Headshot of La Cieca

Cher Public

  • marshiemarkII: Schatsie I completely agree that Walhalla's burning has to c...
  • oedipe: Nerva, I was referring mainly to the American opera establis...
  • MontyNostry: As I understand it, all AVA tuition is free to the students....
  • m. croche: And commiserations on this day to Aleksander Pushkin, wh...
  • phoenix: Very interesting. Does audience expression/reaction determi...
  • phoenix: There were always mediocre casts available at the Met for th...
  • manou: Keks - this is very funny. My husband and I read it at the G...
  • Nerva Nelli: I was lucky to hear Ciofi sing Lucie in Paris in 2002 with T...
  • Nerva Nelli: Yes, it's high time they brought him back in a leading part....
  • La Cieca: There is also the point that the Met is very strict about it...

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Trivium pursuit

Since our usual (and always welcome) catalog of webcast radio opera is temporarily interrupted this week (get well soon, Betsy!), La Cieca offers as an alternative a video presentation that will become available at 2:00 PM EST (20:00 CET): Enescu’s Oedipe, from La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels. Read more »

Busting out all over

As Groucho Marx would say, this is certainly a way of beating the heat; it’s also a a way of creating it. Well, all right, it’s actually something Dick Cavett said that Groucho might say, but the point stands that at 2:00 PM EDT the Opéra Royal de Wallonie production of Salomé will be webcast live.

Skating on the Nile?

aida_basel“Aida am Rhein,” an outdoor on-location live presentation of Verdi’s opera, with the cast of the current Calixto Bieito production in Basel. (So far as I can tell, Bieito didn’t direct the film or the outdoor spectacle, but presumably some of the dramatic ideas of his production were carried over into this performance.) Read more »

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That Touch of Munk

Getting the “screaming heads” treatment on CNBC is not good news for Peter Gelb.

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magic to do

Articulate, awe-inspring, alliterative administrator The Man of Steel spoke yesterday to New York One, defining his vision for the mission of the New York City Opera: “Championing new repertoire and discovering old repertoire. And particularly promoting American operas and American opera singers and providing visionary new productions of standard repertoire. So it’s a very clear mission,” said Steel. The ingenious intendant emphasized that he does not intend to “downsize” productions, stating, “Whether that’s dark and disturbing or flamboyant and flashy, we want to make sure that it’s an intense and wonderful theatrical experience.” He then added, “Welcome to Doug Henning‘s [...]

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love that hercules

This looks like fun.

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molto legato

If Wenarto, members of Cirque du Soleil and Rolando Villazón got really really high one night, this might be the result.

(In fact, this music video stars Serge Desrosiers and was directed by Sandrine Béchade.)

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video killed the opera star?

Well, no, actually. In fact, telegenic divas and divos date back at least half a century. Here are Clara Petrella and Giacinto Prandelli in a 1956 telecast of Manon Lescaut.

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