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Cher Public

  • Clita del Toro: Live Siegfried from Munich is on new—Act I 10:48 AM
  • armerjacquino: Actually, that’s not true about Vickers- I have the Solti AIDA somewhere. 10:14 AM
  • armerjacquino: I don’t have any Crespin (just an accident) or any Vickers (who I consciously avoid). 10:13 AM
  • Clita del Toro: Dumb, off-topic topic: Singers whose recordings you have never, ever bought. Mine are: Domingo,... 9:07 AM
  • Cocky Kurwenal: They did it in Seattle after Vancouver and before the recording, so it looks like they’ve... 8:50 AM
  • Cocky Kurwenal: Quite surprised the Vicar hasn’t chimed in with your enthusiasm for Carolyn Sampson. Come... 8:42 AM
  • phoenix: On this inaugural festive weekend: very best wishes to Bobensane (and all parterrianensane comrades) for... 8:18 AM
  • rysanekfreak: In addition to our regular features at Parterre (Guess the Regie and Intermission and Criticize the... 7:43 AM

Time, after time

In breaking news today, Margaret Thatcher announces her resignation as British Prime Minister, South African activist Nelson Mandela is released from prison, and, on television, a new animated series called The Simpsons premieres. All this, and more news of today, 1990, in the current issue of Time magazine.

Not bad for a human

Cher public, La Cieca must inform you that the president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Michael Kaiser (right), is afraid of you (left). “This is a scary trend,”  says he. [via Huffington Post, of all places to climb on your soapbox about "serious arts criticism."]

Graeae lady

Bloomberg’s Zinta Lundborg, best known for sharing a single eye and a single tooth with Manuela Hoelterhoff, overlooked the opera on Wednesday night and instead reviewed the PR for Dark Sisters. When a man writes like this, we call it “bitchy,” so when a woman does it, can’t we call her “dickish?”   Read more »

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Vivremo insiem, e morremo insiem!

The truth, at last: “By Manuela Hoelterhoff and Zinta Lundborg” [Bloomberg]

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Tales of the Dresden version

“As the flirtatious Musetta, American soprano Takesha Meshe Kizart won the audience’s hearts with the charm and flair of her personality and a potent upper register, including some formidable high C’s for her Waltz Song.” [AP]

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No cure for the common scold

Every time La Cieca says she’s through once and for all reading Norman Lebrecht, that middlebrow minstrel of the maestro myth soars to new heights of noisomeness. This time (yet again) it’s about how utterly callous those silly opera singers are for canceling (imagine!) when they’re too sick to sing.  

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Together wherever we go

La Cieca must say that, for a chick, Katharina Wagner sure doesn’t talk much. But perhaps her reticence is something of a blessing, since it prevents her from spouting such facile generalizations as “…’Die Meistersinger,’ Hitler’s favorite Wagner opera.”  

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Close reading

It may seem quixotic that La Cieca subscribes to Opera News, and the print version at that, but, after all, the dear people there were kind enough to interview Our Own JJ last summer on the subject of this very cum-blog, so, well, noblesse oblige and all that, you know. Since the mag is showing up on her doorstep more or less monthly now, your doyenne thought she might as well get some multipurposing out it, so here goes a new feature provisionally called “Opera News Watch.” 

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