Headshot of La Cieca

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something sort of grandish

by | 12:46 pm | Jul 25, 2008

La Cieca hears that the “all 20th century” concept of the first Gerard Mortier season at NYCO may be subject to modification. According to an impeccably reliable source, the first season

will include a rarely-seen French Grand Opera and an evening centered around pieces of Verdi done with a double chorus – one all African-American, one all Caucasian that will tell stories of today’s New York. During the first season we can also expect a new Pelleas et Melisande, but the plan for Nixon in China has been abandoned due to Gelb’s producing it in 2010-11. NYCO and The Met are committed to being divergent – aiming toward no overlap in the repertory.

On the horizon for 2011-2012: a “massive” production of Billy Budd to feature Nathan Gunn in the title role for the first time in New York. . .  at The Park Avenue Armory.

 

 

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with apologies to Nerva Nelli

by | 8:38 am | Jun 9, 2008

New York City Opera has commissioned American composer Charles Wuorinen to write an opera based on “Brokeback Mountain,” a love story about two U.S. ranch-hands that won three Oscars when it was turned into a movie.

The opera house’s spokesman Gerard Mortier said in a statement on Sunday that Wuorinen had accepted an invitation to compose an opera entitled Haroun and the Sierra of Sissies, based on Annie Proulx‘s short story. It is slated to premiere during City Opera’s 2013 spring season in a production by Jonathan Miller.  Casting for the work will include Ian Bostridge as Ennis del Mar and Shirtless Nathan Gunn as Jack Twist. Sylvain  Cambreling, not shirtless, will conduct.

In preparation for the first performances of the opera five years hence, New York Times scribe Anthony Tommasini has already begun a weekly series of essays in which he posits a moral equivalence between the violent lynching of homosexuals with “the patronizing disdain of the tough-guy [dodecaphonic] modernists” against the oppressed minority of 20th century composers who used tonal methods.

Later in the series Tommasini will explain why the Haroun and the Sierra of Sissies should have been written by Thomas Adès in the first place.

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at his exercise

by | 11:26 am | Apr 22, 2008

“Sit with your legs extended in a V shape. Place your hands in front of you, between your legs, keeping your arms straight. Now straighten your back and neck, and lift your feet as high as you can.”

Well, my dears, if La Cieca had a dollar for every time she’s heard that, she could . . .  oh, what’s that? Really? In fact, there’s nothing naughty at all going on here. It’s just the Nathan Gunn Workout, as featured in Best Life Magazine  [via NYC Opera Fanatic]

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my white knight

by | 10:48 am | Apr 2, 2008

Definitive barihunk Nathan Gunn (center) will play Lancelot in a semistaged concert of Lerner and Loewe’s musical Camelot at Avery Fisher Hall May 7-10. Additional hunkiness will be provided by Gabriel Byrne (Arthur) and Marc Kudisch (Sir Lionel) and the diva quotient may be filled by Marin Mazzie as Guenevere. The New York Philharmonic presentation will be telecast nationally by PBS on May 8. [via NYT]

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30-day flu grips music industry!

by | 9:00 am | Jan 31, 2008

UPDATE: La Cieca has heard from more than one reliable source that Juan Diego Flórez is yet another victim of whatever it is that’s mowing down all the Almavivas. The tenor, she hears, has canceled Barbiere di Siviglia at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Word on the street is that John Osborn will be released from L’elisir d’amore at Palm Beach so he may sing the Rossini in Chicago, with performances beginning February 11 opposite Joyce DiDonato and Nathan Gunn. LOC subscribers (already reeling over having Angela Gheorghiu, Barbara Frittoli, Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Peter Mattei, Bernadette Manca di Nissa and Ambrogio Maestri [...]

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Lookism? Again?

by | 12:36 am | Nov 3, 2007

Yet another rehash of the great voice vs. waistline debate, this time in the Chicago Daily Herald. Nicole Cabell laments the scarcity of European gyms, while “hunken-tenor” Joseph Kaiser plants his feet firmly on both sides of the fence by declaring, “Essentially if you can be healthy about being healthy, that’s the balance to find because there’s a lot of unhealthy ways to be ‘healthy.’” Usual suspects Deborah Voigt and Nathan Gunn offer no comment, but “bari-hunk” Mariusz Kwiecien is willing go on the record that he is “not an extremely good looking guy.” (Obviously he didn’t take a good [...]

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Flash Mab

by | 10:29 am | Sep 12, 2007

The Met’s star-crossed revival of Roméo et Juliette has just hit another bump. Nathan Gunn, announced for Mercutio, has dropped out of the September and October performances of the opera due to illness. Jumping in will be baryhunque Stéphane Degout, who performed Mercutio in this production back in 2005. Gunn is still on the cast list for the December portion of the run. UPDATE: It just gets worse. Rolando Villazón is now off the Met roster for the season. His Roméo performances (December 8, 12, 15 and 20) have been updated to TBA; the tenor’s Carnegie Hall recital is also [...]

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Rocky Mountain low

by | 6:20 pm | Aug 17, 2007

UPDATE: A source at Opera Colorado informs La Cieca that there is in fact no exodus currently in progress from the company’s costume shop. La Cieca apologizes for the confusion. Earlier, La Cieca reported that her “mile-high informant” whispered that “Colorado Opera’s entire costume department just quit in a huff. Or was fired in a huff.” Apparently La Cieca was either misinformed or else misunderstood the tip she was given. In any case, we continue with the latest installment of News of the Hard to Believe. America’s Singing Slab Nathan Gunn is quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying, apparently [...]

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