You’ve heard of “O face” and “Butter face.” Now La Cieca presents for your approval a new operatic term, used to describe the frighteningly contorted and sometimes downright Cheneyesque expressions affected by singers of Vivaldi and other baroque music. It’s called… “Armatae Face.” Read more »
I have just come back home from Le Poisson Rouge, a stylish multimedia art cabaret in Greenwich Village where Decca offered a sneak peak of Cecilia Bartoli‘s DVD Sacrificium, which will be released some time next year.
I normally don’t drink liquor, but my duty as a reporter obliged me not to refuse a special cocktail that mixologist Allen Katz has concocted especially for this occasion. This concoction, appropriately named The “Castratini,” is made with vodka, champagne, lime and a secret ingredient my untrained taste buds were unable to detect. Read more »
La Cieca knows the cher public will be intrigued to hear that tomorrow night (Monday, November 16), NYC’s downtown classical music venue Le Poisson Rouge will offer a screening of Cecilia Bartoli in a live concert, filmed September 10, 2009.
Meanwhile, in honor of this cinematic event, your doyenne is launching a parterre competition for you. Details of both are after the jump. Read more »
Cecilia Bartoli’s latest vanity release bucks protocol to present an album heavy on historical concept. The classical recording industry has long feasted on the popularity of operatic solo records, especially during the last few years of industry-wide decline in CD sales. Incidentally, as record companies run out of ways to sell the standard repertoire to collectors who already own it five times, baroque and early opera are also selling well.
“Verismo,” Renée Fleming informs us, “means truth.” What better demonstration of this artist’s dedication to the real-life (not to say the mundane) than her apparent decision to fire her stylist and hairdresser in hopes of achieving a greater naturalism of appearance. Indeed, La Cieca would say that Fleming has succeeded: at least as documented in this video, she looks as if she might have inspired dear Lady Bracknell‘s celebrated quotation.*
After the jump is the cover of Cecilia Bartoli‘s new CD, which apparently is all castrato music, all the time. Oh, it hurts!
So, guess who’s going to sing Norma? “Sie ist die unbestrittene, strahlende Königin des Koloratur-Mezzofachs: Cecilia Bartoli. In der kommenden Saison wird sie im KONZERTHAUS DORTMUND in einer der bedeutendsten und schwierigsten Partien der gesamten Opernliteratur zu erleben sein: als „Norma“ in Vincenzo Bellinis gleichnamiger Oper. Die musikalische Leitung dieser wichtigen konzertanten Produktion liegt in den Händen von Thomas Hengelbrock, der seine eigenen Klangkörper, das Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble und den gleichnamigen Chor, dirigieren wird. Die Aufführungen sind für den 29. Juni und 1. Juli 2010 geplant.”
A preview the new Decca recording of La sonnambula with Cecilia Bartoli and Juan Diego Flórez. Comments? Amazon.com Widgets
Cher Public