The New York Times reports that Gérard Mortier will become general manager and artistic director of the New York City Opera in 2009. Of course, you already knew that, didn’t you?

Now who, of all people, do you think spent all day today in a hush-hush meeting with George Manahan over at the New York City Opera? (Do you remember the New York City Opera? It’s that other company in Lincoln Center, the one people used to pay a lot of attention to before Peter Gelb…

UPDATE/CORRECTION: La Cieca has just been informed that Mark Risinger (the scheduled Marco) was ill yesterday and his cover, Brian Kontes, sang in his place. There was no announcement made. La Cieca’s spy at the dress rehearsal of L’arlesiana whispers: Mr. Filianoti muffed the interpolated high note in the famous aria but it was 11:30…

La Cieca has just heard from one of her myriad of reliable sources that the Met’s surprise box-office smash of this season, The First Emperor, will return in the spring of 2008. In order to make room in the schedule, a projected revival of An American Tragedy has been 86ed.

A highly-placed source for Opera Orchestra of New York has expressed the hope that all is not quite lost for the company. In an email sent to a long-time supporter of OONY this morning, the source concedes “big problems because of the dramatic drop in box office” and admits the board is “hard pressed to…

UPDATE: Opera Orchestra of New York music director Eve Queler has confided the sad news that the company is closing its doors permanently at the end of the current season to cast members of the upcoming L’arlesiana, La Cieca has just heard. Queler has reportedly spilled the beans to at least one other OONY mainstay,…

La Cieca has just heard the delightful news that her #1 favorite singer of all time, Renata Scotto, will grace the airwaves as Quizmistress during the Met broadcast of Il trittico on April 28.

… is over, you can hear a performance of the winning entry in the Madlib challenge, devised and written by the lovely and talented Le Cerf Agile and performed by the Apocryphal Opera Anecdote Theater of the Air Players. The actors have informed La Cieca that they are honored to be performing such top-notch material,…

Tenor Hugues Cuenod will get married early this year, La Cieca hears. Under a a new law legalizing same-sex unions in Switzerland, the veteran artist (age 104) and his long-time partner, a retired diplomat, have decided to tie the knot. Date and location are undisclosed at the moment.

This just in: soprano Elizabeth Futral, currently Tan Dunning it in The Last Emperor, will sing the final Met performance of Puritani this season on February 15.