Update: beginning tonight on Unnatural Acts of Opera (2007 edition), a return to Italian opera, with one of today’s most controversial cult divas starring as (what else) a conflicted queen. Nelly Miricioiu sings the role of Elisabetta I in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, in a 2002 performance from the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. La Cieca has […]
In response to overwhelming listener demand, La Cieca is making the older Unnatural Acts podcasts available through RSS subscription. We begin with the first season, 2005. The RSS address for this season’s podcasts is http://parterre.com/podcast/2005_archive.rss. La Cieca will update the iTunes podcast directory later this evening so you can subscribe to the archive there — […]
As if opera weren’t dead enough already, this latest news is sure to finish pounding the stake through its heart. Paris Hilton (strike one!) has been signed for a leading role in the film version of Repo! The Genetic Opera. In this futuristic musical fantasy, La Hilton plays the daughter of organ-transplant tycoon Paul Sorvino […]
Régine Crespin does her “New York has neon, Berlin has bars” routine on a French variety TV show “Palmarès des chansons” circa 1967. She sings her version of one of the greatest hits of the evergreen entertainer Mistinguett, the chanson “C’est vrai!”. A video excerpt of this performance (featuring Mme. Crespin “entourée de danseurs avec […]
To wind up this summer’s Wagner festival on Unnatural Acts of Opera, La Cieca plans to play the composer’s first “canonical” opera, Der Fliegende Hollander. But which live performance, she wonders. That’s where you come in, cher public. La Cieca lists below a selection of exciting live Hollanders, and you get to vote on which […]
Well, this is what La Cieca gathers from Katharina Wagner‘s production of Die Meistersinger (without, of course, having had the benefit of actually seeing it!) KW’s basic idea is that Great-grandfather Richard presented an overly optimistic view of the dramatic action of the opera. Walther is taught by Hans Sachs to moderate his radical musical […]
A few selections from The Opera Critic, demonstrating that great minds do not always etc. etc. That is, assuming you believe that British critics count as “great minds.”
Bayreuth scion-apparent Katharina Wagner‘s production of Die Meistersinger opened yesterday at the Festspielhaus. As you can see, this production is rather curiously cast with David Beckham as Walther and Aprile Millo as Eva. Oh, well, all right, La Cieca must have her little joke, you know. The tenor is in fact Klaus Florian Vogt, whom […]
Our editor JJ‘s review of the Caramoor concert performance of Il trovatore (featuring Ewa Podlés as Azucena) is in the current issue of Gay City News. And for those of you who long for the gay stereotypes of yore, please note that this opera review is currently the most popular story on GCN’s site, beating […]
To while away the tedious time of waiting for the next season of Metropolitan Opera HD transmissions, here’s a montage recalling the first two decades (1977-1998) of “Live from the Met” and “Metropolitan Opera Presents” telecasts: This YouTube video originated on the MetManiac site back in 1998.
More proof (as if any were needed) that 70 is the new 50: “Viva la Diva: Gala zum 70. Geburtstag von Grace Bumbry.” The concert (performed at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival on July 17 of this year) featured the septuagenarian siren in a demanding program of arias and scenes from Aida, Ernani, Les Troyens and […]
“…the veteran dramatic soprano Gwyneth Jones, who, at the age of seventy, has lost remarkably little of her decibel capacity, made a comic tour de force of the Queen of Hearts. Memories of Jones’s Elektra at the Met added an aura of menace to her antics; when she sings, ‘Off with their heads!,’ you stroke […]
The nice people at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland cannot be happy about last minute changes to this past weekend’s concert schedule caused by late cancellations by James Levine and Renée Fleming. Maestro Levine, advertised for concerts on July 20 and 22, tendered his regrets on July 16, noting “My doctors have strongly advised me […]
The American soprano, whose voice Toscanini called “the find of the century,” died Tuesday in Vienna. She is heard here singing “Crudele… Non mi dir” from a 1960 performance of Don Giovanni. Teresa Stich-Randall
As if the third act of Parsifal were not enough for a single podcast, La Cieca and her sidekick Milton Host are surprised in the studio by a visit from The First Lady of the American Musical Theatre. Eventually TFLOTAMT has to leave the studio to prepare for her evening performance, and Milton and I […]
As La Cieca is sure her cher public has heard, the term “to ski” is now used widely in Craigslist personal ads to indicate an interest in recreational use of cocaine. The divine Grace Moore here demonstrates how these ideas became associated.
First: who is the singer? Second: why is she singing this aria? Who and why?
La Cieca just received a press release from the Met detailing some of the cast changes and reshufflings already afoot for next season. She is pretty sure than none of this has anything to do with last night’s steam pipe explosion in Midtown. Angela M. Brown will sing the title role in Aida replacing Maria […]
Jerry Hadley died at 11:20 this morning.
As a warmup for this evening’s Unnatural Acts of Opera podcast of Parsifal (Act 1), a short film by Kopernikus1618 demonstrating what happens when “Andy Warhol meets Richard Wagner.” Speaking of Unnatural Acts, La Cieca is once more setting a precedent by offering an alternative to the current program of Wagner’s Rienzi, a live performance […]
“Je voudrais que le public oublie que je chante” — Entretien avec Renée Fleming, Opéra Magazine No. 20 Juilliet – Aout.
Story now on the Times website reports that last night Jerry Hadley shot himself in the head; the case is being investigated as an attempted suicide. According to a spokesperson for the State Police, Hadley is not expected to survive.
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
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