When Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the mantle of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, a palpable change was felt in the air, from Novosibirsk to East Berlin. Words like glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) began to replace the gradually outmoded Leninist philosophies that had become warped under Stalin and Andropov. The possibilities were palpable, and soon manifested into thousands of Muscovites calling for Gorbachev to resign in 1990, following the latter half of the decade teeming with what David Remnick aptly described for the New Yorker as “argument, truth-telling, irony, hysteria, and scandal” on state television. Read more »
Sondra Radvanovsky will replace Karita Mattila in the new Met production of Un ballo in maschera next season. Radvanovsky’s dates in Don Carlo are now TBA, and La Cieca is guessing that won’t be Mattila. More Thursday morning news dump madness from the Met press office, after the jump. Read more »
You can call Robert Lepage many things (and the critics have!), but one thing you cannot call him is “inflexible.” Having already tweaked a number of details in his Ring production that did not create the desired effect in their first viewing, the Canadian Cagliostro is now in the process of restaging whole segments of the cycle for the Met’s 2012-13 presentation. A glimpse at the new look for the final scene of Die Walküre after the jump. Read more »
“Based on journalist feedback,” the Met’s press office has ceased issuing email announcements of cast changes.
On this, the anniversary of her natal day, May 15, La Cieca likes to think back to that moment…
Overture! Light the lights! And what heights you hit indeed, cher public, in La Cieca’s “Gold Standard” competition.
Can a day pass without the New York Times‘ 24/7 coverage of the Met’s Ring getting on yet another of La Cieca’s nerves?
This Billy Budd would have worked better with a stronger set of singers.
Cher Public