Headshot of La Cieca

Cher Public

  • Feldmarschallin: The new Siegfried which opens on Pfinstsonntag at BSO. Funny that Lance Ryan sounds Eastern... 2:56 AM
  • MontyNostry: … and does Stemme’s voice really have a “bright sheen”? Oh, I’d... 2:55 AM
  • MrGuy1804: You are right on the money. I was not terribly impressed with any of the singing. There were a few... 12:29 AM
  • Camille: That was fun, thanks! I had completely forgotten Eastern Airlines, the Wings of Man. With a name like... 12:22 AM
  • Henry Holland: Thanks! Too bad they didn’t do Der Zwerg instead of the (wonderful) Puccini. The LA Opera... 12:09 AM
  • Camille: Thanks Blue, for the review. Lord, what are “earthy colorings”? 12:06 AM
  • Gualtier M: Here is Carmelita Pope in the actual 70′s era Pam commercial at 2:36 in: httpv://www.you... 12:03 AM
  • CruzSF: kashania, please tell us more about these performances. Who? How presented? And don’t neglect the... 12:03 AM

l’artifice vrai

rufus

Newly beardless Rufus Wainwright once more graced the annual “Last Song of Summer” concert to benefit Robert Wilson‘s Watermill Center last weekend.  (Rufus’s boyfriend Jorn Weisbrodt is the Creative Director of the Center.)

Despite a “miraculous last minute change of venue to the Field House at The Ross School’s lower school campus on Butter Lane due to the threat of Tropical Storm Danny,” the girly Gesamtkunstwerker managed to regale the crowd with a morceau from that opera of his.

As hamptons.com describes the scene, Rufus opened with “Grey Gardens,” 

then going into “Faux,” also sung in French from his opera “Prima Donna.” “This is the final aria,” he explained. “There is a part in it where it seems like it’s over, but it’s not,” he said, “I know everybody is going to want to clap, but please hold off until you’re sure,” he joked.

manhattan melodrama?

rufus_verdi

The atmosphere around Gotham may become rather more bizarre sometime in the next couple of years when Rufus Wainwright brings his opera Prima Donna into New York.  Read more »

rufus roundup

photo by Clive Barda

Aggregated for your aggravation, here’s the critical response to Prima Donna, the new opéra by that little gay wolverine fellow. [Clef Notes]

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another quizzical moment

An opera quiz with the composer who’s been on everyone’s lips lately, Rufus Wainwright. [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/svjlK74xZRw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

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special talents

The first rule in writing an artist’s program bio is to find some interesting and unique detail that will catch the reader’s interest. This tidbit need not be directly relevant to the production at hand or even to the artist’s ostensible talent, so long as it’s, as the journalists like to say, “hooky.” Which is why La Cieca is simply beating herself up right now since this definitively hooky bio detail is already taken: “A self-confessed egomaniac, he once went blind while living in the Chelsea Hotel, New York, addicted to crystal meth.” [Times Online]

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rufus! rufus! rufus!

“It suddenly occurred to me that there’s no opera about an opera singer,” [Rufus Wainwright] says. “It doesn’t exist in the repertoire.” [The Globe and Mail]

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trick question

“Is there anything Rufus Wainwright can’t do?” Though, to be fair, une doyenne d’un certain age like La Cieca should be much nicer to any whippersnapper who has the grace to say things like, “she’s in her 50s. If you consider that aging or not, I don’t know. Some people told me that 50 is the new 30. No, 50 is the new 20. Therefore, dead is the new 50!” [Pop Candy]

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artificial fire

Rufus Wainwright previews an aria from his opera Prima Donna: “Les feux d’artifice t’appellent: descends dans la rue!”

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