Questo e Quello
Spare a few minutes, cher public, to discuss off-topic and general interest subjects.
La Cieca has her old, old, old friend Enzo Bordello (pictured, left) to thank for this week’s canard, or rather, carnards, as Enzo has delivered a delicious brace of blunders.
La Cieca (pictured, lower right) has had time on her hands and access to Photoshop, a lethal combination—especially the day the new Anna Netrebko Verdi album cover has been leaked.
Morningside Opera’s ¡Figaro! (90210) is a staging/translation (into English, Spanish, et al.) of Le Nozze as if in contemporary Beverly Hills (as if!), and it’s playing at the NSD Theater on Bank Street near the Meatpacking District through next Sunday.
Well done, you listeners to Mozart tidbits and participants in the “Non mi dir” competition.
In August 1845 Alexandre Dumas fils ended his brief but passionate affair with Parisian courtesan Marie Duplessis. He sent her a bitter letter that is often quoted in program notes about La Traviata.
“On to something else.”
In an ever-changing world it’s comforting to know that the Parmigiani of the Teatro Regio continue their campaign through the Verdi canon not unlike the Allied Forces’ rout of the Germans at the beginning of 1945.
How the quest for a lowered diapason ended with Renata Tebaldi serving as unwitting spokesperson for a libertarian cult.
San Francisco Opera’s marketing leaves La Cieca at least momentarily speechless, so she’ll have to rely on you, cher public, to take up the slack with discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
The American contralto, who created the title role in Menotti’s The Medium and introduced the song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” died May 18. She was 92.
La Cieca would like to introduce a new feature debunking a popular misconception about some aspect of opera. To kick of the series, let us take into consideration Manon Lescaut’s expedition into the “desert” of Louisiana.
As she herself points out, Zerbinetta is perhaps the first woman besides “the inimitable Heather MacDonald” to write a serious critique of Calixto Bieito‘s production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
Some rare midweek chatting fodder turns up this afternoon when the Glyndebourne Festival webcasts Ariadne auf Naxos at 6:55pm BST/1:55pm EDT.
Our JJ’s recent reminiscences over at WQXR about the whopping cost of a Ring recording back in the Mad Men era seemed all the more startling to La Cieca when she took a gander at a “new” live Ring offered by our friends at Opera Depot.
“American tenor Matthew Polenzani sings the title role opposite Natalie Dessay as Antonia, Christian Van Horn as the four villains, Angela Brower as Nicklausse, Hye Jung Lee as Olympia, Irene Roberts as Giulietta and Jacqueline Piccolino as Stella.”
For decades thousands and thousands have attended Handel’s Messiah (usually around Christmas or more appropriately near Easter) making it easily one of the most widely known works of classical music.
We now take you to the Texaco broadcast booth for our weekly discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
Here’s a glimpse of the Regie route Anna Netrebko and Placido Domingo will go in November when they make their role debuts in Il trovatore at the Berlin Staatsoper.
Perhaps, you, cher public, will be crying out the above-mentioned phrase when you hear the most recent vocal collage prepared by our dear DeCaffarrelli.
La Cieca doesn’t branch out into The Film very often (even though she is quite the ardent cinephile) but the recent release—or, at any rate, the reaction to the recent release—of Baz Luhrmann‘s film of The Great Gatsby served to crystallize a few ideas bubbling about in your doyenne’s brain.
La Cieca is away, but the regular Saturday chat goes on uninterrupted: this week with archival podcasts of I puritani from 1972 starring Luciano Pavarotti and birthday girl Beverly Sills.
Probably no more than 100 gathered Tuesday in a curtained-off space in the lobby of NYC’s Gershwin Hotel to witness the North American premiere of Rodrigo by operamission.
That most profound and controversial of all operatic composers was born 200 years ago today.
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
