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.  

on November 23, 2009 at 12:51 PM

“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,…

on November 22, 2009 at 8:30 PM

Oh, hell to the yes, it’s a divorce. 

on October 10, 2009 at 2:31 PM

According to Opera Chic, the Alagnas will announce their plans to divorce tomorrow. (That is, they will make an announcement tomorrow; the actual proceedings are likely a little farther down the road.) You may remember that La Cieca hinted at this sad eventuality several months ago. [UPDATE: As noted in the comments below, Alagna is…

on October 08, 2009 at 9:45 PM

In case you’re wondering why Roberto Alagna‘s Roméo suddenly sprouted baby-blue capri pants between dress rehearsal and opening night, well, cherchez la femme, as they say. “It was a little bit tricky,” [Alagna] laughs. “They gave me a sort of, I don’t know, very short underwear. It was right for the situation, but Angela didn’t agree.…

on March 23, 2009 at 2:58 PM

UPDATE: The winner of the Turban Competition is the Roberto Alagna photo, submitted by Vanderdecken. The cher public has quite figuratively buried La Cieca in turbans since yesterday, more than 50 in all. Choosing a “best” five was a daunting task, but your doyenne did her best and has determined that her decisions are final.…

on March 07, 2009 at 8:05 PM

J’ai un ami, JJ, qui m’a raconté cette mise en scène de La rondine dans Gay City News.

on January 09, 2009 at 4:30 PM

Something is busted on the Met’s website, but that shouldn’t stop you from applying for this week’s $25 weekend night tickets, which after all are for Fleming’s Thaïs and Angela Gheorghiu/Roberto Alagna in the new Rondine. Instructions for this week’s lottery are as follows: Please enter our Weekend Ticket drawing by calling 212-362-6000 before 8:00…

on December 29, 2008 at 4:18 PM

La Cieca has just heard that as of this afternoon, La Scala has dismissed Giuseppe Filianoti from their opening night new production of Don Carlos (scheduled for a worldwide telecast Sunday) and replaced him for the entire run of performances with American tenor Stuart Neill. Per La Cieca’s source, at the Thursday open dress rehearsal…

on December 06, 2008 at 5:42 PM

Those of you cher public who ordered and enjoyed Decca’s bargain Wagner box may now be interested in a bargain Puccini edition offered by EMI. The set, Puccini: The Operas, retails for $59.98 (less than four bucks a disc) and includes complete performances of: 

on September 30, 2008 at 1:24 PM

Cher public, La Cieca can hardly believe that the musical event of the season has slipped her mind until just this very minute. She is talking, of course, about the concert tonight in Prospect Park by (in alphabetical order) Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu. The Thirteen/WNET website helpfully notes that “Gheorghiu and Alagna aren’t strangers…

on June 20, 2008 at 3:59 PM

“She asked one time, they said no. She asked a second time – no. At the third time she said Vafanculo [literally, “go f*** yourself”]. You know how many times you sing La Bohème without rehearsal in the world? Roberto “Oil on Troubled Waters” Alagna continues his unique relationship with the media in an interview…

on April 26, 2008 at 1:23 AM

The accustomed Peter Gelb ballyhoo was not in evidence this morning when the Met very quietly let it be known that the company’s Parks concert series would not take place this summer. According to a rather modest item in today’s New York Times, in lieu of the familiar format of a “tour” of the city’s…

on April 24, 2008 at 8:46 AM

La Cieca is putting her entire nest egg into popcorn futures, since next season opera lovers will rarely emerge from their local movie palace. The Met will do an astonishing 11 HD simulcasts during the 2008-2009 season.  Monday, September 22, 2008: Opening Night Gala starring the astonishingly well-preserved Renée Fleming in fully staged performances of La Traviata (Act…

on April 22, 2008 at 3:48 PM

[Our Own Gualtier Maldè reports from this afternoon’s dress rehearsal of La Fille du Régiment] The Met has another hit on its hands — though not a totally new one, this production and cast already having triumphed at Covent Garden and the Vienna Staatsoper. Laurent Pelly (who vies with Davide Alagna and Mark Streshinsky as…

on April 18, 2008 at 5:32 PM

Cher public, the Met is expected to unveil the specifics of their 2008-2009 season later today. While we’re waiting for all the luscious and/or gory details, La Cieca thought it might be fun to do a quick recap of the season as is is predicted on Brad Wilber‘s MetManiac site. Brad (who historically is spot-on…

on March 04, 2008 at 11:29 AM

An Italian TV report on the already infamous all-Alagna-all-the-time Orphée. Now, David Alagna may not be one of the world’s great stage directors, but he certainly is among the cutest!

on January 18, 2008 at 6:21 PM

Over the years we have heard many different versions of Gluck’s Orphée. One can choose the Vienna version for castrato, which is shorter and simpler (or better: equally difficult, but in a less spectacular way), the Paris rewrite for tenor or the Berlioz reworking for the distinguished mezzo Pauline Viardot (Anne Sophie von Otter sang…

on January 10, 2008 at 5:40 PM

Cher public, La Cieca meant to turn in early tonight, but she got one of those bees in her bonnet. This particular specimen of Apis mellifera is the “debacle” (as La Cieca has been astonished to see it termed) of Anna Netrebko‘s Juliette last Saturday afternoon. Such harsh criticism La Cieca has rarely heard since…

on December 21, 2007 at 12:00 AM

One of La Cieca’s intricate network of spies has been keeping his ear to the ground in San Francisco where a supernumerary friend whispered to him that “there was concern amongst the SFO backstage ranks that since La Gheorghiu had yet to show up for any La rondine rehearsals, that she may go the route…

on October 31, 2007 at 9:24 PM

La Cieca thanks the visiting Enzo Bordello for pointing out to her some recent updates to the indispensable Met Futures Page so painstakingly maintained by Bradley Wilber. Most of it sound plausible enough, but every now and then a piece of casting leaves La Cieca so stunned she hardly manage to quote a Waldo Lydecker…

on October 19, 2007 at 11:59 AM

Of course, cher public, you heard it about it here a few weeks ago, but La Cieca has just read a press release from the Met announcing that, yes indeed, Roberto Alagna will reprise his Roméo opposite Anna Netrebko on December 12 and 15. (Our Own Gualtier Maldè, as you no doubt recall, confirmed the…

on October 18, 2007 at 5:06 PM

So, was last night a triumph or a disaster? Well, it was neither since the role of Radames doesn’t play to all of Roberto Alagna‘s strengths but it was a very fine showing by a distinctive and sensitive artist in a repertory that isn’t his natural metier. The evening’s biggest triumph was scored by old…

on October 17, 2007 at 8:14 AM

La Cieca has just heard that Roberto Alagna will sing his first Met Radames tomorrow night, replacing the ailing Marco Berti. Which means, if you haven’t guessed it yet, that Marcello Giordani is jumping into tonight’s Butterfly. By the end of the season, Giordani will have five different roles in his Met repertoire for 2007-08:…

on October 15, 2007 at 4:43 PM
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