E d’ogni re maggior il Trubadur!
La Cieca and DeCaffarrelli unanimously hail Trubadur as winner of the “Ladies in the Dark” vocal ID competition.
Questo e Quello
Second guess
“An earlier version of this post referred incorrectly to the gender of the mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton. Ms. Barton is a woman.”
We’ll settle that tonight!
La Cieca has been wining, dining and otherwise wooing her Met connection (pictured above) and he (or is it she?) has come across with some tidbits about upcoming seasons at Casa Gelb.
And to top it all off, the volcano erupts
the strip on my first and, so far at least, only visit to Las Vegas a few years ago, I noticed what to me was a most unexpected sight and startled my companions by pointing out the window and shouting “Auber!”
“Schau sie an, ein Gefangener der Gosse”
In a starling last-minute change of programming, the Salzburg Festival has canceled all further performances of the critically-reviled Peter Stein production of Don Carlos. Weltstars Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann will instead perform My Fair Lady (pictured).
Pêches de vieillesse
“In her first television acting job [Dame Kiri te Kanawa] portrays Dame Nellie Melba, her fellow antipodean soprano, whose purity of voice inspired a peach-based pudding.”
Nie sollst du mich befragen
You can imagine what the next few days were like.
In other news, President Taft today…
“Mary Garden, the famous opera singer who gained particular fame through her rendition of Salome, is to become a nun…”
New fashioned wedding
After the success of its Don Giovanni in 2011, Lincoln Center invited Iván Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra to return for the Mostly Mozart Festival premiere (!) of the first of Mozart-da Ponte’s three masterpieces Le Nozze di Figaro late Sunday afternoon at the Rose Theater.
Veil song
I was led through a small labyrinth of white curtains, sheer like veils, to a row of seven chairs jutting in between the stage risers.
See and be seen
Take a look around you, cher public, and perhaps find someone in the next box to discuss off-topic and general interest subjects.
Cogito argo sum
The front runner in our devilishly difficult “D’amor sull’ali” quiz is Giasone (pictured), with 22 of 30 singers correctly identified.
Regina Resnik 1922-2013
The American mezzo-soprano, director, filmmaker and teacher Regina Resnik has died.
High concept
Well, my dears, if you thought Frank Castorf‘s Ring or Stefan Herheim‘s Meistersinger were outré, then wait until you get a load of the radical take on Don Carlos by Peter Stein for the Salzburg Festival!
Met: We love the gays; won’t protest Putin
“The Met is proud of its history as a creative base for LGBT singers, conductors, directors, designers, and choreographers.”
A multiplicity of mezzos
Wonder no more! Says the Met press office, “Elina Garanca has withdrawn from her 2013-14 Met engagements because she is pregnant with her second child, who is due this winter.”
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.
Fire and water
I’ve long been a fan of Kenneth Branagh, even though this fandom feels a bit like being a camel in the desert.
Season of no witch
Deborah Voigt, “unfortunately ill,” will not sing her first Ortrud this Sunday at the Festival de Lanaudière. According to the festival’s press office, a replacement will be named later today.
Una voce lontana
here in the US, you can 
Ces soupçons, ces soupçons
La Cieca hears a rumor, currently unconfirmed, that Elina Garanca is pregnant and will cancel her participation in the Met’s new production of Werther this season.
Amazing!
“As one of opera’s most controversial artists, Grace-Melzia Bumbry continues to make headlines.”
Soon their duet will become a trio
La Cieca hears that congratulations are in order to Aleksandra Kurzak and Roberto Alagna, who are expecting their first baby in February.
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).