La Cieca
It just gets better and better. Now Opera Chic reports that Roberto Alagna is threatening to (counter)sue La Scala, citing a hostile work environment. And yet, he has announced he intends to sing Thursday night’s performance, even though the Scala management has already announced a substitute singer. More tales of anonymous phone calls, threats, showdowns…
At left, Astrid Varnay as Ortrud in Lohengrin; at right, Joan Crawford as Nurse Lucretia Terry in The Caretakers.
Walkout tenor Roberto Alagna is just generally pissed at the whole La Scala Aida experience, frankly. Even before the “buu” incident at last night’s performance, Bobby was spewing in an interview with La Repubblica that he (and the other singers in Aida) were being treated like second-class citizens: “La verità è che, in Italia, ormai…
Your correspondent is back in town just in time to report that Roberto Alagna walked out of tonight’s performance of Aida at La Scala when his rendition of “Celeste Aida” was greeted by “qualche fischio” among the polite applause. The Corriere della Sera reports that Antonello Palombi was rushed onto the stage in “black jeans…
La Cieca is off for a week in sunny Florida; she’ll be back on December 10 tanned, rested and ready to dish the dirt. Feel free to comment on any current threads, enjoy the podcasts, and if you hear of anything universe-shattering (e.g., Renee’s Trovatore), email La Cieca and she’ll get around to it as…
The Judgment Scene from Aida, as performed by Lois Maxwell, lipsynching to Ebe Stignani. La Stignani needs no further introduction, but Miss Maxwell is perhaps better known even to operagoers for a non-operatic role.This is of course the 1953 Italian film of Aida that also starred the 19-year-old Sophia Loren with the voice of the…
La Cieca has just heard that Juan Diego Flórez has canceled tonight’s Carnegie Hall recital: tracheitis.
You’ve got to hand it to lovely Lucine Amara. First she gets cast in the Encore! production of Follies, and now she even has her own infomercial!
“Peter Mattei plays Figaro as a lusty bachelor, something like Warren Beatty‘s character in the movie Shampoo. While this angle isn’t particularly relevant to the plot, it’s ideally suited to Mattei, a tall and sexy singer for whom the overused adjective ‘strapping‘ might have been coined.” Our publisher JJ reviews the Met’s new Barbiere di…
So, more scoop on that “emergency meeting” La Cieca hinted at yesterday. It seems that the costumes for the Met’s new production of The First Emperor arrived from China in the last couple of weeks. La Cieca is told that when the boxes were unpacked, the wardrobe staff complained of a strong chemical odor emanating…
That popular and versatile artist TBA will enjoy a busy December at the Met alternating the roles of Mimi and Musetta in La boheme. La Cieca wonders if Cristina Gallardo-Domâs is “indisposed” with the same “health” “problems” that beset Susannah Glanville. Anyway, G-D is out of the rest of 2006, though she’s still on the…
La Cieca has been informed that there’s an emergency meeting called this afternoon at the Met on the subject of, well, let’s just say, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Let’s hope staffers are able to clear the air!
As La Cieca mentioned last month, the 2007-2008 Met season will include a new production of Satyagraha, the Gandhi-themed opera by Philip Glass and Constance De Jong. And now La Cieca has been informed that there is actual basis in fact for her wild surmising. Darling Dawn Fatale drew La Cieca’s attention to an announcement…
A sneak preview of Natalie Dessay‘s Lucia, scheduled for next season’s opening night at the Met. La Cieca hears that Dessay’s first Met Lucia will be a new production, but she guesses it will not be this one from the Opéra Bastille (bootlegged about six weeks ago). Though, to tell the truth, this soprano would…
On this day of Thanksgiving, there are so many things for which La Cieca would like to give thanks. But enough about that. Here’s one thing for which La Cieca would like to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Among the participants in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving parade: none other than The Beautiful Voice, or, as…
Live, unedited, current and obviously unauthorized opera video. If you discover any such snippets on YouTube, let La Cieca know.
Which Met prima donna recently enraged her maestro when she forgot (or refused) to bring him out a curtain call at his final performance of the run? In recounting the story of this obvious snub, the “always friendly and downright jocular” conductor becomes so emotional that he begins to gesticulate as wildly as he does…
Beverly Sills was nothing if not precocious (and La Cieca means that in every way — listen to the way the little sexpot purrs, “G’bye, Uncle Sol” at the end of the clip!) Anyway, here she is at somewhere between seven and nine years of age in the 1938 film short Uncle Sol Solves It.…
Fred Kirshnit joins the legions dazzled by the radiance that is Millo. In The Sun, Kirshnit writes People who love Aprile Millo really love Ms. Millo, and so interspersed among the nearly capacity crowd dressed in their finery as the National Italian American Foundation honored the soprano were the occasional young man or pair of…
Perhaps you’ve been wondering why James Levine has taken over the final two performances of this season’s Madama Butterfly at the Met. Could it be that Asher Fisch has fallen ill? Well, no, Maestro Fisch is just fine, thank you. In fact, La Cieca hears that Levine has returned so that these two performances can…
From the mailbag: Dear La Cieca, First of all, you are fab. [Several paragraphs of fulsome praise snipped.] But that’s beside the point. I just noticed that the Met has published more details on their upcoming HD broadcasts. Unfortunately, at least as far as Ontario is located, they did an abominable job in choosing their…
You all remember that new Norma slated for Zurich with Renaaay (and Marcello Giordani, by the way)? Well, La Cieca hears that talks are already in progress to import the show (complete with The Beautiful Druidess) to the Met. The good news is that we’ll see the retirement of the “Ping-pong Table Norma” last glimpsed…
New York fans of puppylicious tenor Juan Diego Flórez will be happy to hear that he will be a fixture at the Met the next few seasons. Next year he stars in a new production of La Fille du regiment opposite his Barbiere prima donna, Diana Damrau. In 2008-2009, he headlines the first Met performances…
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.
