Questo e Quello
New York City Opera Renaissance has officially announced casting for their impending production of Tosca.
“By the end of next year… the axis of opera in New York may just possibly have shifted from Lincoln Center to a loft in Gowanus.”
Jean-Philippe Rameau was nearly 80 when he composed his final masterpiece Les Boréades, but it had to wait over 200 years to reach the stage.
On this day in 1989 The Simpsons premiered on Fox.
On this day in 1809 Napoleon Bonaparte was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act of the French Senate.
Spain’s world-famous opera star Montserrat Caballe was handed a six-month suspended jail sentence and fined more than 250,000 euros ($275,000) on Tuesday for cheating the taxman.”
On this day in 1939 Gone with the Wind received its premiere at Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta.
The sound of Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee and John Osborn nailing La Donna del Lago’s thrilling second-act trio alone made worthwhile enduring one of the ugliest, most bone-headed productions seen at the Metropolitan Opera in many a year.
The name Joseph Rumshinsky might ring a bell (or a shofar).
I give you a complete performance of Stephen Sondheim‘s Sunday in the Park with George from the Théâtre du Châtelet.
On this day in 1918 Giacomo Puccini’s Il Trittico premiered at the Met.
Tenor/Sunnysider Jonathan Blalock, recent creator of the title role in Mark Adamo‘s Becoming Santa Claus at Dallas Opera, guests on the essential podcast The Sewers of Paris.
On this day in 1930 actress Bette Davis arrived in Hollywood, under contract to Universal Studios.
La Cieca reminds the cher public (pictured) that The Fiery Angel, webcast live from Munich, begins shortly.
Today is the centennial of the birth of pop stylist supreme Frank Sinatra.
Baltimore Ravens place kicker Justin Tucker may or may not be giving up his day job any time soon.
Where does the time go?
La Cieca (pictured) notes that next year’s recipients of the F. Paul Driscoll Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence will include Joseph Calleja, Elina Garanca, Waltraud Meier, Anna Netrebko and José van Dam, which means we are now officially out of old singers.
Giacomo Puccini’s final opus interruptus is and shall always remain my favorite opera. The reasons for this preference are so varied and numerous that if they were printed and bound the volume would most assuredly require its own stand.
On this day in 1882 Victorien Sardou‘s melodrama Fédora opened in Paris, featuring Sarah Bernhardt in the title role.
This week’s “Trove Thursday” features noted Wagnerian Hildegard Behrens revisiting Rusalka, one of her early, lyric roles.
New York City Opera Renaissance certainly seems to have its eyes on the future.
Thank goodness all that curating of Bel Canto and artistic advising and such doesn’t take up all Renee Fleming‘s precious hours!
Finally the reason for all that screaming at La Scala begins to emerge.
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
