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Cher Public

  • brooklynpunk: GM:..perhaps I am in a real contrary mood today... I t...
  • Gualtier M: Listening to "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" right now. Alyson C...
  • Gualtier M: Punquito - I am loving Morris Robinson. Ashley Brown howeve...
  • Clita del Toro: I was sorry to hear about Whitney Houston, but to tell the t...
  • Betsy_Ann_Bobolink: Take back all nice nice. When minds upmade oosy-poonsy.
  • Betsy_Ann_Bobolink: Da.In doubt few less you put this how?Many smile com...
  • brooklynpunk: I take back my request to the house of bobolink......
  • Gualtier M: Just a note that music from Wainwright's "Prima Donna" will ...
  • m. croche: They're touring with the Kronos Quartet right now. They've ...
  • brooklynpunk: .... the speaking parts...so far... ARE GHASTLY DREADF...

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Remembering Shirley Verrett

Shirley VerrettWhen handing out the goodies, the gods weren’t stingy with Shirley Verrett.  Few opera singers were as prodigiously gifted as Verrett:  the perfect amalgam of Kunst and Stimm housed in a frame of voluptuous allure.  In addition to an instrument of stunning natural beauty and easy range, Verrett displayed superior musicianship, dramatic intelligence and searing interpretative commitment.   Read more »

The last days of disco

Stratas_thumbThe Met’s 1979 telecast of Mahagonny exposed one of the lesser-known factors contributing to the demise of disco:  the global supply of eye shadow, rouge and lip gloss was exhausted for the next decade by a cast featuring Klara Barlow, Louise Wohlafka, Nedda Casei, Gwynn Cornell, Joann Grillo and Isola Jones—and stilettos, garter belts and hairspray were pretty hard to come by, as well!  (Ethel Merman had already cleaned New York City out of reinforced girdles, so the Met was left to its own devices.)   Read more »

Snake charmer

lulu_amazonA long-awaited DVD from the Met documents one of the great “42nd Street” episodes in operatic history: on December 20, 1980, a largely unknown Julia Migenes (or Migenes-Johnson, as she was called in those days) stepped in on a few hours’ notice for an ailing Teresa Stratas as the anti-heroine of Berg’s Lulu. A prodigiously gifted and multifaceted artist, Migenes had already graced Broadway and German television prior to making her Met debut in 1979 as Jenny in Rise and Fall of the City of MahagonnyRead more »

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the chat came back

Better loosen up those typing fingers, cher public, because La Cieca is bringing you another of her notorious online chats. On Monday, September 22 beginning at 6:30 PM EDT, La Cieca will present Opening Night in Exile, a chat celebrating the the broadcast of the Met’s 2008 opening night starring Renée Fleming, the diva and the fragrance. Since La Cieca herself will be observing the festivities al fresco on the Met’s big screen, your host for the evening will be her old, old, old friend Enzo Bordello.  Wifi permitting, your doyenne will check in from time to time, though she [...]

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