La Cieca has heard that, not to be outdone by Peter Gelb’s discovery of hot young directors like Luc Bondy and Patrice Chéreau, NYCO’s George Steel is boldly leaping forward into the 20th century by signing up Peter Sellars for a series of productions.
In other music news, everyone down at Danceteria is just wild for that new girl singer Madonna.
When invited to participate in a discourse on artistic standards (hello, internet!), it’s easy — pleasurable, even — for an aesthete to bray about “the fall.” Where are the true heldentenors? Your kingdom for a Callas! (Or a Stratas, or a Rysanek!) And might the public, at long last, deserve a stable of directors who possess the good sense to avoid both the trope-y familiar as well as the ill-advised pathways of, ugh, the modern? Read more »
New York City Opera has announced its 2010-2011 season, and it looks like La Cieca’s precognitions were about 90% correct. (Please, hold your applause.) Read more »
The maniacal laughter of incorrigible NYCO nemesis Manuela Hoelterhoff continues to echo through the halls of Castle Bloomberg this morning, as yet another of the executive editor's gang of henchscribes gloats over yesterday's announcement of a curtailed season at the company that dared to snub Francesca Zambello. Poor paltry fools! Read more »
"There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications -- to put it plainly! The four-letter word deprived us of our plantation, till finally all that was left -- and Stella can verify that! -- was the house itself and about twenty acres of ground, including a graveyard, to which now all but Stella and I have retreated!" [NYT]
Squirrel was expecting boobs! People, there were no boobs, and for that, I was a little disappointed. Read more »
Doubling down on its artistic mission, New York City Opera begins a tenuous season with a turgid Bible drama. Read more »
Cher Public