March 3: Have you noticed lately that a certain magnificent soprano looks like she's just swallowed a canary? Word on the street is that she's making a change of scene, crossing the bridge from performer to impresario of one of America's grandest opera companies. If this is indeed the case, here's hoping this�metamorphosis will be the crowning glory of her career!

February 22:�In response to a very official-looking email from the Business and Legal Affairs department of the Universal Music Group, La Cieca reluctantly must now reveal that the mp3 she mischievously identified as "a track from Renee Fleming's new jazz album" is in fact nothing of the kind. The clip was meant as a travesty of Fleming's attempts at jazz. Believe me, it was the farthest thing from my mind that anyone who reads La Cieca could have such a tin ear as to think the breathy cooing on this clip could possibly have anything to do with "The Beautiful Voice." To recap: for the irony-impaired among you, this clip is not the real Renee Fleming: click here.

February 8:� La Cieca has just been informed that the legendary team of superagents Bruce Zemsky and Alan Green have packed their bags and moved out of CAMI, presumably to start up their own management firm. Zemsky and Green handled artists ranging from Marcelo Alvarez to Mariana Zvetkova; no word yet on how many of the dozens of Z/G artists will jump ship along with the duo.

January 16: You heard it here first. In fact, you heard it here a month ago -- and now the "other" media are finally picking up on the operatic story of the year. According to the Houston Chronicle, David Gockley is mulling an

December 15: Once Matthew Epstein has left Chicago (as reported this morning at musicalamerica.com), you can be sure he'll have better things to do than rest on his laurels. La Cieca hears that Matthew has his eye on San Francisco Opera, succeeding Pamela Rosenberg there. But the competition for this post is fierce: front runners include Charles MacKay of St. Louis and Christopher Hahn of Pittsburgh. And yet another prospective intendant has recently thrown her hat in the ring: none other than Carol Vaness is ready to be "directa" of SFO.

November 4: Our editor James is interviewed about the film Callas Forever on NPR's

November 22: Let the dancing in the streets begin! Jonathan Miller, who has spent the last two decades multitasking between creating pretentiously dull opera productions and whingeing about the stupidity of opera and opera singers, has at long last decided to call it quits. Following a sure-to-be-listless staging of La Clemenza di Tito in April 2005, the self-described "angry and bitter" polymath will devote his remaining years to fabricating junk-metal sculpture. You'll find more details (and more whingeing) in this article in

The perfect stocking-stuffer for the 2004 holiday season is a new CD on the Homophone label, "The Muse Surmounted." The disc is a sampler of the art of "twelve women singers of a certain class, including Florence Foster Jenkins and her rivals," according to producer Gregor Benko. He's also the author of the Waldo Lydecker-style program notes, revealing oodles of scandalous and previously-unknown (by me, anyway) secrets of such beloved divas as Mari Lynn, Vassilka Petrov, Olive Middleton, plus an artiste new to me, Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller, who more than belongs in this august company. Enough already, you need this CD. Go to

November 2: The remarkable Donald Collup has produced an amazing documentary called �Never Before,� detailing the early years of the career of Astrid Varnay. Donald will offer the premiere screening of this film at The Vocal Record Collector�s Society on Friday, November 12 at 520 Park Avenue at 8:00 PM. The documentary includes commentary by la Varnay (recorded last year) on such varied topics as her vocal training, her theory of acting, and her surprise Met debut, plus candid comments on colleagues ranging from Ljuba Welitsch to Teresa Stratas.

Highlighting this presentation is a collection of examples of Varnay�s singing culled from live performances 1941-1955. For more information on "Never Before," go to Donald�s web site.

November 1: Whispers have been heard that that a certain Italianate diva has been putting off (perhaps until too late) the study of a much-anticipated new role. Does she realize she�s gambling with her career? That SRO audience may be shouting "Bravo" to a different singer entirely!

October 29:La Cieca has risen from her long slumber long enough to overhear the name of Joe Volpe's successor at the Met. It's Peter Gelb of Sony Classical fame, who will take over the reins in August 2006 upon Volpe's retirement.

Hearing Daniel Oren mangle Boheme at the Met last week, our editor