camp

Not the newest observation, but perhaps relevant again at the moment. So, tell me, what do these two ladies have in common (besides the family resemblance, of course)? [UPDATE: I’ve traded out the original image of Joyce Castle for something more representative.]

on November 16, 2007 at 3:43 PM

“Ms. Fleming‘s soprano has gotten bigger and richer since her Dallas debut 15 years ago. ‘I was replacing Carol Vaness in a lot of Mozart repertoire she couldn’t sing anymore,’ Ms. Fleming says of her early years.” You can read more of The Tactful Voice’s audition for the remake of The Women in an interview…

on November 14, 2007 at 5:02 PM

This is why drag was invented. The artistes are James Bondage and Bella ToDyeFor.

on November 07, 2007 at 9:56 PM

“Opera’s ‘fat lady’ is a Madison cash cow“ In other news: has anyone ever heard Natalie Bancroft sing opera? Ms. Bancroft is the scioness of the family who recently sold their controlling share in Dow Jones (and thus the Wall Street Journal) to Newscorp for a thousand million gazillion pounds or whatever it was. Anyway,…

on November 07, 2007 at 2:25 PM

La Cieca’s DVR hard drive will be overflowing by the end of this November since the indispensable Turner Classic Movies has scheduled a whole month of “guest programmers.” Among the celebrities gracing the tube to introduce their favorite flicks will be some of particular interest to the parterre crowd. For example, this Thursday, November 8,…

on November 06, 2007 at 11:50 AM

UPDATE: Here’s the “Ernani involami” vocal identification quiz — 20 singers in seven minutes. As of Wednesday night, the two leading entries are tied at 17 correct answers each. Remember, the competition ends at midnight on Friday! La Cieca (not pictured) is practically beside herself (also not pictured) with glee now that she has published…

on October 24, 2007 at 10:40 PM

“Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense,” a specialist on Catholic canon law has explained. The expert was speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle in the wake of a scandal involving San Francisco’s Archbishop George Niederauer and the activist group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. On October 7, Niedarauer delivered the…

on October 17, 2007 at 3:50 PM

One of La Cieca’s pet peeves (and you know she has so many she has to keep them organized with a spreadsheet), well, anyway, one of La Cieca’s pet peeves is that operatic orgies so rarely bear even the vaguest resemblance to orgies in real life. Why, just last week, La Cieca was viewing the…

on October 15, 2007 at 2:39 PM
on October 12, 2007 at 12:28 PM

Aided and abetted by Noel Coward, the scintillating Mary Martin crosses over into operatic territory.

on October 06, 2007 at 1:35 PM

Ever since everyone’s favorite apocryphal diva (with the possible minority exception of Lena Geyer), the oracular Oltrano herself, Marwdew Czgowchwz, vanished across the ocean at a time (time out of mind) that was somehow both 1956 and 1975 and yet neither, La Cieca, like all the rest of you, has reread her first copy of…

on October 04, 2007 at 12:16 PM

Ah, yes, of course La Cieca remembers the 1970s, or bits and pieces of it, anyway. Your doyenne fondly recalls that everyone spent that whole decade coked up and ‘luded out, and she’s in no position to condemn anyone. But even the hedonistic, anything-goes ’70s Zeitgeist cannot explain the following video; specifically, why Franco Bonisolli…

on October 03, 2007 at 10:50 AM

La Cieca’s old, old, old friend and role model Charles Busch returns to the boards this month in the New York stage premiere of one of his

on October 02, 2007 at 11:24 AM

La Cieca wasn’t “in the house” for the Lucia prima last night like so many of her colleagues; instead she hosted perhaps the most popular of all her online chats thus far. Approximately 120 of you cher public logged in at some point during the night, with 75 or so on average staying for the…

on September 25, 2007 at 11:45 AM