Intermission feature
Let not the warm days of spring tempt you too far away from this week’s discussion of off-topic and general interest subject, cher public!
Questo e Quello
And that’s when I clicked “close gesamtkunstwerk”
A sharp-eyed spy at tonight’s performance of Die Walküre at the Met notes that, while there were no malfunctions of the Machine per se, there was an unexpected projection toward the middle of the third act.
Room for improvement
It’s hard to think of a rare work by a great composer more tailor-made for a twenty-first century reexamination than Mozart’s Il Sogno di Scipione.
Teen dream
Some days you can feel like a hero just getting out of bed in the morning.
Blindsided
The story is short, but to the point: this soprano has been “sacked” from a major opera house’s gala Puccini revival.
Slow curtain, the end
Here’s a taste of what’s in store for the Met’s HD audience on Saturday
Who can that attractive girl be?
La Cieca wants to be among the first to congratulate soprano Ailyn Pérez, who is the winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award.
Pain and suffering
A woman unhappy with the Bolshoi Opera’s controversial staging of Ruslan and Ludmila was denied a one million ruble compensation bid by Moscow’s Tverskoi court on Monday.
Recovered girl
Here’s a bit of good news for all you Traviata fans with tickets for tomorrow night’s Met performance or Saturday afternoon’s HD.
Starless night
An understudy saved the show at the Met’s La Traviata Friday night, but no star was born.
Lulu (some)
Daniel Barenboim does not want to conduct Berg’s Lulu. Or so it seems.
Square cut or pear shaped
La Cieca (in larger tiara) thinks it’s high time we all took a break from Regie watching and everything else…
There will have been blood
There’s nothing like a good performance of Verdi’s Macbeth and here is proof positive because this dvd is (almost) nothing like a good performance.
Daniela abbandonata
Our own Ercole Farnese has alerted La Cieca to a breaking story in Il Secolo XIX: Dessì diserta Genova per amore.
Geherheimnis
“Since no opera company in the U.S. has quite got up the courage to present a Herheim production, this webcast offers us a chance to sample this director’s unique style of Regie.”
Cover up
Says the Met’s press office: “Hei-Kyung Hong will sing the role of Violetta Valéry in Verdi’s La Traviata at tomorrow’s performance, replacing Natalie Dessay, who is ill.” (Photo: Marty Sohl)
It might as well be spring
…and songs from her 2010 indie rock album Dark Hope.
I’ll plant my own tree
Nicholas Hytner’s much-travelled and well received 1985 production of George Frideric Handel’s 1738 opera Xerxes has been released on DVD
from Arthaus Musik, in a performance recorded live from the English National Opera in 1988.
Damage control
Just in time for the beginning of the first cycle of the Robert Lepage Ring (pictured), Peter Gelb tries to convince Anthony Tommasini that everything is just fine, thank you…
Red dress diaries
La Cieca has just received a complete report from her spy at today’s open dress rehearsal of La traviata at the Met.
Sunday in the park with Tannhäuser
Certain contemporary opera directors have taken to portraying Wagner protagonists as visual artists to better illuminate the characters’ moral and aesthetic struggles.
By Adriel
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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).