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Cher Public

  • oedipe: Nerva, I was referring mainly to the American opera establis...
  • MontyNostry: As I understand it, all AVA tuition is free to the students....
  • m. croche: And commiserations on this day to Aleksander Pushkin, wh...
  • phoenix: Very interesting. Does audience expression/reaction determi...
  • phoenix: There were always mediocre casts available at the Met for th...
  • manou: Keks - this is very funny. My husband and I read it at the G...
  • Nerva Nelli: I was lucky to hear Ciofi sing Lucie in Paris in 2002 with T...
  • Nerva Nelli: Yes, it's high time they brought him back in a leading part....
  • La Cieca: There is also the point that the Met is very strict about it...
  • armerjacquino: Ciofi has hardly ever sung outside Europehttp://ciofi.bl...

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You, Midgette

top_ten__waynes_world_Adroit, awesome, autononomous Anne Midgette nominates her Top 10 Classical and Opera Releases of 2010 over at Soundcheck, and, La Cieca thinks to herself, why should Anne have all the fun? What are your favorite opera CDs and DVDs of the year, cher public? (Here are a few reviews to jog your memory.)

October song

stock_crashReaders of parterre.com are, La Cieca calculates, about six weeks ahead of the curve, so your doyenne figures you are ready to hear what will likely be a major scoop in the New York Times a few days prior to Halloween. It’s about the technical rehearsals for the Met’s season opener Das Rheingold, and what is heard from backstage is not encouraging.   Read more »

Second Rance

Lucio Gallo‘s name has quietly been substituted for that of Juha Uusitalo in the Met’s 2010-2011 performances of La fanciulla del West. Read more »

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Medium rare

La Cieca hears that a highlight of the 2010-2011 New York City Opera season will be the local premiere of Seance on a Wet Afternoon, the Stephen Schwartz tuner to star Lauren Flanigan.

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triumph of the willy

Here’s a glimpse of Marina Poplavskaya in the Willy Decker production of La traviata, coming to the Met in 2010.

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the desert song

Our Own Sra. Flora del Rio, benevolent rhinemaiden of the Rio Grande, shimmered into a press conference at  Santa Fe this morning and quickly shimmered out, there being but modest news to report on SFeO Season 2010. However, Flora sent this grist for your mills: Madama Butterfly, The Magic Flute, The Tales of Hoffmann, Life is a Dream and Albert Herring.  

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on festive occasions

“I’m also confident that both the long-overdue New York premiere of Daniel Catán’s sumptuous Florencia en el Amazonas and Spike Lee’s fiery new staging of The Gospel at Colonus—a retelling of the Sophocles in the form of a gospel church service—will continue to bring new visions to our audiences and new audiences to our vision.  And how intrigued we’ll be to hear the Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös’ take on Tony Kushner’s most American of plays, Angels in America!” New York City Opera’s incoming general and artistic director announces some very intriguing plans for the company’s “revamped” 2010 summer festival season [...]

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let george do it

According to a press release from the New York City Opera, George Manahan will continue there as Music Director through 2012. In the inaugural Gérard Mortier season beginning in the fall of 2009, Maestro Manahan will conduct performances of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and Britten’s Death in Venice. Manahan is booked as well for Szymanowski’s King Roger during NYCO’s 2010-11 season.

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