La Cieca
Isn’t that Angela Gheorghiu on the cover of the New York magazine fall fashion issue?
“Among the distinguished Camp alumni are opera and concert soprano Jessye Norman, ‘Roseanne’ star Sara Gilbert, actor Tom Hulce, ‘Cathy’ creator Cathy Guisewite, vocalist Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, and CBS News Correspondent Mike Wallace.” (Well, actually that paragraph is from a news article about Interlochen, but it certainly sounds like it belongs…
La Cieca has decided to do as the (other) young people are doing and so she has joined MySpace. Won’t you visit her there?
Years ago, Diva Past (whose career, by that point, was really done) canceled a prima donna gig at a major American opera house. Diva Present won overnight stardom when she substituted. Now, years later, Diva Present has booked a return to both venue and role of her triumph. At the moment, though, her schedule is…
La Cieca has just completed the pilot for her very own (online) video series, playing Veejay in her own idiosyncratic way. Admittedly she is no Caskader, but she thinks you will agree that her presenting style is very animated. As always, La Cieca craves your comments and suggestions.
But no matter how “gaia” La Cieca became, she would never be “piu fulgida” than this.
In her never-ceasing quest for greater convenience and maximum gadget-intensivity, La Cieca has updated the user interface for her podcasts. Now she can insert one podcast directly into the homepage like so . . . powered by ODEO All you need do is click on the “play” button and crank up your speakers. (This is…
Which soprano’s sudden cancellation of all her future engagements thankfully has nothing to do with illness, and everything to do with, well, spite? She was in love, and he she loved proved bad, and did forsake her. For his secretary. Since the songbird’s soon-to-be-ex-husband still has an interest in her future revenue stream, she has…
More Met news, this time something certain and soon. The Metropolitan Opera will hold its first ever “Open House” on Friday, September 22. The all-day event will include: the final dress rehearsal of the new Anthony Minghella/James Levine production of Madama Butterfly starring Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, Marcello Giordani, Dwayne Croft and Maria Zifchak a panel discussion…
As La Cieca hinted about six months ago, Anna Netrebko‘s Violetta will hit the Met boards during the 2010-11 season in the Willy Decker production from Salzburg. In the production (also on video from DGG), the miniskirted and hyperactive Netrebko is joined by Rolando Villazon.
La Cieca hears that the new regime at the Metropolitan Opera (or the MET Opera, as it will henceforth be called) is moving forward with the recording of selected 2006-2007 live performances, to be sold via download on the “iTunes” model. An agreement reached a couple of weeks ago with the American Federation of Musicians…
“I’ve had more affairs with homosexuals than you can count,” says Julia Migenes, who stars in the upcoming PBS telecast of Angels in America with music by Peter Eötvös. In this adaptation of Tony Kushner‘s play, la Migenes “plays a pill-popping Mormon married to a closeted gay man, as well as the spirit of the…
“After I went through two X-ray machines and a metal detector, and then a hand-held metal detector, my carry-on luggage was gone through. A young woman took my shampoo, make-up, make-up remover, hair spray, a bottle of Scotch, contact lens solution and a prescription medication.” — The New York Times, August 12, 2006.
Our old, old, old friend Enzo Bordello has been laying low for the last year or so, but he seems to be sniffing about the web again in search of the latest operatic news. He’s uncovered quite a trove over at Brad Wilber‘s Met Futures page. Enzo’s sum-up: Maria Guleghina‘s star appears to be on…
A new way to listen to podcasts, courtesy of the wonderful folks at Odeo.com: a new pocast player that looks like a video Ipod. If you would like to add this player to your web page, just go here, click on “copy to clipboard,” then just paste the code on your page. Easy, no?
You would think that since La Cieca has heard Parsifal quite a few times, and even given the philosophical implications of the libretto a bit of thought, she would have realized that Schadenfreude is just plain bad news. But no, La Cieca had to go and LAAAAAACH-te at the New York Times obituary of Elisabeth…
Legendary mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig is featured as one of the meanest mothers in all of opera, nasty Queen Klytemnästra, in a scene from Strauss’s Elektra as performed in Vienna, 1980. Birgit Nilsson is her disobedient daughter. The complete Klytemnästra scene is available as a playlist on YouTube.
From the New York Times: Correction: August 5, 2006A picture yesterday with an obituary of the soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was published in error. It showed Anneliese Rothenberger — not Miss Schwarzkopf — in the role of Sophie from “Der Rosenkavalier,” a 1962 film adaptation of the Richard Strauss opera. The Salzburg Festival mounted that production,…
Dario Volonte as Calaf, Amsterdam 2002.
From today’s obit of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in the New York Times. Why, yes, you’re right. That is Anneliese Rothenberger, who not only is not Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, but is also not dead.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf died this morning at her home in Switzerland. She was 90. The first report of the soprano’s passing was on Deutchlandradio Kultur: “Elisabeth Schwarzkopf ist tot. Wie der Deutschlandfunk erfuhr, starb die Sopranistin im Alter von 90 Jahren in ihrem Wohnort Zumikon in der Schweiz. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf besaß eine der schönsten Sopranstimmen ihrer…
Sigh . . . it does seem a pity to conceal in a covered orchestra pit a conductor who looks like this!
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.
