Blind Item
The NYT’s ace scribe Bernard “Scoop” Holland breathlessly spills his latest discoveries about that newfangled entertainment called “opera” today. Didja know, for example, that a lot of opera is long and boring, but there’s this one opera called Cavalleria rusticana that’s not as long as most (” it’s the only opera I know that may…
The Windy City’s own Enzo Bordello will host the next Unnatural Chat of Opera this Saturday night (October 21). Topic of the chat will be Lyric Opera of Chicago’s performance of Salome, which will be broadcast that evening beginning at 7:30 Central time. This is the prima of a new Francesca Zambello production of the…
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.
As if those opera queens (you know La Cieca is talking to you, cher public) don’t already have more than enough to listen to, what with Unnatural Acts of Opera, plus Sirius Met Broadcasts, plus various streaming radio on the internet — well, now there’s lots more where that came from. Well, anyway, one more…
Ewa Podles shows how it’s done.
Which young diva’s career ascent has been (if not completely, certainly a lot) via her alleged willingness to let the intendant of a certain European opera house into her trousers? Her star turns under his regime have not been well reviewed (as a whole) and her detractors whisper that even her upcoming U.S. engagements would…
The Deutsche Oper, which last week cancelled a production for fear of protests by Muslims, announced Wednesday it was reinstating their Hans Neuenfels production of Idomeneo, but set no date. Opera house spokesman Alexander Busche said, “The earliest slot for the production is in December, but first we need an okay about security from the…
This just in: the Met will offer $20 “rush” tickets to selected Monday – Thursday performances beginning with the tomorrow’s season premiere of Faust. According to a release from the Met’s press department, 200 Orchestra seats — regularly priced at $100 — will be offered at $20 per ticket at the Met box office beginning…
La Cieca is back in her beloved Sunnyside late this evening, even though the Metropolitan Opera opening night began at 6:30. By her watch, the performance of Madama Butterfly ran not quite four hours including intermissions and curtain call. Oddly, though, the evening didn’t seem unnaturally long — maybe because La Cieca enjoyed a disco…
A few tidbits in reference to the impending Sirius broadcasts of the Met Opera. First, La Cieca’s backstage spy reports that the Met has installed literally dozens of permanent microphones in various spots in the auditorium. These mikes are described as being reminiscent of CIA spy equipment, “the kind of technology that kind pick up…
That’s how one industry insider described today’s open dress rehearsal of Madama Butterfly at the Met. “More people than I’ve ever seen in the theater, some of them with tickets scalped from Ebay!” A more measured assessment comes from yet another of La Cieca’s network of operatives: “Well I am happy to say that today’s…
Having recovered from today’s five hour dress rehearsal at the Met, La Cieca’s spy Barnaba offers this report: There isn’t much point to doing La Gioconda in this day and age if you haven’t got a cast who can put it over. Wonder of wonders, the Met has dug its ancient (1967) staging out of…
La Cieca hopes you’re not tired of news about the Met/Sirius Radio partnership, because she has just obtained a schedule of live performances to be broadcast over the satellite service. The first week of the broadcasts will include Madama Butterfly on Monday, September 25 at 6:30 p.m., Idomeno on Thursday the 28th at 7:30 p.m.…
Wow, news gets around fast! Within an hour after La Cieca mentioned in passing the sorry state of the peeling gold-leaf ceiling at the Met, a staffer from the house (requesting anonymity) emailed saying that this particular bit of upkeep is, sadly, not to be included among the “nips and tucks” preliminary to the new…
After more than a quarter of a century, Renata Scotto gets the last word over that silly queen who made a career of disrupting her Met performances. The DVD of the “Live from the Met” telecast of Luisa Miller was released today, and is available at Amazon.com at a 30% discount off the list price.…
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…
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,…
How hot was it yesterday? So hot that New York Grand Opera canceled their Central Park performance of Tosca, that’s how hot it was. Rather ironic, too, because Tosca is specifically set in midsummer in metropolitan Rome, where the climate is comparable to yesterday’s Gotham scorcher. Remember that the next time you see a Tosca…
The place: the Metropolitan Opera. The time: October 2008. The event: a cult diva’s return to the Met after a 24-season absence. The hint: what’s my name again?
Mezzo-turned-soprano Violeta Urmana will sing her first Norma later this month. She will take on the Bellini heroine in concert form at Dresden’s Semper Oper beginning March 30, according to an article on Playbillarts.com. The good news from Boston is that James Levine “didn’t break anything” when he fell off the stage after a performance…
From an article on Teresa Berganza‘s website, “Teresa Berganza, canto as expression of a style”: She’s got black eyes and a white simile . . . . Her voice, the subduing voice of Teresa Berganza is something like the invocation of a mystery made accomplice to the shinning of her gaze; a voice full of…
The New York Post‘s Clive Barnes is going to blush beet-red when he hears from the publicists (or the lawyers) who handle Placido Domingo. In a review of the Met’s Rigoletto, Barnes refers to PD as “the 72-year-old tenor.” Domingo admits to 65, though some gossips have long sniped that this figure doesn’t add up…
La Cieca’s spy L’incredibile, who has only moments ago slunk home from the Met’s Traviata dress rehearsal, predicts a triumph for Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta. “The most beautiful soprano to sing the role here since Anna Moffo,” L’incredibile exults, though he adds reservations about the carrying power of Gheorgiu’s “veiled” voice and the “frequent disagreements”…
