February 2006
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…
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Broadway diva Kristin Chenoweth sang for the Met Thursday in a “closed” audition. Does that mean she was behind a screen like the NY Phil does it? Rumor has it La Cheno is up for Samira (the Marilyn Horne role) the revival of Ghosts of Versailles in 2245 or whenever it is. La Cieca thinks,…
Actress/model/skank Carmen Electra will live up to her dual-barrelled operatic name tonight when she attends the Vienna Opera Ball. Curvy Carmen is the date of Viennese entrepreneur/socialite/reality show star Richard Lugner, who annually throws money at a celebrated piece of arm candy in hopes of attracting publicity. La Electra (oh, La Cieca thinks that is…
In an article in the LA Times focused mainly on Placido Domingo‘s renewal of his contract as general director of Los Angeles Opera, the tenor blames his current bout of tracheitis on his participation in Robert Wilson‘s production of Parsifal last fall. Domingo has already nixed his participation in a Wilson Walkuere skedded for Paris…
According to Gay City News, our editor JJ loved Angela Gheorghiu‘s Violetta, and he was more than a little enthused about Herr Jonas Kaufmann. Le public have spoken, and they want their video to stream quickly and reliably. So save this bookmark and visit frequently: it’s the parterre box page at Google Video. Here’s a…
So now Google offers a video sharing service too — a little more trouble to upload, but the playback seems to be somewhat smoother than YouTube. This is a Google video; let La Cieca know what you think.
This week on “Unnatural Acts of Opera,” La Cieca presents what you might call an “ultragala” performance of La traviata — the four acts performed by four different celebrated interpreters of the role of Violetta. For the first act, Anna Moffo is the courtesan, in a 1964 performance from La Scala. Gianni Raimondi is her…
The performance of Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta has attracted the attention of another Violetta of the present (Anna Netrebko), who will likely be a future interpreter of the role here in New York. And at least one Violetta of a past generation is expected to pay a courtesy call: Virginia Zeani has accepted an invitation…
Mike Richter is at it again, this time producing some very polished DVD presentations of operatic productions that are not available commerically. At only $15 a disc, Image Mogul is practically giving them away. Here’s a clip from one of the more mainstream offerings, a 1978 Don Carlo from La Scala with Placido Domingo and…
Not that La Cieca begrudges Jessye Norman her Grammy Award (she’s pictured celebrating in Tokyo after the ceremonies), but, honestly, what all has La Jess achieved in her lifetime that she should be given a Lifetime Achievement award? Certainly Norman’s has been a very visible and well-publicized career, but when La Cieca talks about a…
Alas, La Cieca can’t comment regarding onstage goings on at last night’s Traviata at the Met (her evil twin JJ is writing about the event for Gay City News), but things were pretty gala in the auditorium as well. Representing the Blogosphere was one of the Wellsungs, Jonathan Ferrantelli, a deux with the always charming…
La Cieca’s faithful spy L’incredibile reports from the Met’s Samson prova that Clifton Forbis is “the most committed artist in this role since Jon Vickers,” up to and including singing the Act 1 B-flat full out over the chorus. (“Quite a contrast to Jose Cura‘s attitude.”) It doesn’t hurt, L’inc adds, that Forbis boasts “Popeye…
From an article on Teresa Berganza‘s website, “Teresa Berganza, canto as expression of a style”: She’s got black eyes and a white simile . . . . Her voice, the subduing voice of Teresa Berganza is something like the invocation of a mystery made accomplice to the shinning of her gaze; a voice full of…
“I sang Violetta that year, too! Tony Tommasini said it was the best thing I ever did! They never even broadcast it in the United States! They were too busy giving a big build-up to that crap you were turning out.” Video
The New York Post‘s Clive Barnes is going to blush beet-red when he hears from the publicists (or the lawyers) who handle Placido Domingo. In a review of the Met’s Rigoletto, Barnes refers to PD as “the 72-year-old tenor.” Domingo admits to 65, though some gossips have long sniped that this figure doesn’t add up…
You would think that La Cieca would climb on her very high horse about the elementary school music theater in Colorado who riled up parents by showing the “Who’s Afraid of Opera?” version of Gounod’s Faust to her students. And certainly some of those parents overreacted in the good old American way. (One mom called…
La Cieca hears that last night at the Met (i.e, only a few hours after Angela Gheorghiu‘s dress rehearsal) ushers were handing out complimentary copies of a DVD of La traviata. Starring Anna Netrebko. On a less ominous note, Unnatural Acts of Opera presents Beverly Sills at her most scintillating in a 1970 performance of…
La Cieca’s spy L’incredibile, who has only moments ago slunk home from the Met’s Traviata dress rehearsal, predicts a triumph for Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta. “The most beautiful soprano to sing the role here since Anna Moffo,” L’incredibile exults, though he adds reservations about the carrying power of Gheorgiu’s “veiled” voice and the “frequent disagreements”…
In her never-ceasing quest to give you, the reader, what you want and need, La Cieca has restored the “Google Search” function on parterre.com. With this handy gizmo you can search the entire (blog and non-blog) parterre.com site, or, years from now when you’ve learned all you can learn from La Cieca, you can also…
La Cieca hears that one of our most popular and beloved mezzo-sopranos is going to drop the “mezzo” part and push up into a higher Fach. Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if this American artist were to show such poor judgment? A quick look-in at Academy Records this evening revealed a tantalizing assortment of CDs…
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