December 2005
All right, class. Take a careful look at the costume sketch below. It’s for a major character in a standard repertory opera. (In other words, nobody is doing Natoma.) Look carefully at the sketch, and when you think you know who the character is, scroll down to find out the answer. Think you know who…
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
“She had awakened desire in him, and he had once approached the house of Thais. But he stopped on the threshold of the courtesan’s house, partly restrained by the natural timidity of extreme youth– he was then but fifteen years old– and partly by the fear of being refused on account of his want of…
Peter Gelb‘s new broom continues to sweep at the Met. Perhaps to make room for the Gheorghiu/Netrebko/Damrau generation, the incoming General Manager is buying out contracts. Two Met artists in particular are targeted, and, oddly enough, these two ladies have quite a bit in common. Both are 40-something light lyric sopranos, and they have three…
Too late, I’m afraid, for a holiday gift, but what looks to be the must-have CD of the season has just become available. It’s a “new” Elektra, — actually a release of a live 1990 performance with the Valhalla-level pairing of Dame Gwyneth Jones and Leonie Rysanek as daughter and mother. (This is of course…
“It’s not like there’s anyone who wants new operas to fail. In fact, audiences, critics, and opera companies alike have huge stakes in seeing new works succeed. And goodness knows the Metropolitan Opera, like any reputable opera company, has a responsibility to present recent compositions. However, reviews are not for good intentions; I have to…
Did you know that you (yes, you) can advertise on parterre.com?
Well, it’s that time of year, isn’t it? La Cieca is full to overflowing with the holiday spirit, so full of it, in fact, that she’s going to speak her mind, just as if this were a company party. There are some out there who have forgotten the true meaning of this time of year,…
Sometimes La Cieca can just lie back and let Tony and the Times do all the work.
The upscale art book for opera lovers this holiday season is George Tsypin Opera Factory: Building in the Black Void (Princeton University Press). Tsypin is designer of choice to directors Julie Taymor, Peter Sellars and Francesca Zambello; his most familiar work to New Yorkers is perhaps his Met Zauberfloete in collaboration with Ms. Taymor. The…
Rolando Villazon not apparently in his very best form but La Cieca is very impressed with a) his willingness to sing out and take chances even when he is less than 100% and b) his well-supported legato that is the basis of even his most vehement singing. Anna Netrebko found a way to interpret Gilda…
The hallmark of Camp is the spirit of extravagance. Camp taste turns its back on the good-bad axis of ordinary aesthetic judgment. Camp doesn’t reverse things. It doesn’t argue that the good is bad, or the bad is good. What it does is to offer for art (and life) a different — a supplementary —…
La Cieca has just heard that, following up on the resounding critical and popular success of Tobias Picker‘s An American Tragedy, the Metropolitan Opera has rushed into the pipeline a new piece by Jake Heggie, Brokeback Mountain, based on the short story by Annie Proulx, with a libretto by Terrence McNally. Current plans are to…
(1) Alessandra Marc is the soprano who was inspired by Leontyne Price‘s “Zweite Brautnacht.” (2) David Daniels’ favorite soap is “The Guiding Light.” (3) Evelyn Lear sang “The Boy from Ipanema.”
La Cieca thanks the record number of listeners who have downloaded the “Unnatural Acts Gala” already. Two of the prizes have been awarded to sharp-eared fans, but two DVDs remain to be awarded. Everyone so far has got the first two questions correct, but the third seems to be the sticking point. La Cieca will…
Here it is, cher public: the Unnatural Acts Gala and Quiz. To listen, just click on the arrow button. (Make sure your speaker volume is turned up, and allow 10 – 15 seconds for the show to start playing.) Listen to the Gala and Quiz! You can also download the mp3 at this direct link.…
Be sure to check back here on parterre.com at noon (17:00 GMT) tomorrow for the First Unnatural Acts of Opera Gala and Quiz, featuring performances by Leontyne Price, Placido Domingo, Beverly Sills, Simon Keenlyside, David Daniels, Regine Crespin, Piero Cappuccilli, Regina Resnik, Diana Soviero and Eleanor Steber. (There will be some filth as well, but…
Twelve years — a quarter of my life! That’s how long I’ve been La Cieca, or, more accurately, that’s how long parterre box has been a part of my life. The lady over there on the right is the reason this all began: Maria Callas, for whose 70th birthday (December 3, 1993) I though it…
Through her elaborate network of spies, moles and informants, La Cieca has managed to obtain a photo from Francesca Zambello‘s production of Tobias Picker‘s new American Tragedy, opening Friday night at the Met. For an advance sneak preview of the opera, click here.
Today is the “birthday” of Billy Budd, the 54th anniversary of the premiere of the Benjamin Britten opera. To mark the occasion, the popular (?) podcast featurette “The Enigmas of La Cieca” goes international next week when a lucky listener to “Unnatural Acts of Opera” will win a pair of prime seats to the English…
