Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be
A nice long read for your weekend perusal, cher public, on that early 20th century diva Frieda Hempel, with special emphasis on her series of “Jenny Lind” recitals, all the musical rage in the 1920s.
Questo e Quello
Three
“Steel’s 2011 compensation, $340,000, while down 10 percent from the previous year, amounted to a third of ticket sales.”
Definitive canard
[Opera is] “an exotic and irrational entertainment.”
“Dying together’s even more personal than living together”
“New York City Opera… says it likely will fail in its goal to raise $7 million by Monday, the deadline it set for suspending the bulk of its 2013-14 season.”
This is the end?
La Cieca has just heard from a reliable snitch that the NYCO board meets tomorrow to make a very big decision that will take effect within two weeks.
‘Twas ever “Thus”
While James Levine’s name might not immediately spring to mind when pondering the great Mozart conductors, he does have a long and distinguished career leading operas by the Austrian master.
Tonight or Neva
Last night, the Met opened the 2013-14 season with a handsome, fairly conservative new production of Eugene Onegin by Deborah Warner that replaces the handsome, fairly conservative one by Robert Carsen. (The trend is clear.)
A disturbance in the force
The scene outside the Met last night (above) and inside (after the jump).
Hooterdämmerung
Is there anything more essentially operatic than the suffering of women?
“If the headline is big enough, it makes the news big enough”
For those of you who might have overlooked the fact that James Levine is conducting tomorrow night at the Met, the New York Times will get you up to speed this morning with no fewer than four (4) features on the return of “somebody who may be the greatest opera conductor in history.”
There’s no business like snow business
Tonight at long last brings us to our first Met livechat of the season, cher public.
Who’s that woman?
You have voted, cher public, a total of 2,265 times, and you’ve decided!
Nunsense
So Christine Brewer has fired her agent at IMG for, the soprano says, “multi-booking” her next spring for The Sound of Music at Lyric Opera of Chicago and a concert gig with the St. Louis Symphony.
Opening night
As we approach the evening that starts the New York social season, La Cieca invites the cher public (representative members pictured above) to engage in discussion on general interest and off-topic subjects.
Von Kopf bis Fuss
La Cieca is happy to present the following readymade blind item.
Cricket’s notebook
“From Cambridge, where I live, to Glyndebourne should take 2 hours and 10 minutes, according to Google: down the M11, then the M25, almost to Brighton on the M23, and then through or round Lewes until the first sign to Glyndebourne, two and a half miles before you get there.”
Queer canard
“That [Tchaikovsky] committed suicide cannot be doubted, but what precipitated this suicide has not been conclusively established…”
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).