The rite of autumn
Queer Nation claims responsibility for tonight’s political action in Carnegie Hall, chanting “[Valery] Gergiev, Your Silence is Killing Russian Gays!”
Queer
A disturbance in the force
The scene outside the Met last night (above) and inside (after the jump).
Queer canard
“That [Tchaikovsky] committed suicide cannot be doubted, but what precipitated this suicide has not been conclusively established…”
I see a new “Sun” up in a new sky
Leslie Uyeda’s When the Sun Comes Out is being premiered by Vancouver’s Queer Arts Festival as “Canada’s first Lesbian opera” at the Roundhouse Community Center in Yaletown. I caught the second performance; there is one more tomorrow night.
Happy 18th birthday, parterre box
To think, if I’d had a kid instead, he could be out there supporting me now, or at least off at college smoking dope and getting laid.
Once more unto the “Beached”
The snafu over “homophobia row opera” Beached by Billy Elliot creator Lee Hall has been resolved thanks to a small lyric change.
Hall of shame
“What I find bizarre is the insistence that no one—not the school, not Opera North, not the local education authority—is being homophobic. Instead, we have the strange position that, because the children are of primary-school age, these lines are too difficult and confusing for them.” The lines in question are “Of course I’m queer/That’s why […]
Now it is my turn to chat
Could there be any more “parterre” a way to spend a Saturday afternoon than listening to a broadcast from half a century ago of what must surely rank among the queerest operas ever written? Don’t bother to answer that, it’s a rhetorical question, and while we’re on the subject, you do not know how to […]
the gay science
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/5MXWXJTr9Uw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] La Cieca understands that Francesca Zambello is very smart about things like myths and technology and conspicuous consumption and disempowered women. But would totallly kill her to get an independent queer eye to take a quick look at the clothes in her new Siegfried production? Is there any Heldentenor […]
Sono vecchia diggia
The very first issue of parterre box (the queer opera zine) was published on December 3, 1993, the 70th anniversary of the of birth Maria Callas. And so that must mean that parterre box is exactly 15 years old today! To kick off what La Cieca devoutly hopes will be festivities, here is an interview […]
adieu forets
La Cieca has launched a new project, cher public, and she hopes you will support her in this enormous endeavor. Your doyenne is in the process of scanning the entire dead-tree oeuvre of parterre box, the queer opera zine and uploading for your online enjoyment. UPDATE: the first ten issues of parterre box are now […]
the french mistake
La Cieca hears that at least one of the ultracool ultraqueer world premieres scheduled for the Met is definitely off the bill.
‘fille’ a song coming on
[Our Own Gualtier Maldè reports from this afternoon’s dress rehearsal of La Fille du Régiment] The Met has another hit on its hands — though not a totally new one, this production and cast already having triumphed at Covent Garden and the Vienna Staatsoper. Laurent Pelly (who vies with Davide Alagna and Mark Streshinsky as […]
We’re here, we’re mainstream, get used to it
So, who said this? “… all opera hovers on the border of parody. No other performing art — except possibly dance — so exposes its practitioners to ridicule. Part of the thrill of opera is pitting sheer volume against human limitations, the constant awareness of the possibility of failure.” Was it James McCourt? Ethan Mordden? […]
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
