La Cieca’s spy L’Inconnu in the City of Brotherly Love (which, given the circumstances, she supposes she should specify is Philadelphia) whispers:

La Cieca favorite Stephen Costello is one of the only worthwhile reasons to catch David DiChiera‘s new opera Cyrano premiering tomorrow night at the Opera Company of Philadelphia. The men truly led the way in this handsome production of a musically tedious opera. Also starring are Barihunks Marian Pop as Cyrano and Daniel Teadt as his sidekick Robin, I mean, Le Bret. Costello sings beautifully, but as even he himself commented, must watch his ever-expanding waistline if he does not want to move rapidly into the realm of Chunken-tenor.

UPDATE: La Cieca has just debriefed another of her phalanx of Philly moles (let’s just call him L’Anonyme):

Attended the final dress for Cyrano here in Philadelphia yesterday. What a dud. Even the chorus hates the opera as many almost fell asleep onstage. Anyway, Stephen sang beautifully as the dramatically important but musically skimpy Christian. I’m not sure if there was anything higher than ‘A’ in the role. He got a rousing ovation as many faculty and students from his high school Alma Mater were there.

He was kind enough to chat with folks and pose for photos on the street outside the theater.

He was accompanied by Ailyn, the delightful fianceed one. Really, though, she was funny, charming and very sweet. She let on that Stephen did indeed ‘catch something’ in London and so wasn’t in tip-top shape for the recital there.

Marian Pop as Cyrano was no slouch, either. However, for such a tour-de-force role, there weren’t many gratifying musical climaxes. The last few minutes up to the final curtain with his death scene were written so matter-of-factly, that you really didn’t care, and were glad the whole mess was over.

…I wanted to drop you a little note about our babytenor. BTW, he’s thin as a rail!

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