It’s a sad story, really. Debussy and Maeterlinck had what the kids would call Major Drama over who was to sing Melisande (Mary Garden vs. the person you’ve never heard of) and so Maeterlinck didn’t see Pelleas until years after Debussy had died, so he never got to be like “word!” or, I suppose, “mot!” Read more »
La Cieca preens proudly to present a peerless pair of protégés (left to right) Squirrel and Maury D’Annato. The bromancers attended (or one should say “took in”) last night’s Ariadne auf Naxos at the Met, and as of early this afternoon they were still deconstructing. Read more »
Elektra occupies a special place in the Met’s rep, in a cheap way. It’s no easier to cast than any number of things that inspire well-rehearsed refrains of “put it away for fifty years,”* and really over the last quarter century many a somber compromise has been made in casting. What sets it apart is that folks seem willing enough to lie back and think of Mycenae while Gabriele Schnaut humps the leg of Strauss’ towering score, content to soak in the piece under any conditions. Read more »
In this, as in so many things, La Cieca follows the lead of friendly firebrand Maury D’Annato. Your doyenne calls on you, cher public, to help defeat California’s Proposition 8, a measure that, according to some legal scholars, could nullify thousands of existing marriages. Even in a best-case scenario, this measure would rob same-sex couples of the right to marriage. Please click on the banner below and, if you can, give generously to the Keep Marriage Legal cause.
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