La Cieca
Régine Crespin, whose “Very Best” you’ll want to possess; Joan Crawford, in the 1947 film noir Possessed.
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.
All of you who said, “Oh, Kiri te Kanawa could never do Norma” are feeling pretty silly right now, aren’t you? Of course, La Cieca doesn’t mean the Bellini druidess, a role the Kiwi songbird never could have mastered even at the peak of her career, whenever that might have been. No, this Norma is…
Two things Dame Kiri te Kanawa doesn’t like to talk about: retirement and knickers. [The Australian]
The Met will distribute free tickets for their dress rehearsal of Tosca on Sunday, September 13 beginning at noon. La Cieca thinks you all understand how important it is that parterre.com scoop the world in reporting on this event, so she trust the cher public will do the right thing. [NYT]
Which merry blonde is about to waltz her way into the sovrintendente’s office at a top Italian theater? Come on, all! Hey, you can guess this one — even without a degree from the oldest university in Europe!
An old clip, from 2005 in fact, but oddly prescient, perhaps. Who knew that Les vêpres siciliennes could sound so much like Verismo? Not the Greatest of E’s (Don’t thank La Cieca; this stunner was sent in by Our Own Kernita Makilla.)
Newly beardless Rufus Wainwright once more graced the annual “Last Song of Summer” concert to benefit Robert Wilson‘s Watermill Center last weekend. (Rufus’s boyfriend Jorn Weisbrodt is the Creative Director of the Center.) Despite a “miraculous last minute change of venue to the Field House at The Ross School’s lower school campus on Butter Lane…
La Cieca figures if Adelaida Negri can make a comeback, so can your doyenne.
History repeating, indeed — and rather recent history at that!
Following the jump, snippets of all the tracks on the new “Verismo” album, as performed by America’s Soprano.
La Cieca’s curiosity is always aroused when a journalist probes with really penetrating questions.
Now, La Cieca believes in turning a gimlet eye on everyone and everything, you know that. But even your doyenne finds this latest Zinta Lundborg screed, well, harsh is the only word. … the company’s funereal new logo is a black circle, which evokes thoughts of the deficit or even oblivion. Presenting four performances of…
Preseason puffery has commenced for the Met’s 2009 opening night production of Tosca, to star that noted brunette Karita Mattila. A release from the company’s press office today details the various ancillary events associated with the September 21 performance, including the first “Open House” of the season (i.e., the final dress rehearsal on September 17…
La Cieca wishes her cher public a joyous and safe St. Bartholomew’s Day.
“Opera singer” Katherine Jenkins has been insured against getting swine flu. [Wales Online]
La Cieca is delighted to learn that “the New York City Opera and the American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO, have reached agreement on a new collective bargaining contract, helping to ensure City Opera’s continuing place in the forefront of American opera,” according to a press release from the NYCO. Since Alan Gordon and George…
Of course, there were also setbacks along the road to success. During a performance of “La Traviata” in Genoa conducted by Bonynge, the audience roundly booed tenor Lamberto Furlan to the point that the conductor and his wife, who had personally picked Furlan for the role, left the stage and refused to complete the performance.…
“Verismo,” Renée Fleming informs us, “means truth.” What better demonstration of this artist’s dedication to the real-life (not to say the mundane) than her apparent decision to fire her stylist and hairdresser in hopes of achieving a greater naturalism of appearance. Indeed, La Cieca would say that Fleming has succeeded: at least as documented in…
UPDATE, 10:55 pm: The Associated Press confirms that Hildegard Behrens died early Tuesday, according to an email sent to opera officials by Jonathan Friend, artistic administrator of the Metropolitan Opera. La Cieca has just received an as yet unconfirmed report that Hildegard Behrens died earlier today in Japan, where she was preparing for a Lieder…
“…dramatic personalities are drawn to opera, not influenced by it.” [Psychology Today]
From that rarest and most coveted of all camp crossover efforts, the Sylvia Sass disco album:
Or, “Tosca è un buon funbag!”
Notorious cumblogger JJ has finally cleaned up his mess. [New York Post]
La Cieca is delighted to note that two of the best-remembered and most-coveted “Live from the Met” telecasts have at last been made available on DVD. Otello (25 September 1978) and Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci (5 April 1978) are now available at the Met Opera Shop and online at www.metoperashop.org, “as well as through other outlets.” La…
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.
