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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

Blow a kiss, take a bow!

La Cieca (not pictured) is so gratified that there’s at least one arts journalist out there who’s willing to take on the really tough, gritty issues that so few are willing to touch. The scribe is Zachary Woolfe and the powderkeg topic du jour is Anna Netrebko‘s mid-scene breaking of character at the opening night of Anna Bolena as it relates to analagous instances of metaperformance across historical and cultural boundaries. Gripping stuff!

All about Anna

Yes, yes, La Cieca realizes that parterre has gone “All Anna All the Time,” but, hey, she’s opening the Met season in a company premiere, plus we like her. Anyway, La Netrebko is profiled, covered, revealed, reported, what she eats and when and where, whom she knows and where she was and when and where she’s going—and besides that a teensy moment of tsurris with a corset, all in the Sunday Times cover story by Zachary Woolfe.

Charismatic movement

Friend of the Box Zachary Woolfe follows up his provocative NYT article on charisma with an invitation to discuss this elusive quality with his cher public, a group of which La Cieca is sure you parterriani represent a significant subset. Let yourselves be heard!

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Back to the “Futures”

The controversy over the demise of Brad Wilber‘s Met Futures site goes mainstream, thanks to (who else?)  Zachary Woolfe.

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Allons enfants de la Public

What better way to celebrate le 14 juilliet than with a provocative piece on opera by and about two of La Cieca’s favorite revolutionaries, Zachary Woolfe and Gerard Mortier (respectively), followed by cries of “Liberté, égalité [and especially] fraternité!” from that madcap maven of musical mirth, Maestro Wenarto (after the jump.)

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Screen names

“Here, finally, is not merely the music on the Internet, but the music of the Internet…” Zachary Woolfe reacts to Nico Muhly‘s Two Boys in the New York Times.

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“Why City Opera May Bite the Dust”

Briefly, according to Zachary Woolfe: “No one came.” More elaboration, plus speculation on “What That Means,” in the New York Observer.  And for those of you with a taste for hash, the subject is revisited as well in the New York Times.

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Lepage turner

“Near the end of Robert Lepage‘s production of Wagner’s Die Walküre, which opened at the Metropolitan Opera on Friday, there is a moment of arresting visual beauty. The raked stage slowly rises and, with the help of projections, turns into a looming, stark, snow-covered mountain. It’s a breathtaking transformation, one that encapsulates everything that’s wrong with Mr. Lepage’s work.” The first deep reading of the Lepage Ring is by Zachary Woolfe, naturally.

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