La Cieca
Dear departed Shelley Winters knew a thing or two about the diva experience, and one of her most apt mediations on the topic may be found in her memoirThe Middle of My Century. She was starring in the Broadway production of A Hatful of Rain, and during rehearsals she stumbled on the heavily raked stage,…
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Dishy scribe Zachary Woolfe muses on “The Bewitching Art of La Cieca” in The New York Observer. Our Own JJ is profiled, covered, revealed, reported, what he eats and what he wears and whom he knows and where he was, and when and where he’s going.
This one is dedicated to the wizardly Nick Scholl. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Y2_u248S9s4″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
La Cieca is proud to relaunch a completely overhauled parterre.com, previously seen in fragments, dribs and drabs, but now here to stay. The new look features a return to the (now) retro punky aesthetic of the early ’90s zine, updated fonts and all sorts of other improvements intended to enhance your reading and commenting pleasure.…
“Ya are going on tonight at the Royal Opera in Barbiere. In a wheelchair!”
Just added to Google’s online archive of Life magazine photographs: over a hundred full-color images from the Old Met in the 1960s. Be prepared for a strong pang of nostalgia as you glimpse Richard Tucker, Leontyne Price, Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli, Anna Moffo, Zinka Milanov and many other greats of that regrettably bygone era. [Google Images]
“The American mezzo-soprano Faith Sherman makes a striking debut as the Pilgrim, but surely ENO could have found a British singer for this role.” [The Telegraph]
Trailer for the new Richard Jones production of Lohengrin at the Bavarian State Opera, featuring Jonas Kaufmann‘s role debut as the Swan Knight.
“Natalie Dessay … in a fuchsia dress and lace-up high boots, flaming red hair piled high on her head …. swung her arms above her head, stretched, and then literally screamed out what sounded like wild joy and barely bridled lust.” [Santa Fe New Mexican]
La Cieca hears that Joyce DiDonato took the proverbial “break a leg” too literally during the opening night of new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at Covent Garden yesterday. The mezzo caught her foot in a track on the steeply-raked stage and fractured her leg during the first act. Despite the pain, she continued…
That favorite strawman of closed-minded critics, “Regie opera,” is the target of yet another limp-noodle critical flailing, this time from a chap by the name of Geoffrey Wheatcroft — as if someone whose mugshot is so obviously a emblem of bowtied entitlement has any right to pronounce judgment on anyone else’s visual taste. Just how…
“When I was in junior high and my parents found gay porn on my computer, I told them that it was just popup ads from parterre.com.” La Cieca just returned from an interview with Zachary Woolfe, who gave La Cieca that “I loved you when I was a child” crap, but you’ll be happy to…
La Cieca is delighted to present, by special arrangement with VAI, the legendary “New Orleans Forza” as the latest installment of Unnatural Acts of Opera. This live performance was recorded in March of 1953 and stars Zinka Milanov, Mario del Monaco and Leonard Warren. You can hear the first act after the jump.
What a gorgeous performance of “Vissi d’arte!” And was La Cieca surprised when she learned the name of the artist!
The embattled NYCO chairwoman is 59 years young today!
Oh, but this looks dire. Not the fellow wallowing amidst the counterpane, obviously — he’s rather dishy if you like that type — but rather what he’s advertising. It’s a reworking of Don Giovanni called (La Cieca only wishes she were making this up) “The Gay Don,” to be previewed on July 4 at the…
The choreographer and opera director died earlier today. She was 68.
Is it for the sake of gay pride in San Francisco, or it is the relief of getting that massive whonking tiara off her pretty noggin? Either way, Anna Netrebko is singing Traviata better now than she was in April. (Sound clip after the jump.)
According to Musical Criticism, Deborah Voigt has canceled her run of Tosca performances at the Royal Opera “due to ‘acute colitis’.” As it happens, your doyenne had a tip on that cancellation late last week and for whatever reason (Michael Jackson fatigue?) she didn’t share that gossip with you. So, cher public, here’s a chance…
Denyce Graves — whatever happened to her? Well, for one thing, she has apparently married well. Yesterday the mezzo-soprano wed Robert Montgomery — not the 1940s film star, but rather the chief of transplant surgery at Johns Hopkins. (He’s the surgeon whose team pioneered the transplant technique of removing a donor’s kidney through her vagina.)…
“Opera singer” Katherine Jenkins is “29 years old” today.
La Cieca hears that Renée Fleming is going to be a Mastersinger. In related news, veteran “marker” Sixtus Beckmesser has announced his retirement. Elsewhere, Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson will be hosts of the fifth annual F. Paul Driscoll Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence. The November 19 festivities will be held…
Yma Sumac sings Queen of the Night, her way. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/s52AZdm8kVo” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
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