Headshot of La Cieca

Cher Public

  • WindyCityOperaman: Happy 91st (95th?) birthday soprano Inge Borkh httpv://www.youtub e.com/watch?v=kRas TYiCipM... 7:03 AM
  • Ercole Farnese: Mr. Mack has been way too lenient towards Ms. Voigt. I haven’t seen/heard this DVD, so I... 6:59 AM
  • Feldmarschallin: The new Siegfried which opens on Pfinstsonntag at BSO. Funny that Lance Ryan sounds Eastern... 2:56 AM
  • MontyNostry: … and does Stemme’s voice really have a “bright sheen”? Oh, I’d... 2:55 AM
  • MrGuy1804: You are right on the money. I was not terribly impressed with any of the singing. There were a few... 12:29 AM
  • Camille: That was fun, thanks! I had completely forgotten Eastern Airlines, the Wings of Man. With a name like... 12:22 AM
  • Henry Holland: Thanks! Too bad they didn’t do Der Zwerg instead of the (wonderful) Puccini. The LA Opera... 12:09 AM
  • Camille: Thanks Blue, for the review. Lord, what are “earthy colorings”? 12:06 AM

The 500 Hats of Peter Gelb

Is Peter Gelb wearing too many hats? Anthony Tommasini seems to think so, adding that one of those headpieces in particular is ill-fitting and might perhaps more flatteringly perch upon some other head. Call La Cieca suspicious, but she thinks the timing of this piece is hardly an accident.

Stop! Or My Mom Will Swim

More innovative casting from amazon.com. Read more »

Game changer

“Pathos and the high tone is not his thing,” helpfully explains Google Translate in reference to “Provokateur” Frank Castorf, who has been selected to direct the Ring at Bayreuth in 2013, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s birth. [Berliner Morgenpost]

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World class

La Cieca has just learned that La Monnaie, recently awarded the prestigious title of Opera House of the Year by Opernwelt magazine, is planning to stream all of this season’s productions free online. Currently on view is Luigi Cherubini’s Médée, featuring Nadja Michael and Kurt Streit in a production by Opera Cake fave Krzysztof Warlikowski, with Les talens lyriques led by Christophe Rousset. Watch the complete performance.

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Regie, redeemed

Stefan Herheim’s production of Parsifal for Bayreuth is the regie Holy Grail—a production that completely fulfills the promise and purpose of Regietheater.

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Sacred and Propane

Fertilization; birth; growth; decay. Eating; digestion; defecation; fermentation; biogas recovery; food production. Wagner’s Tannhäuser is a meditation on the relentless, repetition of cycles that define our existence and man’s insistence on the possibility salvation despite all the biochemical evidence to the contrary.

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Erlösung dem Erlöser!

La Cieca has just heard that the acclaimed production of Parsifal by Stefan Herheim will be telecast and filmed for DVD release next summer in Bayreuth.

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“Treulosem Rat gab sie ihr Herz dahin!”

La Cieca (not pictured) dons her “early adopter” hat once again as she prepares to watch the live telecast of Lohengrin from the Bayreuth Festival on Sunday. It’s an online pay-per-view event (a ticket is €14.90), though the presenters promise it can alternatively be watched “on demand at a time of your own choice between the 15th and 30th of August 2011.”

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