Questo e Quello
The legendary Italian soprano Magda Olivero has died.
Norman Lebrecht announces that Deborah Voigt , “one of the leading Brünnhildes of our time,” will join Rufus Wainwright to sing arias from Prima Donna (5) and will then join him in a duet of “If I Loved You” from Carousel and… oh, I just can’t.
The appeal of Ariadne auf Naxos (for me anyway) is the acknowledgment that underneath it all, opera (and all other forms of “high art”) is really show business.
Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin delves into the very recent past indeed to present Donizetti’s La Favorite in a concert performance starring Elina Garanca and Juan Diego Flórez.
On this day in 1966, the television series Star Trek premiered.
“Jonathan Miller‘s Carmen for Mid Wales Opera has no sexual electricity, complains Rupert Christiansen“
La Cieca’s old, old, old friends at Opera Depot (not pictured) are offering 50% off on their entire collection of CDs and MP3s… but only for the next 48 hours!
On this day in 1921, the first Miss America Pageant was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Even bonbons are not as delicious as the weekly discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
None of my previous Elektra experiences prepared me for this stunning, overwhelming performance from the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
A little bird from the meadow tells La Cieca that there will be a significant cast change announced soon for one of the Met’s 2014 productions.
As One is an opera about a boy growing up to discover that he is a girl.
“American soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen, who last week won First Prize at the prestigious Operalia competition, will make her Met debut as Countess Almaviva in this December’s performances of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro.”
After listening to “Stella di Napoli,” her mightily impressive new CD
of rare bel canto arias just released by Erato, I felt many of the old sparks reigniting.
A good performance of a Rossini opera buffa usually bubbles along merrily.
Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin returns with a late 20th century masterpiece, Britten’s Death in Venice.
Parterrians are advised to gather together their parures, aigrettes and lorngettes and saunter back to their loges, because it’s time for discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
By special requestion of one of your doyenne’s favorite parterriennes, La Casa della Cieca was open tonight for the finals of the 2014 Operalia competition, webcast live from Los Angeles.
After a long summer drought, suddenly new Blu-ray and DVD releases are falling, as it were, from the sky.
Intendant Alexander Pereira halts the merry-go-round briefly to discuss Salzburg and La Scala with Zachary Woolfe of the New York Times.
It’s rare to encounter a video of an opera that has zero redeeming qualities, but I think I might have found it: the latest Arena di Verona La Traviata.
Jamie Barton will make her San Francisco Opera debut as Adalgisa in Norma for five of the opera’s seven performances on September 5, 10, 14, 27 and 30. Ms. Barton replaces Daveda Karanas, who has withdrawn from the production for personal reasons.
As dear Rosalind Russell once said, “Politics makes strange bedclothes.”
With much laying-on of fanfares and gift boxes our friends at Decca Classics have unleashed Luciano Pavarotti Edition 1: The First Decade on a weary and satiated public.
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
