All about my mother All about my mother

On her 90th birthday “Trove Thursday” presents the late great Belgian mezzo Rita Gorr parenting Régine Crespin in Massenet’s Hérodiade.

on February 18, 2016 at 11:00 AM
Bühne nights Bühne nights

Your doyenne and her faithful confidante Dawn Fatale are off later this week for a safari, seeking the wild Regie in its natural habitat.

on April 29, 2015 at 9:00 AM
Dongs of mirth and triumph sing! Dongs of mirth and triumph sing!

Donkey dick and other Asian Fusion vaudeville acts arouse “The BAM Effect” at Handel’s Semele.

on March 11, 2015 at 12:14 PM
A little list A little list

In response to repeated urging by La Cieca, Our Own Dawn Fatale has contributed a “to do” list for the benefit of Met management, assuming the company makes it out of this summer alive.

on July 08, 2014 at 9:30 AM
The voice of the pundit The voice of the pundit

Our Own Dawn Fatale (artist’s conception) will take to the airwaves of Bloomberg Radio this evening at 9:00 pm to discuss the Met’s current woes.

on July 02, 2014 at 7:42 PM
“Ecco la luce…” “Ecco la luce…”

That day we all knew eventually would come did come, in the winter of 2001, when the final issue of parterre box, the queer opera zine was mailed out to the cher public, such as they were at the time.

on May 14, 2014 at 8:00 AM
Spunk Spunk

In issue #46 of parterre box the queer opera zine (“Spunk”), you will find an endorsement by the legendary Astrid Varnay.

on March 29, 2014 at 11:43 AM
A Life in the Theater A Life in the Theater

Devotees of Dawn Fatale (and you are legion!) will be delighted to hear that the parterre scribe made an early (2001!) appearance in issue #45 of parterre box, the queer opera zine, ranting about the “squish-squish school of opera direction.”

on March 22, 2014 at 9:31 AM
Less than Zarah Less than Zarah

In a slight detour from the usual all-opera-all-the-time format of parterre box, the queer opera zine, issue #44 centers on Ben Letzler‘s superb appreciation of film and cabaret diva Zarah Leander.

on March 14, 2014 at 7:59 AM
City of dreams City of dreams

With issue #42a, “City of Dreams,” parterre box the queer opera zine returns at least temporarily to a rational numbering system.

on February 19, 2014 at 11:24 PM
On with the motley On with the motley

In Issue #40 of parterre box, the queer opera zine, Our Own JJ nabs lengthy interviews with critic John Ardoin and tenor Richard Leech.

on February 06, 2014 at 2:00 AM
Drama queen Drama queen

The very first words in this issue are “Renata Scotto will return to the American operatic stage in the 2001 season!”

on January 29, 2014 at 8:00 AM
Something beyond the normal Something beyond the normal

The celebrated “lost” issue of parterre box, the queer opera zine (now found, thanks to the avid cataloging of Indiana Loiterer III.)

on January 15, 2014 at 8:00 AM
Ogni Cura Ogni Cura

“Ogni Cura si doni al diletto / E s’accorra nel magico petto,” the joke went back in the late ’90s. What wags we were!

on January 01, 2014 at 1:40 PM
She is a diamond She is a diamond

“La Cieca cannot imagine it is much fun to sing ‘Dove sono’ when you’re suffering a fresh case of the Reno jumpy-wumps.”

on December 25, 2013 at 9:32 AM
Tattoo, amore, tu! Tattoo, amore, tu!

Vintage issue #33

on December 18, 2013 at 8:00 AM
That kind of diva That kind of diva

In Vintage Issue #32: How that opening night of Lohengrin might have gone; La Cieca on La Gran Scena…

on December 11, 2013 at 8:00 AM

The ENO was filled with ghosts last week. Spectral, possibly illusory figures fleetingly materialized in the Internet chatrooms that provide the setting for much of Nico Muhly’s new opera Two Boys, and brutal boarding school memories came back to troubled life in director Christopher Alden’s dark take on Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

on July 08, 2011 at 10:57 AM

Or, for those of you who don’t take pleasure as La Cieca does in inventing totally bogus German compound words, Itinerary for the Regie Tour. Your doyenne and faithful sidekick Dawn Fatale (also pictured) will be hitting the continent later this week for a taste of productions done in the German style. Any European members…

on March 14, 2011 at 2:11 PM

In the summer of 2007, at the height of the heated speculation and public debates over who would succeed Wolfgang Wagner as the head of the Bayreuth Festival, his daughter, Katharina Wagner presented a new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the festival, replacing the mind-numbingly boring one by her father (his third at…

on January 24, 2011 at 10:09 AM

Dawn Fatale (pictured) shares with us a horoscope:

on June 04, 2010 at 10:22 AM
Dawn of the Philistines Dawn of the Philistines

I’m not sure who I find more annoying – the partisans who vigorously defend Luc Bondy‘s production of Tosca at the Met or those who decry it.  As Bondy’s production replaces one of the Met’s signature offerings, both groups have seized on this event as a watershed event in the history of opera in America…

on October 13, 2009 at 12:34 PM