La Cieca hears that Audra McDonald will sing the role of Kitty Oppenheimer when the Met presents John Adams‘ Dr. Atomic in the 2008-2009 season. La McDonald, it will be remembered, premiered Kitty’s aria “Easter Eve, 1945” in May 2004 with the New York Philharmonic under Adams’ baton. The versatile songstress is currently in Houston preparing for the March 4 prima of a double bill of La Voix humaine and a new one-woman opera by John Michael LaChiusa entitled Send (who are you? I love you).

Glamour diva Marcella Pobbe stars in this week’s podcast of Giordano’s Fedora on Unnatural Acts of Opera. La Cieca is experimenting with a new web-based player for the podcast on the site; the advantage is that you can select either the current show or else any of the archived shows from a pull-down menu. Do let La Cieca know what you think of this new gadget!

Also new is one of the latest Google Video selections, a performance by Edita Gruberova in the finale of Roberto Devereux from Munich in 2005: