An internet leak, quickly plugged but too late, reveals Opera Orchestra of New York’s 2011-12 projected season. On Tuesday, November 8, Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann will grace Carnegie Hall with Adriana Lecouvreur. Then, on Sunday, January 29, Ian Storey and Elisabete Matos headline Rienzi, presumably maestro Queler’s sole appearance of the season. The final big event will be Wednesday, March 7, when Placido Domingo will sing one of his most beloved warhorses, “TBA.”
Your season planning for Opera Orchestra of New York, cher public, looks a lot more interesting than what the company’s own artistic adminstration is likely to come up with. Thus far, La Cieca has heard one date for certain: that Eve Queler default choice Rienzi, this time with Elisabete Matos—presumably in the not very interesting role of Irene—on February 29, 2012. Meh. The best of your choices after the jump. Read more »
Our own Dawn Fatale (pictured) dreamt up the Konzept for the following challenge, to which La Cieca is sure the cher public will respond with their usual zeal and whimsy. In this game, it is up to you to program the 2011-12 season for Opera Orchestra of New York, based on a set of criteria to be revealed after the jump. Read more »
Our own JJ reflects on a pair of French operas, Roméo et Juliette and L’africaine, neither of which you could exactly call “grand.” [New York Post]
La Cieca is delighted to note that philanthropist Agnes Varis (not pictured, obviously) will subsidize 500 premium seats at Avery Fisher Hall for the Opera Orchestra of New York’s performance of Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine conducted by Music Director Eve Queler on March 2, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
In 1890 Cavalleria rusticana had taken the whole world by storm and in the next decade or so, hordes of composers, willing or unwillingly, jumped on the Verismo bandwagon. La navarraise (1894) is generally considered Jules Massenet’s homage to the genre, and for a long time the two works were often performed together. Emma Calvé, the creator of the title role in Massenet’s opera, and one of the most illustrious champions of the Verismo movement, frequently appeared in the two operas in the same evening.
Roberto Alagna, star of tonight’s pair of one-acters by Opera Orchestra of New York, discusses divorce and desserts with Our Own JJ. [New York Post]
Opera Orchestra of New York will jump-start its new incarnation in 2010-11 with a double bill of La Navarraise (Roberto Alagna, Elina Garanca) and Cavalleria rusticana (Alagna again, with Maria Guleghina and Mignon Dunn[!!!]), conducted by Music Director Designate Alberto Veronesi at Carnegie Hall on October 25. Eve Queler returns to the podium for L’Africaine on March 2 at Avery Fisher Hall, with Marcello Giordani and lavishly-bevowelled Italian soprano Chiara Taigi.
Cher Public