of social xrays.

About the performance proper La Cieca can't really say anything because our own JJ will review a later performance, but she will note that the Plaza crowd was treated to an intermission feature showing director Anthony Minghella and the cast in rehearsal. Minghella talks too much, La Cieca thinks, and in the video one could sense that Marcello Giordani and Dwayne Croft were getting a bit impatient with all the chitchat. Speaking of which, Giordani looks great these days, slim and dashing in his Navy whites, and Croft has evolved into a very sexy daddy type -- particularly since this production makes no effort to disguise his mostly-bald pate. You know how La Cieca goes for the tete de peau look!

As La Cieca was preparing her podcast this evening she was listening to the second Met Radio broadcast on Sirius, a 1971 Rigoletto, and she sees the ante has been upped: she'll have to redouble her efforts to bring you the best in Unnatural Acts of Opera.

Sound the alarm

A few tidbits in reference to the impending Sirius broadcasts of the Met Opera. First, La Cieca's backstage spy reports that the Met has installed literally dozens of permanent microphones in various spots in the auditorium. These mikes are described as being reminiscent of CIA spy equipment, "the kind of technology that kind pick up a whisper a hundred yards away." (This sort of sensitivity will surely come in handy when Angela Gheorghiu sings Carmen a few seasons hence.) Our source went on to say that the Met and Sirius are trying for a completely different sound mix and balance from the familiar Saturday afternoon broadcasts.

La Cieca herself has signed up for the online-only Sirius service. The Met channel has not launched yet -- amusingly, the station is at the moment running a "tune in tonight" announcement backed with what sounds like Robin Byrd-era porn music. And that's for listeners who actually can access Sirius online: it seems that for some platforms (e.g., Safari) the stream may not be accessible until tomorrow. (Stone-age La Cieca is still on IE, which seems to work just fine. Right now she's listening to Miss Rosemary Clooney singing "In the Cool Cool Cool of the Evening" on Channel 75 "Standard Time.")

Following tonight's performance, La Cieca will podcast her reactions to the plaza experience along with the third act of a 1967 Madama Butterfly featuring Renata Scotto. Check back here, oh, elevenish when La Cieca returns to base for debriefing and cocktails!

"Pandemonium!"

That's how one industry insider described today's open dress rehearsal of Madama Butterfly at the Met. "More people than I've ever seen in the theater, some of them with tickets scalped from Ebay!"

A more measured assessment comes from yet another of La Cieca's network of operatives:

"Well I am happy to say that today's affair was well worth the wait in line! To begin with, the Met has transformed into a sort of "butterfly cocoon," with a myriad of exhibits, pictures and a giant ancient chinese banner outside which reads "Cio Cio San". The new art gallery has some very interesting paintings relating to the new production, although I question the inclusion of a collage of lesbian erotica which represents Madama Butterfly (quite a ballsy thing for such a bastion of tradition!). The documentary and Q&A session after the performance were
substantive and informative. Even Mayor Bloomberg deigned to make a short speech.

"Now, as for the performance--it certainly lived up to the hype! The crowd loved it, although a few people were puzzled bythe use of a puppet for Butterfly's child. I, however, felt it heightened the drama in that it allowed for a greater expressive range and highlighted the child's powerlessness. Besides that, the production really stunned everyone. The striking use of lighting as well as the costumes added so much to the performance and made for what is probably the most dramatic interpretation of the final scene. The giant black mirror which reflects the slanted stage gives the whole opera a cinematic feeling: you can see things in the mirror you cannot see on the stage, e.g., something happening behind a screen.

"Unlike so many productions at the MET, the effects are never an end in themselves and are meant to highlight the drama in some way rather that just dazzle the audience. On the whole, the sophistication of choreography, staging, and creativity is way ahead of most productions at the MET. It had the feeling of an excellent small theater production in that it was very specific and pretty much flawless. However, in its own way it was extravagant -- without being overblown like those Zeffirelli productions.

"Now, as for the singing....that is somewhat of a mixed bag. Giordani knocked my socks off with his gorgeous and unbroken sound. Vocally, he and Croft were the best aspects of the production. Gallardo-Domas was, well, not great . . . . She has no variety or delicacy, but at least she has a big enough voice to fill the house. As an actress she is suberb. It almost didn't matter that she couldn't quite fill the shoes of the role in the way that Scotto or de los Angeles could, because the production was just so damn superb.

"Oh and the best thing is that one does not have to be especially close to enjoy it--the production actually has more impact from a distance. For those who like their productions traditional --do not despair! This Butterfly production, while essentially minimalist, is not some kooky Eurotrash kitsch. It has the best aspects of a modern production, but is essentially traditional.

"I applaud the MET for finally doing something right. The open house was exciting, informative and just a wonderful experience all around. I hope this is a sign of things to come!"

Illuminata a festa splende Venezia nel lontano

Having recovered from today's five hour dress rehearsal at the Met, La Cieca's spy Barnaba offers this report:

There isn't much point to doing La Gioconda in this day and age if you haven't got a cast who can put it over. Wonder of wonders, the Met has dug its ancient (1967) staging out of the basement and put it back on the stage for which it was designed with a worthy cast of singers and no attempt to update the staging for contemporary tastes that might not approve of this most old-fashioned of grand operas. At the dress rehearsal, though lighting cues were all over the place (is Act IV in day or night? Where does that spotlight aim? And shouldn't there be smoke machines full blast at the end of Act II?), what we got was a real live old-time Gioconda, minimal stand-and-deliver acting, fuzzy cues and all.

All honor first and foremost to Violeta Urmana, whose opulent unstrained soprano gave point to the enterprise and makes one hope the Verdi repertory (Aida, Stiffelio, Forza, Ballo) need not be consigned to the scrap heap just yet. A little unsteady on the floated pianissimi of "Enzo adorato" (I'm sure she'll have that down by later performances), she was passionate in well-supported flood everywhere else in this intense, verismo-foreshadowing role. Olga Borodina had no problems at all singing Laura, her mezzo foil -- if anything, she might hold back a bit to suit her character's more retiring nature -- but she seemed a bit confused at times about how to conceal/revealher identity and how much time she needed to swallow a potion and head for the catafalque. Irina Mishura sang a splendid La Cieca, a bit overdoing the arms-stuck-out-before-her blind lady bit.

The men were not quite of this quality, but nothing to sneeze at. Debutant Zeljko Lucic, another strapping baritone (let me get that in before Tommasini does), sang a thrilling Barnaba, almost too suave to snarl. Aquiles Machado, built like a fireplug and every bit as sexually alluring, attended the same school of acting as Francisco Casanova, but he manages the romantic phrasing of an Italian tenor part with a grainy but attractive sound. (I can't understand why the Met did not give Giordani this role -- I gather he will take it over later in the season.) Paata Buchuladze sang Alvise with a cavernous sound not, methinks, ideal for Italian opera but not inappropriate for this unpleasant figure. Among the many small roles, I especially liked Ricardo Lugo's Monk -- he'd make a good cover for Alvise. And let me not forget Angel Corella, borrowed from ABT, who makes a galactic star turn out of the Dance of the Hours.

Bertrand de Billy conducts with genuine old-fashioned excitement and no condescension to Ponchielli, one of the few composers of his day willing to admit the influence of Verdi and much admired by him in return. True opera lovers can be distinguished by the fact that they love every silly note of this opera, and they will be in pig heaven at this revival.

Keep watching the skies!

La Cieca hopes you're not tired of news about the Met/Sirius Radio partnership, because she has just obtained a schedule of live performances to be broadcast over the satellite service. The first week of the broadcasts will include Madama Butterfly on Monday, September 25 at 6:30 p.m., Idomeno on Thursday the 28th at 7:30 p.m. and La Gioconda on Saturday the 30th at 8:00 p.m.

On Friday the 29th, Sirius will offer an archival broadcast, and La Cieca knows you won't need three guesses to figure out which golden-age performance they have chosen.

Complete schedule of Sirius/Met Opera live broadcasts for 2006-2007.

The Autumn Leaf

Wow, news gets around fast! Within an hour after La Cieca mentioned in passing the sorry state of the peeling gold-leaf ceiling at the Met, a staffer from the house (requesting anonymity) emailed saying that this particular bit of upkeep is, sadly, not to be included among the "nips and tucks" preliminary to the new season. Our tipster says that he

asked what was the status of its repair, and was basically told that they are of course aware of it, but it’s just too expensive, requires shutting down the hall for a period of weeks while the repairs are happening, and that the artisans who do this work well are few and far between and in Europe, so ... don’t expect it to happen anytime soon. To me it’s a glaring problem in a company which is trying to build a new, impressed-with-the-glam-of-the-'opera' audience, but hey, there you are.

Renata's revenge

After more than a quarter of a century, Renata Scotto gets the last word over that silly queen who made a career of disrupting her Met performances. The DVD of the "Live from the Met" telecast of Luisa Miller was released today, and is available at Amazon.com at a 30% discount off the list price. This is the performance of January 20, 1979, during which Fernando or whatever her name was shrieked "Brava Maria Callas!" in the instant of silence before Scotto launched into "Lo vidi, e 'l primo palpito." No word so far as to whether the DVD preserves this non-Verdian interpolation, but the important news here is that this Luisa Miller is one of the triumphs of the early James Levine era at the Met, with Placido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes, Bonaldo Giaiotti, James Morris and of course La Scottissima herself in A+ form. If memory serves (remember, it's been 25 years since La Cieca's weary eyes have feasted on this video), the live camerawork is far simpler and more immediate than the overly tweaked fussiness that plagued the Brian Large extravaganzas of the 1980s.

parterre 2.0

In her never-ceasing quest for greater convenience and maximum gadget-intensivity, La Cieca has updated the user interface for her podcasts. Now she can insert one podcast directly into the homepage like so . . .

powered by ODEO

All you need do is click on the "play" button and crank up your speakers. (This is the most recent podcast, by the way, the third act of Mercadante's Il Bravo, which includes a few bits of news plus a return of the wildly popular quiz "The Enigmas of La Cieca.") The most recent dozen or so podcasts can be accessed, as always, from the Unnatural Acts of Opera page. And do note that the Unnatural Acts of Opera Archive contains the whole first year of La Cieca's little shows.

Another new shiny object is the updated player on the Podderdammerung page -- now you can listen to the entirety of Der Ring des Nibelungen from a single page here on parterre.com. Podderdammerung.

Another exciting new feature, coming very soon, is discussed in the current podcast.

Bleak bummer

Which soprano's sudden cancellation of all her future engagements thankfully has nothing to do with illness, and everything to do with, well, spite? She was in love, and he she loved proved bad, and did forsake her. For his secretary. Since the songbird's soon-to-be-ex-husband still has an interest in her future revenue stream, she has decided to sit and sulk rather than financing the love nest.

Meanwhile, the casts, they are a-changin' over at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Simon Keenlyside is out of Iphigenie en Tauride, replacement TBA and obviously soon, since the production opens in a little over a month. And mezzo-soprano Jane Irwin will be Mere Marie in LOC's Dialogues of the Carmelites, replacing the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

The Met opens doors for us! Doors we never dreamed existed!

More Met news, this time something certain and soon. The Metropolitan Opera will hold its first ever "Open House" on Friday, September 22. The all-day event will include:

• the final dress rehearsal of the new Anthony Minghella/James Levine production of Madama Butterfly starring Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, Marcello Giordani, Dwayne Croft and Maria Zifchak
  
  
• a panel discussion with the singers and the creative team
  
  
• a demonstration of a scene change narrated by members of the company's technical staff
  
  
• a first look at the new Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery in the Met lobby
  
  
• and a puppetry demonstration by the Blind Summit Theatre

Tickets for the Open(ish) House will be available free of at the Met Box Office starting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, September 20, on a first-come first-served basis, with a limit of two tickets per customer.

And instead of "Nazi" we should have said "Lutheran"

From the New York Times:

Correction: August 5, 2006
A picture yesterday with an obituary of the soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was published in error. It showed Anneliese Rothenberger — not Miss Schwarzkopf — in the role of Sophie from “Der Rosenkavalier,” a 1962 film adaptation of the Richard Strauss opera. The Salzburg Festival mounted that production, in which Miss Schwarzkopf had the role of the Marschallin, and originally distributed the photograph with the incorrect information. A picture of Miss Schwarzkopf appears today on Page C10. The obituary also misspelled the surname of a music critic for The New York Times who reviewed Miss Schwarzkopf’s debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1964. He was Raymond Ericson, not Erickson.

Too darn hot

How hot was it yesterday? So hot that New York Grand Opera canceled their Central Park performance of Tosca, that's how hot it was. Rather ironic, too, because Tosca is specifically set in midsummer in metropolitan Rome, where the climate is comparable to yesterday's Gotham scorcher. Remember that the next time you see a Tosca sweep into the Palazzo Farnese in a long-sleeved velvet dress and ermine cape . . .

In fact, La Cieca is already beginning to shudder at the thought of the Met in the Park performances scheduled for the last week of August. Traditionally that last week before Labor Day is the most miserably hot and humid stretch of the summer in the city, which is why everyone who possibly can get away does get away. That number of course does not include La Cieca, who never goes anywhere and will during that wretched week cling to her outer borough abode as always. Who knows, if this whole global warming thing keeps up, maybe the Met can start doing their Park performances during their dark week in January.

Meanwhile, over at the Times, "Captain Obvious" Tommasini notices that at Bayreuth some members of the audience boo the stage director. And did he remember to mention the covered pit? Or was he too distracted by all those "pasty-skinned and delicate young men in lacy robes?" (Since when has the Times hired Blanche du Bois as their chief critic?)

Blind leading the blind item

The place: the Metropolitan Opera.

The time: October 2008.

The event: a cult diva's return to the Met after a 24-season absence.

The hint: what's my name again?

La publicité!

Well, who says that the summer is a slow news season for opera? The top story this week is that the Royal Opera Covent Garden is living up to it name (the royal part I mean) by casting Deborah Voigt as Ariadne for their 2007-08 season. And bravi to La Voigt herself and her publicity team for handling the story so well -- it was everywhere on the net yesterday, including even Fox News.

An interesting detail in the story is that currently Voigt is 135 pounds lighter than her peak weight, presurgery, which was two years ago, or in other words she has lost an entire soubrette. What a shock it will be when the Met's video of Ariadne finally emerges from the vaults -- this was taped back when Voigt was still X-large, and to tell the truth, La Cieca think she's beginning to forget what Debbie looked like back then, since she seems so comfortable in her new skin.

Well, at least the Ariadne made it to the taping stage; the latest big opera video project might not even do that. You may recall that La Cieca revealed last week that Los Angeles Opera will present a short revival of Traviata in the fall so that Renee Fleming's Violetta can be documented for a Decca DVD release. (Part of the deal as that Fleming should appear in a "traditional" production, as opposed to the flapper updating Los Angeles did this summer.)

Well, now it turns out that LAO will have to pony up an additional $600K to refurbish their old Traviata production to bring it up to acceptable standards for video. (I guess if Renee Fleming is your Violetta, you should make sure the physical production is as interesting as possible.) What makes this story so odd is that both the Traviata stagings in question are devised by the same director, and that this director is the wife of the company's general director. And what I think should have Decca worried is that they are putting so much money into a Traviata with a soprano who is not exactly a reliable self-starter as an actress, and then giving her Marta Domingo as a director. No wonder Dimitri Hvorostovsky bailed from this one.

And another thing that struck me as odd is that since the news about this DVD broke first as a rumor and now it's been confirmed, there has been no reaction, even from the big Fleming fans, no cries of, "Oh thank heaven the divine Renee's Violetta will be preserved for posterity!" I mean, it's no skin off La Cieca's Roman nose whether Renaaay films it or not: I'm not going to watch it anyway, but you'd think the hardcore Fleming Flappers would be making a bit more of a stir over so important a project for their goddess. Oh well, probably a lot of the Fleming fans were out in their quarter shares in the Pines this past weekend, and just haven't caught up with the good news yet.

Working on the Whale-Road

Our left coast correspondent Baritenor reports:

I would not call Grendel an opera for the faint-hearted. The libretto is well-written, but the score jumps to both ends of the operatic spectrum, going from lyrical to modernistic to lyrical again in the blink of an eye. Think Benjamin Britten on crack, if you will, only with an electric guitar in the pit. While the use of two languages (Grendel and several other characters sang in English, the majority of his foes sang in Olde Engly