This afternoon’s broadcast of La bohème (beginning at 1:00 pm) is sure to provoke lots of commentary from the parterriani.
Conductor: Marco Armiliato; Mimì: Anna Netrebko; Musetta: Nicole Cabell; Rodolfo: Piotr Beczala; Marcello: Gerald Finley; Schaunard: Massimo Cavalletti; Colline: Oren Gradus; Benoit/Alcindoro: Paul Plishka.
“The Met’s been cleaning house of its lavish Franco Zeffirelli productions, mothballing his Tosca and Carmen earlier this season. But his staging of Puccini’s La Boheme remains a keeper, packing a punch 28 years after its premiere.”
Our Own JJ goes gaga for Anna in the New York Post.
UPDATE: A spokesman for Anna Netrebko just has informed La Cieca “Anna is not pregnant.”
An Austrian website thie morning reported the rumor that Anna Netrebko is expecting again. [OE24.at]
"I can tell you honestly, I’m not that passionate anymore about singing and all this stuff, you know?" [New York Observer]
So, I was asking my friends with Met Opera insider connections about the new Hoffmann production directed by Bartlett Sher. Seemingly conceived under an unlucky star, this production first lost two of its four heroines when Anna Netrebko decided not sing Olympia and Giulietta but kept Antonia and also Stella, leaving the dramaturgy somewhat lopsided. Read more »
La Cieca is delighted to announce the 2009-2010 Saturday afternoon broadcast season brought to you by the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Radio Network, beginning December 12. For each of these broadcasts, La Cieca will host (or at least leave the doors open for) a chat amongst the cher public. Read more »
It's no easy easy task to "re-review" one of the most discussed and scrutinized opera productions of the last few years. Mary Zimmerman’s mise-en-scène of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor has been extensively examined since it was chosen to inaugurate the 2007/08 season of the Metropolitan Opera, provoking very mixed reactions both from the professional critics and the audience. Some saw it as a compelling and original production, while others viewed it as an abysmal failure. Read more »
Edgar has always been the odd man out in the Puccini canon, lying well outside the standard rep. The recent discovery of forty minutes of additional music is likely to do little to change that, but the find was momentous enough to merit a world premier of the newly restored Four Act version of Puccini’s second opera at the Teatro Regio Torino in 2008, with José Cura in the title role. Unfortunately, not even the draw of new old music -- and more Puccini is always a good thing -- is enough to make this DVD (Arthaus Musik 101377) a must-have for anyone but a Puccini compleatist. Read more »
Cher Public