Questo e Quello
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.
The question on everyone’s lips at Carnegie Hall was, “Is Jimmy back in form?”
One startling upset catches the eye among the many winners (if that is the word) of the 2013 Parterre Box Awards.
La Cieca invites the cher public to open up and discuss any off-topic or general interests they might want to get off their chest.
Peter Gelb says the Ring will definitely not return, as originally planned, in 2017, and where has La Cieca heard that before?
For tomorrow afternoon’s chat at La Casa della Cieca, your doyenne offers an unusual double blast from the past.
The Wiener Staatsoper should be a source of some interesting backstage gossip next September as the company presents on alternating nights Angela Gheorghiu as Tosca and Aleksandra Kurzak as Violetta.
For better or worse, Decca’s new Norma recording
will ultimately be embraced—or dismissed—by those reacting directly to Cecilia Bartoli’s controversial portrayal.
>Andris Nelsons has been named the new music director of the Boston Symphony.
Our Own JJ (pictured) joins in the debate over the Düsseldorf Tannhäuser with Anne Midgette and John Berry.
It’s time to vote on the The 2013 Pubie Awards, cher public.
Now the deadline has passed for the Immolation Quiz, La Cieca is happy if a bit puzzled to announce that the result is a tie: two of the cher public were able to identify 23 of the 25 voices in the quiz correctly.
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”
A couple of tweets from Thomas Hampson detailing some grisly-sounding future projects.
For your viewing and discussing pleasure tomorrow afternoon, cher public, La Cieca recommends a live webcast of Verdi’s Macbeth from the Bayerische Staatsoper.
In a press release, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein at Düsseldorf has announced the cancellation of its controversial new production of Tannhäuser.
The score in the Immolation Quiz now stands tied at 23 all, with both leading entries identifying wrongly the same two segments of the quiz.
La Cieca (pictured) is thrilled to announce the debut of a new online book club hosted by Norman Lebrecht of “Slipped Disc” fame.
Just like the pyrotechnics the heroine of The Firework Maker’s Daughter longs to create, this new opera for children is a delightful, low-tech throwback to a time before CGI took over the world.
The next scheduled appearance of the Met’s Ring production has been canceled, as irrevocably as these things can ever be.
The most sensuous sounds at the Met this week come from an opera with nary a love duet.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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