Headshot of La Cieca

Cher Public

  • Feldmarschallin: Well it certainly didn’t take long to bring up this old canard again. Mara Zampieri had a... 2:49 AM
  • johnkb: We must be sisters from different misters. My Scotto story started with a MET tour to Memphis and her... 1:07 AM
  • zinka: I gave NO PERMISSION to publish the photo of my body. Just for that, I will write more than 50 articles on... 12:59 AM
  • marshiemarkII: For what it’s worth, I thought Gatti simply overwhelming, and I would follow him to the end... 12:42 AM
  • bassoprofundo: That’s quite the definitive statement. 12:35 AM
  • marshiemarkII: Oh Chickie, it must have been very scary indeed. The staging called for a bed suspended in mid air... 12:30 AM
  • Camille: Such an intelligent and lovely young person as well! I heard her interviewed by MJ and she appeared to... 12:18 AM
  • marshiemarkII: Bianchisssima, I have a strange relationship with Lucia, it was the first operatic record I ever... 12:17 AM

Deliberate cruelty is unforgivable

For the second performance of Renée Fleming‘s “Perspectives” performances at Carnegie Hall she chose a semi-staged version of André Previn‘s A Streetcar Named Desire, with the “People’s Diva” herself in the iconic role of the unstable Blanche DuBois.  Bravo to her for choosing an opera based on an American subject matter that had yet to be presented in NYC!  Bravo to her for arriving at a level of celestial operatic stardom that allows her to cherry pick all manner of repertoire for her own series of concerts presented at Carnegie Hall!

And yet… Read more »

Teen spirit

Now that the Met’s 2013-2014 season has been published and almost immediately discussed to death, La Cieca thought it would be amusing to do a bit of speculation about what lies ahead as we approach the middle of the decade. An assemblage of gossip and guesswork about the 2014-2015 season follows the jump, and won’t it be fun to look back on this post next February when the official announcement is made? Read more »

Even smiling makes my face ache

Call it brio, joie de vivre, zest, élan vital, perhaps Lebenslust. You might even call it “fun.” But no matter what you call it, that’s not the mood Renée Fleming was in when she dropped in for lunch with Muse at Bloomberg.

renata_renee

Once in half a lifetime

Then and now: the “Dio ti giocondi, o sposo” duet from Otello.

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new_puritans

Our retrospection will now be all to the future

La Cieca predicts you won’t be seeing any puritans at the Met next season, except of course for the ones who slouch around during intermission hissing, “You call that a trill?”

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vera_scoopenda

Thanking you so much

La Scoopenda tries on Vera Galupe-Borszkh‘s mantle of grandezza for an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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mezzanine_of_mirth

So what’s the deal with the Dew Fairy?

Renée Fleming, celebrated soprano, musical ambassador and riffmeister…

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Lyric Opera Fleming

Turban planning

Press release: “Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Renée Fleming Wears Her Creative Consultant Hat in Chicago and On the Road”

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