La Cieca
The scene from Candide that was the bone of contention between Robert Carsen and Stéphane Lissner.
A Baroque Valentine’s with Opera Lafayette | Feb | DC & NYC
Celebrate love in all its guises with tender ballads, amorous duets, cheeky verses, and bawdy drinking songs plus food, cocktails and wine.
La Cieca and sidekick Milton Host are back with another rarity: Der Barbier von Bagdad by Peter Cornelius. Joining them in the studio with repurposed commentary: a formidable diva of the Johnson era. (No, not Lyndon Johnson. Edward Johnson.) Act 1 is available now at Unnatural Acts of Opera.
Good times and bum times — She saw them all, but my dear,She’s no longer here.The actress everyone is eulogizing as the “definitive Lily Munster” had another, in La Cieca’s opinion far more important credit. In 1971 Yvonne de Carlo created the role of Carlotta Campion in Follies, and introduced the showbiz anthem “I’m Still…
“In Leonard Bernstein‘s clever one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti, the heroine describes a gaudy movie musical as so much ‘Technicolor twaddle.’ If Tan Dun‘s new work The First Emperor (heard at the Metropolitan Opera on December 29) can hardly be dismissed as twaddle, it never attains the epic status to which it aspires.” Our publisher…
Legendary diva Nazimova in a scene from her 1921 film version of Camille.
The all-new (or at least somewhat-new) Unnatural Acts of Opera relaunched this morning at 8 a.m., only 12 hours behind schedule. Thrill to the dulcet voiceovers of new guy Milton Host! Delight in La Cieca‘s flattering new microphone placement! Tingle with excitement as the superstar team of Luciano Pavarotti and Beverly Sills sing I puritani!…
This just in: soprano Elizabeth Futral, currently Tan Dunning it in The Last Emperor, will sing the final Met performance of Puritani this season on February 15.
Visit La Cieca’s newly spiffed up MySpace page, where you can Delight in a slideshow of the Many Faces of La Cieca, Listen to a few of the doyenne’s favorite tracks, Thrill to the latest bizarre opera video, And, while you’re there, become one of La Cieca’s friends (as if you aren’t all already!) Meanwhile,…
La Cieca was contacted this morning (not too early!) by a representative of the “Lebrecht Live” programme on BBC3. The show is set to discuss the burning topic “Is there cultural value in blogging?” And this is what La Cieca has to say, at least to begin with: One may read consistently brilliant cultural criticism…
Scenes from the 1967 production of Die Walkuere from the Bayreuth Festival, stage direction by Wieland Wagner. Brunnhilde: Anja Silja; Siegmund: Jess Thomas; Sieglinde: Helga Dernesch; Wotan: Theo Adam. Thomas Schippers is the conductor.
“The Papageno, Nathan Gunn, was certainly cute enough.” — NYT
Eighty years ago! This film was a part of the first “Vitaphone” presentation in New York in August 1926. Soprano Marion Talley was 19 years old and in the first season of her three-year Met career when this scene was filmed.
“Opera that depicts Bush, Blair dancing in underwear is canceled.” From the Associated Press. And while we’re on the subject, the scene in question (from Robert Carsen‘s production of Candide, which will not be seen at La Scala in 2007.)
Five newspaper reviews are in for Anna Netrebko‘s Met Puritani, and the score stands at four postive, one mixed: “With the smoky colorings and throbbing richness of her sumptuous voice, Ms. Netrebko was an unusually vulnerable Elvira. Bel Canto purists may find fault with her sometimes imprecise execution of coloratura runs and roulades. But I…
La Cieca thought that now that Puritani has opened at the Met, it’s as good a time as any to review the company’s (rumored) bel canto plans for the next five years or so. Remember, everything in this life is uncertain, so please regard these “predictions” as the gossip they are. Anyway, La Cieca hopes…
This is the biggest limb La Cieca has ever gone out on: Expect James Levine to make his official Met farewell at the end of the 2011-2012 season. (First hedge on this prediction: Levine will make occasional “guest” appearances with the Met after 2012.) Remember, you heard it here first.
UPDATE: Gregory Kunde is now listed on the Met’s site for the prima of Puritani. La Cieca hears that Eric Cutler did not sing the dress rehearsal of Puritani (anyone there to confirm/deny?) and, though his name’s still on the Met’s site, he won’t go on for the prima Wednesday. Thoughts? And the tittle-tattle about…
The miraculous properties of the Gelb-era Met begin to rival those of the legendary aerosol product Shimmer. In the future, it seems, the Met will be both a floor wax and a dessert topping. For example, it has been rumored that a new production of Il trovatore would star (depending on who was telling the…
In the year 2012 we will all have robot servants to organize our collections of antique CDs! In the year 2012 we will complain about the mediocre sound quality of holographic opera telecasts! In the year 2012, stem cells will be used to used to regenerate node-infested vocal cords. Oh, and did I mention that…
No, it’s still not opera, but here’s a classic lounge act in the holiday spirit.
At last La Cieca has discovered Renee Fleming‘s muse, or at least, as we have so often wondered “who the hell it was who taught her to sing that way.” Meet the divine Naoko Maeda, asking the musical question . . . “Bill” (from Show Boat)
Don’t forget to join La Cieca at 8:00 tonight for a live chat about the prima of The First Emperor at 8:00 p.m. Would any of La Cieca’s cher public care to give her a hand as moderators in the chatroom tonight? To serve, as it were, as Roger Alberto to her Vecchia Madelon? Well,…
Not opera, but it’s seasonal.
STEMdiva status
Ahead of a special boozy, bawdy Valentine’s Day concert, artistic director of Opera Lafayette Patrick Quigley speaks with soprano Maya Kherani about her journey from MIT to rising American Baroque star.
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.