parterre box

La Cieca is still goggling at a press release she just received. Cher public, you can talk about this for a while.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York City Opera Commissions Philip Glass to Compose an Opera Based on the Life of Walt Disney

(New York, NY, September 29, 2008) Following a meeting of New York City Opera’s Board of Directors, Gerard Mortier, General Manager Designate today announced that City Opera is commissioning Philip Glass to compose a new opera, The Perfect American which imaginatively explores the life and career of Walt Disney. Based on the recent novel Der König von Amerika (translated into English as The Perfect American) by Peter Stephan Jungk, the opera, presented in collaboration with Improbable, is scheduled to open City Opera’s 2012-2013 season.

Cher public, you may recall that it was La Cieca who was the first to break the story that Gérard Mortier was under consideration to be the next General Manager of the New York City Opera, not quite a week before confirmation appeared in the moribund print media.  Since then the irreverent intendant has made a lot of headlines here and elsewhere.

Well, now you should be prepared for a shock, cher public, or at least for what may be the biggest story of the year. La Cieca hears a whisper that the Mortier/NYCO deal has gone sour, leaving the company rudderless beginning in 2009. Of course, your doyenne is probably wrong (she so often is!) but, on the chance that she’s not, well, remember you heard it here first!

UPDATE:  A member of the cher public has forwarded La Cieca a thought-provoking clip from Daily Yomiuri Online.  Sylvain Cambreling (Mortier’s “longtime collaborator,” per the New York TImes) has been named principal conductor of The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, effective April 1, 2010. The tipster notes “…Tokyo Opera City would be thrilled to get their hands on a star like Mortier if he were so inclined. And I bet they’re fully funded there…”

According to a statement on the Bayreuth website, stepsisters Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier will take over the Festspiele from their father Wolfgang Wagner, who is retiring after more than half a century at the helm of the festival.

Members of the “Wieland” branch of the Wagner family tree are, of course, furious at this selection of Wolfgang’s daughers as “Festspielleiterinnen” by the foundation that administers the Festival. Wolf Siegfried Wagner (son of Wieland) slammed the selection process as “unworthy.” Wolf Siegfried’s sister Nike Wagner lost their a joint bid with Gerard Mortier (not a member of the Wagner family at the moment) to head the festival.

“Of course I am sad about the outcome of the process,” Nike sighed in a statement released to Bloomberg News. “I hope that my cousins will seize the initiatives that Gerard Mortier and I presented. I wish them much success in that.’”

Katharina’s next artistic project at the Festival will be a new production of Tristan und Isolde in 2015, with Christian Thielemann as music director.