La Cieca

Cher public, here’s the schedule for group listening/viewing of the MetPlayer on Saturday and Sunday:

on May 01, 2009 at 1:12 PM

La Cieca has obtained a copy of the NYCO shop letter from AGMA: 

on April 30, 2009 at 3:09 PM

From a performance on April 26, Anna Netrebko does a few “traditional” things with Violetta’s first act scena. (Piotr Beczala later gets in on the fun as well.) Ah quel amor…

on April 29, 2009 at 3:49 PM

The American Guild of Musical Artists said in a memo to members that “given the changes that George Steel wants to make in our contract, members are advised that the possibility of a strike against New York City Opera is likely.” At issue is what AGMA characterizes as Steel’s intention to eliminate guarantees of work…

on April 29, 2009 at 10:41 AM

Now, cher public, you have the chance to vote which of your nominated performances will be included in the upcoming MetPlayer weekend listening (and viewing party). You may cast your ballot right after the jump.

on April 29, 2009 at 10:00 AM

Rolando Villazón “should be well enough to return to the stage by the end of the year” after having surgery “to remove a cyst on his larynx” according to his concert management. Among the engagements Villazón is expected to cancel are Werther in Vienna and Munich, Nemorino in Los Angeles and Paris, and a new…

on April 29, 2009 at 9:06 AM

Kudos to tannengrin who identified last week’s Regie puzzler correctly as Nabucco. La Cieca’s heart, though, belongs to Leper Ello, who made a minimally plausible case for Boris Godunov (“The Fool – in drag – laments the future of Russia”). There’s more to lament in this week’s very serious staging.

on April 28, 2009 at 11:34 AM

In contrast to the high-minded sentiments expressed by the Ring directors recently interviewed by Anne Midgette, here are a few light and lively moments from a youth theater show called Her den Ring produced by the Studiotheater Bayreuth. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/aFm_48PJTHw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

on April 27, 2009 at 4:29 PM

As if we ever “came to order” around here! But anyway, La Cieca is throwing the floor open for a Listening and Viewing Orgy next weekend, when the MetPlayer will offer a three-day free preview. MetPlayer offers streaming of over 200 Met broadcasts and telecasts from 1937 to the present, including 20 in HD.  The…

on April 26, 2009 at 2:58 PM

And now, the last installment of the Met’s broadcast Ring: Götterdämmerung. Listen at noon EDT on Sirius, RealNetworks or your favorite internet radio station. Online: the libretto and the vocal score. Discuss. And don’t forget to check out La Cieca’s Amazon Deal of the Day: Hans Knappertsbusch conducts Der Ring Des Nibelungen (Bayreuth 1956), prices…

on April 25, 2009 at 11:00 AM

“But, as century XXI progresses, the Web is not some branch of tradutuibak scholarly research.” — Alto

on April 24, 2009 at 7:49 PM

Articulate, awe-inspring, alliterative administrator The Man of Steel spoke yesterday to New York One, defining his vision for the mission of the New York City Opera: “Championing new repertoire and discovering old repertoire. And particularly promoting American operas and American opera singers and providing visionary new productions of standard repertoire. So it’s a very clear…

on April 24, 2009 at 8:14 AM

As La Cieca intones after the jump (in her newly-found inhuman manner) you can upload a photo (of your favorite diva or divo) and this online gizmo will animate it into a talking Star Trek character. At the end of the animation process, please choose “share” and then “email” so you can send your Trekkified…

on April 23, 2009 at 7:08 PM

La Cieca can hardly believe that as recently as four years ago nobody had ever heard of YouTube!  To celebrate the site’s fourth anniversary, here’s one of the first clips La Cieca uploaded way back in the winter of 2005. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ckP4OXzVevI” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

on April 23, 2009 at 3:01 PM

[La Cieca invites the cher public to supply a caption to the above photo. And while you’re at it, anyone care to identify the gentleman at right and what opera this is?]

on April 23, 2009 at 12:07 PM

An all-star “Walkürenritt” from 2003, featuring Alessandra Marc (Gerhilde), Eva Marton (Helmwige), Karan Armstrong (Waltraute), Agnes Baltsa (Schwertleite), Anna Tomowa-Sintow (Ortlinde), Gwyneth Jones (Siegrune/Rossweisse) and Jochen Kowalski (Grimgerde). Golden Girls

on April 23, 2009 at 11:35 AM

Is it just me, or does Joseph Calleja sound simply amazing? La Cieca asks: is there a better lyric tenor out there today?

on April 22, 2009 at 8:37 PM

So, guess who’s going to sing Norma? “Sie ist die unbestrittene, strahlende Königin des Koloratur-Mezzofachs: Cecilia Bartoli. In der kommenden Saison wird sie im KONZERTHAUS DORTMUND in einer der bedeutendsten und schwierigsten Partien der gesamten Opernliteratur zu erleben sein: als „Norma“ in Vincenzo Bellinis gleichnamiger Oper. Die musikalische Leitung dieser wichtigen konzertanten Produktion liegt in…

on April 22, 2009 at 4:06 PM

Bloomberg News (your go-to source for bad news about New York City Opera) today laments that the company has “once again reached deep into its endowment.” According to scribe Zinta Lundborg, that endowment has suffered perhaps irreversible shinkage, dwindling from a massive, bulging $51 million in 2001 to a puny, humiliating $3 million currently. Lundborg suggests…

on April 22, 2009 at 11:35 AM

Our Own Sra. Flora del Rio, benevolent rhinemaiden of the Rio Grande, shimmered into a press conference at  Santa Fe this morning and quickly shimmered out, there being but modest news to report on SFeO Season 2010. However, Flora sent this grist for your mills: Madama Butterfly, The Magic Flute, The Tales of Hoffmann, Life…

on April 21, 2009 at 10:52 PM

Life sometimes does imitate art, or anyway bad art. La Cieca notes in today’s New York Post a story about a wedding interrupted when the bridegroom’s boss suddenly shouted that she had slept with the groom. As any hack librettist will tell you, this is a great excuse for the big third-act concertato.

on April 21, 2009 at 5:01 PM

The New York Times, the Metropolitan Opera, and Comedy Central! Genius!

on April 20, 2009 at 1:24 PM

A sharp-eyed member of the cher public writes: I attended a performance of Damnation of Faust (with a magnificent Polenzani and Ketelsen) in St. Louis this past Saturday night. When I arrived, there was Christine Brewer in the lobby looking quite well. No cane, no walker, no crutches, no limp, no nothing. I walked up…

on April 20, 2009 at 9:41 AM

La Cieca hears vague rumors from here and there that there something major is going to happen with New York CIty Opera this week, possibly as early as today. According to an insider over the weekend “wagons [were] circling,” perhaps in reaction to the admission that the company has spent down over 2/3 of its endowment in…

on April 20, 2009 at 8:30 AM