La Cieca hears that Barry Banks will go onstage at the Met shortly — tonight, in fact — jumping in as Almaviva for an ailing Lawrence Brownlee.
No press release yet, but a couple of cher pubes have written to La Cieca noting that the name of Bruce Ford has disappeared from cast listings of the Met’s Armida, replaced by John Osborn.
This just in from the Met press office: “Giovanni Meoni will sing the role of Ezio in Verdi’s Attila on February 27, March 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 19, replacing Carlos Alvarez, who is ill.” (Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)
UPDATED: Note the correction above, i.e., Meoni is currently announced only for the performances to be conducted by Riccardo Muti; “TBA” is on for the three evenings to be conducted by Fabio Marco Armiliato. (That will change soon enough, sadly.)
Per the Met press office, "Giovanni Meoni will make his Met debut singing the role of Ezio in the premiere of Verdi’s Attila, tomorrow evening, replacing Carlos Alvarez, who is ill."
La Cieca has just heard from a generally reliable source that one of the principal artists has withdrawn from all performances of Attila at the Met. We've emailed the company's press office for confirmation of the rumor.
La Cieca is delighted to hear that the Opéra de Paris and soprano Natalie Dessay just last night performed an hommage to Maria Callas by recreating one of the most famous nights of La Divina's career. Unfortunately, that "night" was January 2, 1958, and in the intervening half century, opera management still hasn't learned its lesson. Read more »
UPDATE! UPDATE! The press release just went out, and Lawrence Brownlee will sing Tonio tonight! La Cieca has just heard that both Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flórez will cancel tonight's performance of La Fille du Régiment at the Met. Subbing will be Leah Partridge and Lawrence Brownlee. Read more »
La Cieca hears that the planned Decca recording of Giulio Cesare, to be based upon live concert performances this week in Paris, has been canceled. Read more »
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