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Cher Public

  • willym: well I just talked to the spouse – we looked at the programme again and decided this was a not to be... 2:18 PM
  • oedipe: Willym, I don’t know, but I am willing to give Ceci the benefit of the doubt. At any rate, this is a... 2:06 PM
  • Bill: Willym – the critics say 5 hours – apparently Bartoli sang all 8 of Cleopatra’s arias and... 1:55 PM
  • willym: oedipe couldnt find a reply for your post – but yes the theme and the choice is interesting. As much... 1:47 PM
  • armerjacquino: Dutoit. 1:41 PM
  • armerjacquino: Just the WALKURE and the FIDELIO film I think. Not a huge problem because I have the Vienna FIDELIO... 1:40 PM
  • Betsy_Ann_Bobolink: Just out of curiosity, Camille, why are you telling me not to eat bananas? Seems an odd sort... 1:27 PM
  • Ilka Saro: Tu sei giaaaaaaallo. Come un moooooooorto! 1:27 PM

Who criticizes the critics?

watching_the-watchmenSee, La Cieca thinks Brian Kellow is asking for trouble when, in the second paragraph of his analysis of last March’s Slatkinshchina, he admits, “I did not attend the March 29 opening-night performance of La Traviata, nor did I listen to it on Sirius Radio.”   Read more »

Need you ask? Need you tell?

billy-budd“Exciting! Indomitable! Alluring! Rigid! Enormous! Pulsing! Penetrating! Riveting! The public shame of being flogged! Aching tenderness!” [NYT]

Von Kopf bis Fuss

fussbudgetLa Cieca is delighted to begin a new series on parterre.com dedicated to the fretting, brooding and dithering of the Wazier of the Worriers, Anthony Tommasini. Our first examples (of many) follow the jump. Read more »

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The Player from Aquileia

“It is easy to understand why Mr. Muti admires Mr. Abdrazakov, his young, imposing Attila.” [NYT]

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Le Mot du Jour, extramural edition

Ordinarily La Cieca bestows the Wildean accolade upon a local cher pube. This time, though, she cannot resist praising one of the commentariat at Unpop!, Daniel Stephen Johnson‘s new project over at the New Haven Advocate.

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“L’etoile fait tout”

“Maybe this bold staging was a little overwrought. But when you have Ms. Garanca as Carmen, why not?” Anthony Tommasini offers an object lesson in the art of Criticism as Starfucking.

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Laughter to be short-lived

Enjoy your mockery while you can, cher public. The New York Times has decided they are going to start charging for content “in early 2011.” So, in a year or so, you won’t have Tony Tommasini to kick around any more.

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Man loves mullet

“And the news of this revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s opulent production continues to be the exciting work of the young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons, who searches out the modernist touches in Puccini’s final work.” [NYT]

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