That Eveready Rabbit of a diva, Montserrat Caballe, is going to camp it up once more at the Vienna State Opera when she makes her role debut as the Duchesse de Krackenthorp (the Ljuba Welitsch part) in Laurent Pelly‘s production of Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment in April 2007. This production, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez, is skedded to appear at Covent Garden and the Met between 2007 and 2008. No word yet if La Caballe will travel with the show, but La Cieca will be the first to encourage her: do it! (If the Met management is skittish about the possibility of a Caballe cancellation, then the obvious solution would be to engage Mme. Vera Galupe-Borszkh as her cover!)

La Cieca hears that Lorin Maazel is so devoted to “American Idol” that he has become an avid participant in the show’s online discussion board. The Maestro’s online alias (unlike those of several celeb participants in the parterre.com comments section) is not very difficult to figure out.

Speaking of living legends (as if La Cieca knows any other topic!), “Il pirata di Jackson Heights” himself, Charlie Handelman, is now podcasting. His show, “Handelmania,” features live (what else?) excerpts from his vastissimo collection. To hear the shows and to find RSS information, go to The Handelmania Podcast.

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