La Cieca hears that Renée Fleming will yet again grace the stage of the Metropolitan with a new role in 2015. The production will be staged by Susan Stroman.
La Cieca is told that at least three productions at the Met this year will be shorn of an accustomed intermission: Simon Boccanegra, The Queen of Spades and La traviata will all be done in “two-act” versions, each with but a single interval.
As perhaps you know, if there’s anyone Norman Lebrecht hates more than opera singers and superstar conductors, it’s artists’ managers. So imagine his glee when he got his mitts on an email “leaked… in the dark of night” detailing “the balance of terror that prevails between a soloist and the person who supposedly has his or her best interests at heart…. the stuff of nightmares.” Read more »
La Cieca hears that the Hildegard Behrens Foundation will be launched today, the first anniversary of the death of the German dramatic soprano. First activities of the group will include bestowing grants on the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the YOA Orchestra of the Americas.
La Cieca just heard that Stephen Costello goes on tonight (i.e., in just a few hours) in Roméo et Juliette at the Salzburg Festival opposite Anna Netrebko. He's jumping in for Piotr Beczala, who, if you ask Norman Lebrecht, is probably malingering with a South Seas cutie.
La Cieca has just heard (from no less a source than Sarah Billinghurst herself!) a tidbit that will no doubt interest Daniel Stephen Johnson among many others. It seems that the Met will produce Prince Igor in 2013 with Valery Gergiev (naturally) conducting and Dmitri Tcherniakov directing. The Prince himself will be Ildar Abdrazakov. Read more »
La Cieca hears that the Met has just freed up about 60 storage containers in their production storage facility in New Jersey, disposing of 14 old productions including such venerable classics as the Robert O'Hearn Hansel and Gretel, the Beni Montresor Gioconda and the Franco Zeffirelli Falstaff. Read more »
La Cieca hears that a big axe just fell in the marketing department over at Sterling Cooper Draper Gelb. Look for a new director to be hired from outside the company.
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