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.

When Ladies Meet

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Front burner

A legendary Lulu crosses over.

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.

A teeny-weeny admonishment to dear Signor Bellini

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

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!")

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.

Lady in the dark

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

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.

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:

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:

Lassée Come Home

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

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."

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

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!

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!

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

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?

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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 lacieca@parterre.com.

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

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

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

Scandalize my name

Longtime friend of the 'box Joe Conda sends La Cieca a new and exciting example of Filth: Caro nome.

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:

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.

After the ballo

... is over, you can hear a performance of the winning entry in the Madlib challenge, devised and written by the lovely and talented Le Cerf Agile and performed by the Apocryphal Opera Anecdote Theater of the Air Players. The actors have informed La Cieca that they are honored to be performing such top-notch material, and La Cieca has replied "How lovely for you" or words to that effect. Le Cerf and the other four winners should keep an eye on the mailbox for their rewards in the form of historic opera DVDs. Also on the latest episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera, the aforementioned third act of Un ballo in maschera and a wild rant by your doyenne on the subject of the Met's Jenufa.

Helmets off, here they come, those Beautiful Girls!

A galaxy of talent sufficient to cast an Arena di Verona production of Sondheim's Follies assembles in the following recording. It's the "Ride of the Valkyries" as sung on February 13, 2003 at a gala performance in Tokyo. Wotan's daughters, in order of appearance: Alessandra Marc (Gerhilde), Eva Marton (Helmwige), Karan Armstrong (Waltraute), Agnes Baltsa (Schwertleite), Anna Tomowa-Sintow (Ortlinde), Gwyneth Jones (doubling Siegrune and Rossweisse) ... and Jochen Kowalski (Grimgerde).

Sein Weg

That most versatile of all golden-age divas, Lilli Lehmann, must be looking down from Paradise right now with a peculiarly puzzled expression on her face, for at last she has a rival.

Meet Ingrid Höfer, an artist with a "mission to sing." Mme. Höfer's discography reveals that her range runs the gamut from Traditional folk material through Bach oratorio, Romantic Lieder and even choral music from Wagnerian stage-consecrating-festival-drama.

Along the way, the protean Höfer instrument soars through material more tradionally associated with dramatic soprano, coloratura soprano, and contralto. Die Höfer even takes on the challenge of a form that the mighty Lilli dared not attempt, i.e., the Broadway show tune.

La Höfer points out on her website about these sound clips "Erwähnenswert wäre noch, dass Sie hier die dunkle (nicht tiefe) Vokalfärbung eines dramatischen Sopran und nicht eines lyrischen hören." That is, "It should be noted that you are hearing the dark (not low) vocal timbre of a dramatic soprano, not a lyric." So noted.

2007 things to do in the new year

1. Visit La Cieca's newly spiffed up MySpace page, where you can
   
2. Delight in a slideshow of the Many Faces of La Cieca,
   
3. Listen to a few of the doyenne's favorite tracks,
   
4. Thrill to the latest bizarre opera video,
   
5. And, while you're there, become one of La Cieca's friends (as if you aren't all already!)
   
6. Meanwhile, you can get ready for the relaunch of Unnatural Acts of Opera this evening at 8:00 p.m., and
   
7. Discuss.

Let's see. 2000 more to go. La Cieca will have to get back to you.

Not the type at all

At last La Cieca has discovered Renee Fleming's muse, or at least, as we have so often wondered "who the hell it was who taught her to sing that way."

Meet the divine Naoko Maeda, asking the musical question . . .

"Bill" (from Show Boat)

Talking head

Our editor JJ sounds off about the Alagnapalooza on WNYC's "Soundcheck."

Nobel seigneurs, salut!

You've seen the dress. Now you can hear the song!

UPDATE: No, she wasn't drunk, so far as La Cieca knows, and no, the singer is not Joanne Worley, it's our Renaay.

What it sounded like

Roberto Alagna sings "Celeste Aida" December 7, 2006 at La Scala. And for those of you who are interested, here's how the Antonello "Fleet of Foot" Palombi sang the aria in 1998.

Homagephobia

powered by ODEO

The undisputed highlight of this track begins at 02:04.

pARRRRterre box

Avast ye, cher public! La Cieca salutes International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19) with music from The Pirates of Penzance and Maria Stuarda. (Don't worry, that makes more sense than you would think.)

Astrid Varnay 1918 - 2006

The celebrated dramatic soprano Astrid Varnay died earlier today in Munich. She was 88 years old.

A few highlights from her 55 year career can be heard in this podcast. Included are scenes from Die Walkure, Tannhauser, Elektra, Der Fliegende Hollander, Der Rosenkavalier, Parsifal, Siegfried, and Tristan und Isolde.



powered by ODEO
UPDATE: one of the few available video clips of Varnay in live performance, from a 1971 telecast of Jenufa:

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.

Nagasaki trainwreck

This is what makes conductors wake up screaming. From a performance of Madama Butterfly, Philadelphia, February 1967, with Montserrat Caballe in the title role, and Richard Karp doing what he can to keep things together in the pit. The trainwreck.

(La Cieca likes to think of this excerpt as the "Berio Completion" of Butterfly.)

Giudici, ad Angela!

La Cieca has found a few fragments from last night's performance of Tosca at the ROH -- only about 15 minutes of music, but enough, perhaps, to give a hint of the suitability of Angela Gheorghiu for the title role. La Cieca's take (based on an in-house mike, remember!) is that the Roman diva is a perfect fit for la Gheorghiu temperamentally, but at least a size too big vocally. She banks a lot on the "Vissi d'arte," and, yes, it does pay off gloriously -- but that's not the whole role, is it? An idea of relative volume can be gathered from the performances of Marcelo Alvarez and Bryn Terfel, both in excellent fettle. And if Antonio Pappano can make the whole score sound this rich and exciting, La Cieca says, bravissimo! So, what does my cher public think of these Tosca snippets