A talent to a muse
The ballet I have grown to love, admire, and ponder the most is Stravinsky’s first collaboration with George Balanchine, Apollo.
Critics and Their Criticism
Tony One-Note
“Tony could only sing one note and the note he sang was this…”
Situation critical
With all the greatest respect for Jessye Norman as an artist, I do wish people would stop quoting her vain and defensive statements about critics as if she were some kind of oracle.
Past and furious
An “opera critic” is still terrified of productions that closed a generation ago.
Hot takes, get your hot takes here
“In none of this was he ever anything close to perfect. Great artists never are. Without their devils there would be no angels.”
Race-bait to the bottom
That’s right, it’s September 30, 2019 and Venomous Fishwife Norman Lebrecht claims this is the first time in his entire life he has heard that some people might find Turandot offensive.
“I am finding my way as I go”
The musical director of the Opera Royal de Wallonie at Liege is currently experiencing the early phase of a promising international career in music.
Funny fascist
Leave it to Opera News to whitewash the revolting reactionary politics of Franco Zeffirelli.
Bleeding of the eye
Congratulations to venerable Opera News on their new hire, art director Harvey Dent.
L’ombra mostrarsi a me!
Since his death, Mackerras has had not very much interesting to say aside from “Avenge me!”
Not since the Zodiac Killer…
“Marlis Petersen, in her first shot at the role, is as complete a video Violetta as Rosanna Carteri, Marie McLaughlin or the young Angela Gheorghiu, and as riveting as Teresa Stratas or Anna Netrebko.”
“After all that time, she can call Tristan ‘du’ surely”
Finally we know what Brian Kellow used to do at Opera News: proofreading.
Politically deflect
“A few weeks after the opening night of Otello in New York, The Washington Post convened a group of African–American opera singers to discuss the issue.”
A boom with a view
“It’s in the ‘Behind the Scenes’ section of the Lady Gaga issue, involving Brian Mitchell, archivist and occasional child wrangler with the Houston Grand Opera.”
Winged victors
The winners of the ninth annual F. Paul Driscoll Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence (or, as they are colloquially known, the “Opera News Awards”) have been revealed.
You’ve got to taste all the fruit
“F. Paul Driscoll, editor of Opera News [not pictured], is optimistic.”
F. and Furious
Has it been a year already? Apparently so.
Encouraging young things to grow
La Cieca has reviewed the parterre circulation numbers and she is delighted and not a little perplexed to note that the day of the Great Opera News Kerfuffle provided our site with the highest number of pageviews in history.
The sorrowful précis
Brian Kellow‘s “Coda” piece in the current Opera News, summarized: “I’m so cranky that even namedropping has lost its thrill.” (Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)
Apotheosis
The bestowal of a bouquet of accolades upon James Levine is unsurprisingly the main thrust of the current Opera News (why, after all, should this month be different from any other in the rag’s 75 year history?) and given the plum of penning this poetical posy is the horticulturally apt writer Scott Rose, “author of […]
Don’t leave home without it
Congratulations to Opera Chic, named “Essential Opera Blogger” in the current Opera News by a panel consisting of Brian Kellow and Tristan Kraft.
Oh, how we danced on the night we were webbed
Lots of media news today, so let’s not waste any time! La Cieca congratulates Opera News on the occasion of the mag’s 75th anniversary this month, though your doyenne is willing to swear that the mag doesn’t look a day over 60!
Close reading
It may seem quixotic that La Cieca subscribes to Opera News, and the print version at that, but, after all, the dear people there were kind enough to interview Our Own JJ last summer on the subject of this very cum-blog, so, well, noblesse oblige and all that, you know. Since the mag is showing […]
Who criticizes the critics?
See, La Cieca thinks Brian Kellow is asking for trouble when, in the second paragraph of his analysis of last March’s Slatkinshchina, he admits, “I did not attend the March 29 opening-night performance of La Traviata, nor did I listen to it on Sirius Radio.”