Wild horses Wild horses

This video recording of Il trovatore is sensational for all the right and wrong reasons simultaneously.

on June 30, 2020 at 2:42 PM
We’ll always have Paris We’ll always have Paris

At Friday night’s performance of La Bohème at the Met, the cast seemed to lean into (and gamble upon) the production’s enduring popularity.

on October 26, 2019 at 12:19 PM
Funny fascist Funny fascist

Leave it to Opera News to whitewash the revolting reactionary politics of Franco Zeffirelli.

on September 12, 2019 at 11:01 AM
Geh such dir die Stars vom vergangenen Jahr! Geh such dir die Stars vom vergangenen Jahr!

Tristan has been the season-launching opera three times before now, but good luck finding someone to provide a firsthand account of the last time.

on September 23, 2016 at 3:20 AM
Man of steel Man of steel

“This throwback to the golden age of opera—superhuman singing greeted with frenzied ovations—was a function of a perfect storm of excitement.”

on September 30, 2015 at 2:38 PM
Fifty shades of Domingo Fifty shades of Domingo

LA Opera opened their 30th season with a pairing of two of their most popular productions, both of which were initially staged by filmmakers not unfamiliar with the vagaries of our industry outpost here in Hollywoodland.

on September 30, 2015 at 9:00 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
Irrelevant Berlusconi apologist continues to whine Irrelevant Berlusconi apologist continues to whine

Also unimpressed was Franco Zeffirelli

on December 11, 2013 at 10:57 AM
Take the Monnaie and run Take the Monnaie and run

“Though Mr. Herheim’s work is rigorous, it is also fun, and this Rusalka is serious but the opposite of dour.”

on March 09, 2012 at 6:44 PM

At long last, Franco Zeffirelli opens up about his back-door route to the lap of luxury: “Ho dato il culo per fare carriera e mi è piaciuto.” [Attualisimo]

on December 16, 2011 at 8:27 AM

“Since Zeffirelli took his official leave from the Met in 2008, the company has experienced—some would say suffered—a backlash against glamour, or at least against those qualities that, thanks in part to Zeffirelli, are wrongly perceived as the synonyms of glamour: triviality and meretriciousness.” [Rough and Regie] (Photo: Ken Howard)

on October 08, 2011 at 3:02 PM

“Zeffirelli, who has been directing plays, films, and operas for more than 60 years, laments that the Met recently started phasing out some of his classic productions, including Traviata, Tosca, and Carmen, for ‘financial reasons,’ he says. And substituting them with ‘hippie crap’.” [Variety]

on September 17, 2011 at 10:29 AM

Lovely Marina Poplavskaya, arriving at the Mercedes T. Bass Grand Tier for dinner following the opening night of La traviata, demonstrates that the previous Franco Zeffirelli production has not gone to waste. The latter-day Scarlett O’Hara‘s motto: “Reduce Reuse Recycle!”

on January 05, 2011 at 11:07 AM

The answers of millions of supplicants worldwide (and thousands of Met-goers citywide) have been answered. “[Peter Gelb] said there were no plans to replace Mr. Zeffirelli’s productions of La Bohème and Turandot. [New York Times]

on December 14, 2010 at 6:45 PM

“The immitigable force of Italian melodrama and Mediterranean culture, which is loved throughout the world, today is worthy of a different fate and should become a means of new expressions, a national flag to be treasured. Instead, often great efforts are made to reject a culture, to massacre the work and stature of artists who…

on August 08, 2010 at 1:08 PM

This is a rather old story, but La Cieca heard it confirmed just recently. You all have heard, I trust, that this summer the Arena di Verona, for the first time in its nearly 100 year history of opera performances, is miking both singers and orchestra. Why? Because Franco Zeffirelli, director of all five of…

on July 30, 2010 at 11:14 PM

Okay, La Cieca has sifted all the evidence thus far, and she has done Pravda-style scrutiny of what was said and what was left unsaid (particularly by Peter Gelb) in the most recent New York Times analysis of the issue, and ignoring the most recent Jeremiads from Rome on account of the fact that pretty…

on December 29, 2009 at 1:41 PM

Wow! That Daniel J. Wakin story appearing in tomorrow’s Times has everything but the bloodhounds snappin’ at Luc Bondy‘s rear end!

on December 21, 2009 at 11:43 PM
Fortune’s fool Fortune’s fool

Have you heard the most recent update on the Franco Zeffirelli outburst earlier this week at the Rome Opera?

on December 13, 2009 at 1:11 AM

The Zeffirelli saga continues. According to the Corriere della sera, yesterday “lo Zeffirelli furioso” held what could mildly be described as an “animated” press conference in Rome for the presentation of the new season.

on December 10, 2009 at 11:14 AM
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