“F. Paul Driscoll, editor of Opera News [not pictured], is optimistic. He feels every age has potential to be golden, yet he adds that ‘we don’t know if it’s real gold until we rub it a little bit, do we?’ Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who looks to Mick Jagger for performing tips, strives to make opera zing, ‘like when you break an orange peel and there is a spray of some fragrant zest,’ he says.” [NPR]
Has it been a year already? Apparently so, because the honorees for the eighth annual F. Paul Driscoll Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence, or as they are colloquially known, the Opera News Awards, have just this minute been announced. The five superb artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form this time around are sopranos Mirella Freni and Dawn Upshaw, countertenor David Daniels, baritone Simon Keenlyside, and bass-baritone Eric Owens. The eighth annual FPDAOAFE ceremony will take place on Sunday, April 21 at the Plaza in New York City.
La Cieca has just reviewed the parterre circulation numbers and she is delighted and not a little perplexed to note that the day of the Great Opera News Kerfuffle provided our site with the highest number of pageviews in history, a total of 33,565 views in the 24 hours of Tuesday May 22. Thanks to this story and the WQXR drama a few weeks earlier, parterre is on track for its busiest month ever. Read more »
Brian Kellow‘s “Coda” piece in the current Opera News, summarized: “I’m so cranky that even namedropping has lost its thrill.” (Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)
The bestowal of a bouquet of accolades upon James Levine is unsurprisingly the main thrust of the current Opera News (why, after all, should this month be different from any other in the rag’s 75 year history?) and given the plum of penning this poetical posy is the horticulturally apt writer Scott Rose, “author of the novel Death in Hawaii.” In this encomium—for which the adjective “fulsome” is altogether too mild a description— Mr. Rose winnows down what was what La Cieca supposes was in the most literal sense a list of “countless memorable moments” to a mere 40 of [...]
Congratulations to Opera Chic, named “Essential Opera Blogger” in the current Opera News by a panel consisting of Brian Kellow and Tristan Kraft.
Lots of media news today, so let’s not waste any time! La Cieca congratulates Opera News on the occasion of the mag’s 75th anniversary this month, though your doyenne is willing to swear that the mag doesn’t look a day over 60!
It may seem quixotic that La Cieca subscribes to Opera News, and the print version at that, but, after all, the dear people there were kind enough to interview Our Own JJ last summer on the subject of this very cum-blog, so, well, noblesse oblige and all that, you know. Since the mag is showing up on her doorstep more or less monthly now, your doyenne thought she might as well get some multipurposing out it, so here goes a new feature provisionally called “Opera News Watch.”
Cher Public