From time to time the younger queens ask La Cieca, “Why does all the camp date back decades? Did something happen to camp? Why is there no new camp? Where should we look to find our own 21st century camp?
Now La Cieca has an answer for you young queens. Look no further! Camp, with a capital C, is coming to a Broadway theater near you—soon! Or, uh, anyway—eventually! Read more »
Patricia Racette will sing the title role in Puccini’s Tosca on April 14, 17, 20, and 24 matinee, replacing Karita Mattila, “who is ill” — this just in from the Met’s press office.
As La Cieca indicated previously, Francesca Zambello (center) is going to add the notch of General and Artistic Director of Glimmerglass Opera to her already bulging belt. [NYT] Read more »
The legendary costume designer for film was born October 28, 1897 in Searchlight, Nevada. Miss Head dressed practically everyone in Hollywood, including Helen Traubel, seen after the jump in an outtake from the 1961 comedy The Ladies’ Man. Read more »
Out Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, profiled in today’s NYT for his friendly arm-twisting tactics in support of New York’s bill to legalize same-sex marriage, is not only the brother of Rosie O’Donnell, but also the partner of John Banta, who has probably the most festive title of anyone who doesn’t work directly with Issac Mizrahi. Banta is Director of Special Events for the Metropolitan Opera.
New York’s Legislature is expected to take up the marriage equality bill today.
Well, the first thing La Cieca will say about the Met’s 125th Anniversary Gala is that for all its sprawling splendor it doesn’t look quite what you’d call entertaining. Or rather let’s say it looks as if it won’t sound very entertaining. The visual element — you know, computer-animated Marc Chagall murals and Waltraud Meier prancing about in a copy of Rosa Ponselle’s Carmen drag — will likely achieve a level of instant camp approaching that of Rosie O’Donnell’s variety show last night. (La Cieca had no room for the phrase in the previous run-on sentence, but, anyway, good old Rosa’s “controversial” toreador pants ensemble was of course designed by “dyke, ya know” Valentina.)
Leaving aside such questions as “are there really more than a dozen people in New York iwho are really panting to hear Natalie Dessay sing Violetta,” what La Cieca wonders is: can there be a less appropriate selection for a gala than the final scene from Parsifal, and to close the first half (a la Birdie Coonan) yet? Surely someone at the Met realizes that as soon as the audience starts applauding, some heligie Kunst nut will bellow, “Shuddup! It’s a sacred festival play!”
On the other hand, La Cieca feels that in the current political climate it is a deliciously subversive act for the Met to program this music drama for its anniversary, since the company’s 1903 premiere of the work constituted perhaps the greatest example of theft of intellectual property in operatic history. Pirate-y!
Given the choice, I’ll take Hans Neuenfels. 
Cher Public