La Cieca has managed to obtain a few minutes of video, pirated at great personal risk, from a dress rehearsal of the Met’s new production of Das Rheingold.
La Cieca is told that at least three productions at the Met this year will be shorn of an accustomed intermission: Simon Boccanegra, The Queen of Spades and La traviata will all be done in “two-act” versions, each with but a single interval.
Of course opera fans all owe Agnes Varis a lot, what with the Met rush tickets and all that, plus La Cieca, being a lady of a certain age herself, should be the last one to talk. But she can’t help hearing this quote from Varis in the foghorn rasp of Miss Blankenship: “The opera’s like Broadway but better. It’s got sex, it’s got incest, it’s got rape…. You introduce young people to music, you’ve got them for life.” [Wall Street Journal]
This just in from the Met press office: "Andrea Bocelli will make his solo recital debut at the Metropolitan Opera House on Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. The performance will feature the celebrated Italian tenor singing a program of arias by Handel, and lieder and art songs by Beethoven, Wagner, Liszt, Richard Strauss, Fauré, and Tosti. Bocelli will be accompanied by pianist Vincenzo Scalera." Read more »
Richard Strauss’s brilliantly disturbing Elektra was first performed at the Dresden State Opera in 1909, and arrived in America in 1910 at the Manhattan Opera House. A second American premiere, this time in the original German, was in Philadelphia in 1931 with - and this will kill you - Nelson Eddy as Orestes. Along with Salome it represents Strauss at his most dissonant and chromatic. After Elektra, the composer would retreat to a more tonal, neo-romantic compositional style that while still harmonically complex, would never push the envelope like Elektra. This 1994 Metropolitan Opera performance has never been commercially available and is being released on DVD as part of a boxed set commemorating James Levine’s 40th Anniversary with the company. After watching this remarkable performance, one can only wonder why it has not been available before now! Read more »
As part of the massive CD/DVD release celebrating the 40th Anniversary of James Levine at the Met, "In Concert at the Met, 1982-83" offers generous excerpts from three memorable Gala Concerts: from February 1982, Troyanos-Domingo-Levine; from March 1982, Price-Horne-Levine; and from January 1983, Domingo-Milnes-Levine. I had the pleasure of being in the house for each of these three concerts, and each was a real occasion in the Met season. I’m delighted to be able to see if my fond recollections of these evenings have stood the test of a look at them 28 years (can this be possible?) later. Read more »
La Cieca has just heard (from no less a source than Sarah Billinghurst herself!) a tidbit that will no doubt interest Daniel Stephen Johnson among many others. It seems that the Met will produce Prince Igor in 2013 with Valery Gergiev (naturally) conducting and Dmitri Tcherniakov directing. The Prince himself will be Ildar Abdrazakov. Read more »
With over 2,600 votes cast over the course of last week, you, the cher public have spoken about which operas in the Met's repertoire will be de rigueur, can't miss, where-the-elite-meet Sternstunden, and which productions promise no more than a great big snooze. The top ten Met offerings will be Die Walküre, Das Rheingold, Le Comte Ory, Boris Godunov, Nixon in China, Don Carlo, Pelléas et Mélisande, Wozzeck, Capriccio and La Fanciulla del West. La Cieca needs hardly point out, need she, that of next season's seven new productions, six are in the top ten. Read more »
Cher Public