Welcome, cher public, to discussion for this afternoon’s Met broadcast of Der Rosenkavalier. The performance begins at 1:00 PM.
By La Cieca
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“Ray Dull of Fresno, who recalls in the 1940s hauling manure as a teenager on his family’s Ohio farm as he listened to the Met’s Saturday radio broadcasts, understands the appeal of being up close in the movie theater.” [The Fresno Bee]
By La Cieca
One of the other American critics to cover La Scala’s HD Transmission of Carmen, Sarah Bryan Miller of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, shared our own squirrel’s view of the production. But she had some help from her friends at the “Associated Press and elsewhere.”
By squirrel
Snippet from yesterday’s Carmen telecast.
By La Cieca
Everything I need to know about Bizet I learned at a Judy Chicago exhibit in 1996. Brutality against women is pervasive, and society is culpable by permitting it. Such grievances were aired at the expense of the composer’s chef d’oeuvre Carmen yesterday at La Scala’s Gala opening, viewed dal vivo at Symphony Space on 95th and Broadway.
By squirrel
La Cieca is happy to note that Our Own Squirrel will be on-site at Symphony Space this afternoon with live breaking coverage of the triumphs and/or scandales associated with the prima of Carmen from La Scala, as seen on HD. Coverage starts here at parterre.com at 11:45 AM.
By La Cieca
Neither Maria Guleghina nor Marcello Giordani was in best form for the Met’s HD telecast of Turandot — and, truth be told, the lavish Franco Zeffirelli production is beginning to show its age.
By La Cieca
Condescending to opera lovers across America — and cheating both Bartlett Sher and Squirrel out of the simple joys of partial nudity — the Met has decided to censor the December 19th High Def broadcast of Les Contes d’Hoffmann!
By squirrel
They want it. The career. They want it really bad. So we learn from Susan Froemke’s Metropolitan Opera-commissioned documentary about the participants in the final round of the 2007 MetNational Council Auditions, which is out on DVD this month. Our own doyenne reviewed the film when it was screened as an HD theatrical event, and…
By squirrel
Felicity Palmer has withdrawn, alas, from the Met’s spring revival of La Fille du Régiment. In her place, alternating in the role of the Marquise de Berkenfield we will hear Ann Murray (pictured, with friend) and Philip Langridge. (Oh, all right, La Cieca is being silly. Not Philip Langridge, actually, but rather Meredith Arwady. But…
By La Cieca
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.
By La Cieca
“…at the height of her crippling attacks of stage fright, her vocal coach had to physically push her on to the stage of the Met’s new production of The Marriage of Figaro, in which she was singing with Bryn Terfel and Cecilia Bartoli.” [Times Online]
By La Cieca
The film of that awful play Master Class will begin lensing next week in Detroit. Faye Dunaway directs and stars as Maria Callas. [Detroit Free Press] UPDATE: Edited to include this much funnier photo suggesting La Dunaway has decided to play the Audra McDonald part.
By La Cieca
La Cieca has managed to obtain this exclusive snippet from the camera rehearsal for Saturday afternoon’s Met HD telecast. Note the “Hitchcock” influence in the cinematography. (Extra points for the first member of the cher public to detect La Cieca’s cameo appearance!)
By La Cieca
This is it, cher public, the big night… and you’ve found the place to be. The traditional (that word again!) yakfest during the Met’s opening night festivities will take place here at parterre.com from 6:00 pm until the curtain falls. Members of the public attending the event proper or the various HD relays are invited…
By La Cieca
Preseason puffery has commenced for the Met’s 2009 opening night production of Tosca, to star that noted brunette Karita Mattila. A release from the company’s press office today details the various ancillary events associated with the September 21 performance, including the first “Open House” of the season (i.e., the final dress rehearsal on September 17…
By La Cieca
The fucking genius of Peter Gelb just opened a new and heretofore unexpected orifice. Encouraged by the success of the Met’s HD movie broadcasts, The National Theatre in London earlier this evening telecast its production of Phèdre starring Helen Mirren into 300 cinemas around the world. Photo by Catherine Ashmore. [One Cold Hand – NYC]
By La Cieca
In honor of her one-third of a century, La Cieca has at long last returned to the Sunnyside Studios to record not one but two episodes of Unnatural Acts of Opera. Finally, cher public, you can hear the last two acts of a legendary performance of Jenufa from Opera Orchestra of New York, on March…
By La Cieca
Belated birthday greetings to Giulietta Simionato, still going strong at 99. The following video is from 1964, only two years before her retirement — after a career spanning almost four decades.
By La Cieca
Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of American dramatic soprano and pedagogue Margaret Harshaw. Margaret Harshaw as Brünnhilde Götterdämmerung – Immolation Scene. George Szell, conductor, Cleveland Orchestra. Recorded November 1, 1956 in Severance Hall, Cleveland.
By La Cieca
Don’t go saying George Steel‘s opera company is broke, you hear?Â
By La Cieca
As if we ever “came to order” around here! But anyway, La Cieca is throwing the floor open for a Listening and Viewing Orgy next weekend, when the MetPlayer will offer a three-day free preview. MetPlayer offers streaming of over 200 Met broadcasts and telecasts from 1937 to the present, including 20 in HD. The…
By La Cieca
La Cieca can hardly believe that as recently as four years ago nobody had ever heard of YouTube! To celebrate the site’s fourth anniversary, here’s one of the first clips La Cieca uploaded way back in the winter of 2005. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ckP4OXzVevI” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
By La Cieca
