Artist manager, media mogul, impresario… and now, with no other new worlds to conquer, Peter Gelb has achieved the pinnacle career goal to which only the most outrageously successful showbiz superstars can aspire: unpaid blogger for Huffington Post.
The New Year’s Eve gala at the Met ushering out 2011 was the world premiere of the much-anticipated mash-up The Enchanted Island AKA “baroque opera for those who hate (or at least don’t know) baroque opera.” One hardly knows what to make of what occurred onstage Saturday night: mostly rare and ravishing 18th century gems moderately well sung by a big, mostly young cast within a largely witless, needlessly complicated ersatz-Shakespearian frame.
Under William Christie’s vibrant conducting, only Joyce DiDonato and Luca Pisaroni had the necessary star power and stylistic command to truly transcend their arch surroundings. Yet it all somehow turned out to be a modestly entertaining enterprise—almost despite itself. Read more »
For this final evening of 2011, La Cieca invites you to a final chat. Starting at 6:30 PM, the cher public are invited to wade into The Enchanted Island, broadcast live from the Met. Read more »
“There comes a time in every woman’s life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne,” says La Cieca (pictured, left). As she prepares to bid 2011 adieu, your doyenne invites the cher public (artist’s conception, right) to join her in making a few resolutions for 2012.
At tonight’s Faust performance, two events of note: René Pape, upon his re-entrance after the Jewel Song, ad-libbed the spoken line “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” The performance, a broadcast, was the basso’s final one of this production.) After this moment of comedy, drama followed at the curtain calls.
After today’s Met dress rehearsal of The Enchanted Island, La Cieca’s spy (pictured) reports: “You would think that if they had the entire Baroque canon to mine, they would’ve chosen music that wasn’t slow, dull, and long. In Peter Gelb‘s opening remarks, he called it ‘the Met’s Baroque Coming Out party,’ which makes me think this entire endeavor was to introduce new audiences to Baroque opera—and if that’s the case, they chose a poor way of trying to win them over.”
The stunning New Broadway Cast Recording
Guess who gets the showstopping “11 o’clock” spot? Why, none other than The Booty of the Baroque herself!
Cher Public