Opera Orchestra of New York will jump-start its new incarnation in 2010-11 with a double bill of La Navarraise (Roberto Alagna, Elina Garanca) and Cavalleria rusticana (Alagna again, with Maria Guleghina and Mignon Dunn[!!!]), conducted by Music Director Designate Alberto Veronesi at Carnegie Hall on October 25. Eve Queler returns to the podium for L’Africaine on March 2 at Avery Fisher Hall, with Marcello Giordani and lavishly-bevowelled Italian soprano Chiara Taigi.
Angela Gheorghiu will not sing Carmen at the Met this season. Says the diva:
“To make so important a debut as Carmen, I want to be as prepared dramatically as I am musically. Therefore, I will postpone my role debut until a later date when I can work intensely with the Richard Eyre production.”
Kate Aldrich will sing the performances on April 28 and May 1. More big news after the jump! Read more »
According to an Angela Gheorghiu fansite (and what more reliable source could La Cieca ask?), the raven-tressed diva stated in an interview on Romanian television that she and current husband Roberto Alagna have no current plans to change their current matrimonial status. Read more »
The indisputable star of the new Naxos DVD of Franco Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac, filmed at the Palau de les Arts ‘Reina Sofia’ in Valencia and directed by Michal Znaniecki, is, as in all other stage, operatic and film adaptations of the Cyrano story, the enormous prosthetic nose worn by the title character. The nose in this production — a 5-inch, vaguely beak-like stunner — works beautifully in tandem with its stage partner, tenor Placido Domingo, who himself delivers a strong, emotive vocal and acting performance in what liner notes state is the 121st new role of his career.
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.
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.
“Voglio essere giudicato per la musica e nient’altro che per la musica.” “I want to be judged for my music and nothing but my music.” This phrase, which Mascagni himself wrote to his publisher Sonzogno, is the key to understanding the very essence and existence of L’amico Fritz (1891). Cavalleria rusticana, Mascagni’s first performed opera, had premiered the previous year to astonishing success, and had instantly catapulted him to the top sphere of the musical world. Virtually overnight he had become a true international celebrity. Women swooned over his youth and good looks. Hordes of young men rushed to the [...]
Cher Public