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Cobra Jewel Song

cobra-womanThe annual Richard Tucker gala came and went at Avery Fisher Hall with the usual quota of gaffes, wardrobe malfunctions, no-shows, too-much-shows, substitutions and surprise guests (well, guest).  And sandwiched between the routine, the egocentric and the just plain dull were moments of true dementia, the moments that we melomanes live and die for.  Most of those moments were due to the antics of a certain well-known Slavic diva (of whom more later).  But first, the specs.   Read more »

A big hand for the little lady

manon_netrebko_grigoloSweet Betsy again rounds up the Saturday afternoon listenables. La Cieca leans toward Manon naturellement, but she should warn you that she’s off like Des Grieux’s cassock at 3:00 pm to jump on the Caramoor Caravan. After the jump (not onto the Caravan!) the complete list of what’s singing who.

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Pop star

stefan_popRomanian tenor Stefan Pop, 23, is one of this year’s first-prize winners in the Operalia competition. There’s a glimpse of the budding hunkentenor in action after the jump. Read more »

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Top of the world

La Cieca hears from a reliable source that James Valenti is the 2010 Richard Tucker Award winner.

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Peak performance

On this upcoming otherwise dreary Tuesday afternoon, La Cieca hopes the cher public will all be figuratively glued to their PCs and Macs for a live web telecast of Werther from the Opéra-Bastille.

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The progress of a rake diverges

“I should make it clear here that neither have I married anyone with a beard nor have I ever murdered anyone. However, it was at this juncture in the early Noughties that my life hit rock bottom.” [The Times]

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The smooth and the rough

Snippet from yesterday’s Carmen telecast.

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Private dancer

Hunkentenor Giuseppe Filianoti performs a little “risqué business” in this trailer for a new production of L’elisir d’amore that opened last night at the Bayerische Staatsoper.

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