Questo e Quello
Press release: “Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Renée Fleming Wears Her Creative Consultant Hat in Chicago and On the Road”
“Aus den Trümmern der zusammengestürzten Halle sehen die Männer und Frauen in höchster Ergriffenheit dem wachsenden Feuerschein am Himmel zu.”
“Opera News, 76 years old and one of the leading classical music magazines in the country, said on Monday that it would stop reviewing the Metropolitan Opera, a policy prompted by the Met’s dissatisfaction over negative critiques.”
When Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the mantle of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, a palpable change was felt in the air, from Novosibirsk to East Berlin. Words like glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) began to replace the gradually outmoded Leninist philosophies that had become warped under Stalin and Andropov.
Due to health reasons, Natalie Dessay has withdrawn from the performances of Massenet’s Manon.
Two-time Tony-winning director Julie Taymor is working on developing… a modern [film] update of Richard Wagner’s opera The Flying Dutchman, called Riders of the Storm.
La Cieca’s still thinking about yesterday’s stellar performance by Anna Netrebko in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, but she’s willing to listen to discussion about off-topic and general interest subjects as well.
La Cieca’s choice of chat topic today is of course I Capuleti e i Montecchi, as webcast from the Bavarian State Opera at 1:00 PM EDT. Our own Betsy Ann Bobolink, however, naturally has her own ideas, as she will expound after the jump.
Anyone who stares at the opera schedule for June knows that this soprano with history of canceling isn’t going to show for that Italian gig.
Yet another reason (as if we needed one!) to adore Stefan Herheim: in describing his Konzept for Handel’s Serse, he uses the expression “eine barocke Muppetshow.”
Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau died earlier today near Starnberg in Bavaria.
For all his historical importance Christoph Willibald Gluck remains one of the least known and performed of the great opera composers.
La Cieca has just heard that Herbert Breslin died this morning in Paris.
Karita Mattila is out of all Met performances of Un ballo in maschera next season, replaced by Sondra Radvanovsky.
La Cieca wants to get a jump on this busy birthday season by offering a remembrance of Birgit Nilsson a day early.
The Underworld as corporate boardroom, Pluto a “suit,” the damned a bunch of clerks tapping away at laptops.
You can call Robert Lepage many things (and the critics have!), but one thing you cannot call him is “inflexible.”
Jules Massenet wrote Werther at the midpoint of his very successful career.
“Based on journalist feedback,” the Met’s press office has ceased issuing email announcements of cast changes.
On this, the anniversary of her natal day, May 15, La Cieca likes to think back to that moment…
Vincent Boussard’s 2011 take on Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi returned on Saturday (May 12) to Munich’s Nationaltheater.
“About the only good thing that can be said for New York City Opera’s Orpheus, which opened Saturday night, is that it made the rest of the company’s feeble season seem scintillating by comparison.”
It’s about time you arrived, cher public!
Gustav Holst was always searching for deep theses from which to suspend his art.
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
