Questo e Quello
Today’s episode of “Live from the Bayreuth Festival,” is the revival of Hans Neuenfels‘ rat-infested Lohengrin, a production most memorable last summer for the quicksilver conducting of Andris Nelsons, also returning this season. The broadcast proper begins at 10:00 AM EDT. For a list of web stations offering this program, go to Operacast, and naturally…
This morning, live from the Bayreuth Festival, the season premiere of Katharina Wagner‘s controversial production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The broadcast proper begins at 10:00 AM EDT. For a list of web stations offering this program, go to Operacast, and naturally La Casa della Cieca will be open for any Markers who care to…
They’ve been celebrating the centennial of Gian-Carlo Menotti lately, spouting wild claims for the immortality of his music. He did have an impressive run of successes in the 1940s, but he lived till 2007 with many more premieres and nary another hit.
This morning, live from the Bayreuth Festival, you can hear the premiere of the Thomas Hengelbrock/Sebastian Baumgarten production of Tannhäuser. The broadcast proper begins at 10:00 AM EDT. For a list of web stations offering this program, go to Operacast, and naturally La Casa della Cieca will be open for the Chat Contest. (Photo ©…
Some good guesses, but, no, last week’s Regie quiz was neither Ariadne auf Naxos nor Auntie Mame, but rather that faded valentine that the occasional opera buff years to see revived: Thomas’ Mignon. (That blonde was, obviously Titania.) The staging was done for the Buxton Festival by Annilese Miskimmon. And and now for something completely…
La Cieca (left) invites the cher public to indulge in yet another week of off-topic and general converation here in the thread devoted to that purpose.
Like LL Cool J, Nancy Reagan and Spider-Man before her, La Cieca is a proud resident of Queens, and in weather more temperate than today’s, she often enjoys the trek across the so-called “Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. However, she does want to assure you that if you hear soprano vocalizing wafting over the East River,…
With temperatures topping 100 and lousy air quality to boot here in for New York (and most everywhere else), there’s only one thing to say:
I was on the bus to Nürnberg today on the way to do Wagner tourism and hear Herr Sacro Fuoco tomorrow, and on the way I translated the juicy bits of the full print edition Anna Netrebko article… I was going to post it as a comment but it turns out I thought a lot…
La Cieca’s operative in San Francisco writes: “SFO’s marketing for the upcoming production of Attila has offered a rotating door of Odabellas. Sadly, as of the latest update, I’m fearing the musical chairs may have landed on the least favorable of the announced divas.”
La Cieca has just heard that Salvatore Licitra is out of all performances of the Met’s 2012 revival of Ernani. The role of Verdi’s bandit will be shared between Marcello Giordani and Roberto DeBiasio.
Continuing what La Cieca hopes will be a fascinating discussion of the “sacro fuoco.” Let’s start with a Wikipedia definition: “Il sacro fuoco è una delle tante espressioni comuni per indicare una sacralità del fuoco, sia per ragioni religiose, sia per mera simbologia rituale.”
As was perhaps inevitable, Anna Netrebko is on the cusp of the Mildred Pierce phase of her career. The soprano talks about her plans to open a restaurant, her reasons for retiring Violetta from her repertoire, and her distaste for inflated ticket prices in an interview appearing in the German magazine Stern.
While major stars like René Pape and Piotr Beczala had to wait until they were over 40 to record a solo aria CD, Julia Lezhneva has just done her first—and she’s only twenty-one! After a drought, CD companies are issuing a surprising number of debut recitals; Nino Machaidze, Olga Peretyatko, Mojca Erdmann, and Aleksandra Kurzak…
The Man of Steel is in danger again, this time from a new gang of supervillains: Lila and DeWitt Wallace. [NYT]
I received a package in the mail this afternoon from La Cieca, and eagerly tore it open. I knew that this was to be my parterre review assignment… rapture! It was a CD of an opera: The Brothers composed by… George Antheil? Who the fuck is that? After researching him for a bit, I got…
Soprano Amber Wagner will sing all the performances of Ariadne auf Naxos at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2011-2012, replacing Deborah Voigt, who “is focusing increasingly on dramatic soprano roles and has made the decision to remove the role of Ariadne from her repertoire for the time being.” Performances run November 19-December 11.
It is a known fact that in summer, I only attend events in my habitual haunts of Nice, Antibes, St. Paul de Vence and Milan. However, when our coquine doyenne begged on her knees (à la Gencer in Alceste), I accepted the assignment to review Martina Arroyo Foundation’s production of Puccini’s La Rondine.
There was a lot of circling around the title of the most recent Regie quiz, so La Cieca can’t name a clear winner. Several of you were correct, though, in hinting it was Prodaná nevesta, specifically Andreas Homoki‘s production for the Komische Oper Berlin. Something a bit frillier next.
The cher public (as always, pictured) are invited to talk about anything and everything in this, your general discussion thread for the week of July 17.
Those of you who are fascinated by new opera and those of you interested in the American labor movement will find common ground in the Rockland, a new opera by Jussi Tapola and Jukka Linkola. It’s based on an incident in Michigan’s history: in 1906, a group of striking Finnish-American copper miners were confronted by…
La Cieca has just heard that the great American baritone Cornell MacNeil died earlier today. He was 88.
It’s a scorcher out there, cher public, at least in New York, so perhaps some of you will want to stay inside where it’s cool, and enjoy a Saturday afternoon chat, where things are bound to heat up. A few suggestions for you listening pleasure, after the jump.
Which gay operatic power couple’s once blossoming romance has struck out after an alliance lasting over two decades?
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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