La Cieca
“Seattle Opera did more than put an intermission between the two scenes. It restored, or opened, to use opera terminology, customary cuts in the score and invented a dream sequence to open Act 2, using music written by Leoncavallo but not for Pagliacci. Two mimes, Comedy, in white, and Tragedy, in black, open the opera…
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.
Three images from a single production of an opera in the standard repertoire. What is the opera?
La Cieca hears that we can expect a June wedding with only a brief honeymoon before that busy love couple gets back to the salt mines!
La Cieca hears that the one and only Miss Shirley Verrett will grace the airwaves this afternoon as an intermission guest during the broadcast of Macbeth. Do join La Cieca in the comments section of this posting to enjoy this afternoon’s broadcast — especially the words of La Verrett!
Who said this? Here’s a hint:
La Cieca’s spy in San Francisco whispers that the 2008-2009 season will open with Simon Boccanegra with Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the title role. Later productions will include a revival of Bohème with Angela Gheorghiu and the company premiere of Die Tote Stadt featuring Emily Magee and Torsten Kerl. Also expected is the world premiere of…
Željko Lu?ic will sing Macbeth for the Met’s broadcast and HD simulcast of the Verdi opera tomorrow afternoon, replacing Lado Ataneli, who is “indisposed.”
“Directed by Francesca Zambello, this Little Mermaid burdens its performers with ungainly guess-what-I-am costumes (by Tatiana Noginova) and a distracting set (by George Tsypin) awash in pastels gone sour and unidentifiable giant tchotchkes that suggest a Luau Lounge whipped up by an acid-head heiress in the 1960s. The whole enterprise is soaked in that sparkly…
Over the years we have heard many different versions of Gluck’s Orphée. One can choose the Vienna version for castrato, which is shorter and simpler (or better: equally difficult, but in a less spectacular way), the Paris rewrite for tenor or the Berlioz reworking for the distinguished mezzo Pauline Viardot (Anne Sophie von Otter sang…
La Cieca thanks you all for your patience. And now, at the proper playback speed, the “Cherry Duet” as sung by Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez at their London recital Tuesday night. Iain Burnside is the pianist.
La Cieca has just heard that Cynthia Lawrence will sing Lady Macbeth on Tuesday, January 15 at the Met… and possibly more performances later in the season!
Juan Diego Flórez will make his role debut as the Duke of Mantua in a new production of Rigoletto on March 31. The event will mark the inauguration of “The International Opera Festival Alejandro Granda” in Peru. Puppylicious Flórez is pictured here with Latin Grammy winner Gian Marco, with whom he shared the stage for…
So, tell me, what is this jolly-looking opera? (UPDATE: La Cieca has added a second image from the same production.) The previous Regie was Die Fledermaus, the first act trio for Rosalinde, Alfred and Frank.
“Stephanie Blythe, superlative in both voice and Wagnerian bitchery as the righteous Erda…” (Clive Barnes‘ review of Die Walküre, NY Post) “I wouldn’t pay any attention to that. You know how bitchy Walas can be!”
Legendary opera administrator Joan Ingpen died on December 29 at the age of 91. The Telegraph has an appreciation of her life and career that includes this observation: “She had wonderful teeth that sparkled like diamonds when they caught the light.”
This comes under the heading of “so obvious; why didn’t anyone think of this before?” Here’s the opening scene of Amok Time: the Opera, a “cabaret opera” presented by Goat Hall Productions in 2006. The music and libretto are by Steven Clark.
In a startling example of casting against type, protean singer Cecilia Bartoli has agreed to take on the most demanding role of her career in La regina della meschina, an operatic version of the life of Leona Helmsley. (“Voice From the Past Becomes an Obsession” in the New York Times.)
The Associated Press has the first review of Rolando Villazón‘s return to the stage earlier today in a performance of Werther at the Vienna Staatsoper. Reporter George Jahn says the audience’s “huge expectations… were mostly – but not completely – met.” Apparently the tenor’s high B’s sometimes failed to soar over the Massenet orchestral climaxes,…
Today, January 5, is the 91st anniversary of the birth of one of La Cieca’s particular heroes, Wieland Wagner, stage director and designer. Here is a scene from Wieland’s legendary production of Tristan und Isolde featuring Birgit Nilsson and Wolfgang Windgassen. In this clip, Wieland is seen in rehearsal for his 1965 production of Der…
Noel Coward offers a few observations on the standard operatic repertoire, assisted by Margaret Leighton.
And what might this opera be? Answer to our previous Regierätsel: Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.
La Cieca has just been reminded of the intriguing news that Gotham Chamber Opera, in collaboration with The Morgan Library & Museum, will present a new production, Scenes of Gypsy Life (a cautionary tale featuring music of Janácek and Dvorák), on January 16 and 17. The program devised by GCO artistic director Neal Goren and…
