Infante care
La Cieca hears that tenor Yonghoon Lee will sing the title role of Verdi’s Don Carlo during the Met’s tour to Japan, replacing Jonas Kaufmann who will be sick or something. (Photo: Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera)
Questo e Quello
A great maestro gives an interview
Though Margaret Juntwait may have caught him pitifully unprepared, James Levine did say a few words for those lovely people among the Sirius audience last night during the intermission of Ariadne. Those of you who missed this singular event may want to take a peek after the jump.
Re Joyce
Tonight’s the final midweek Met chat for a while, cher public, so be sure to attend and enjoy Joyce DiDonato and company in Ariadne auf Naxos, beginning at 8:00 pm.
Help wanted
La Cieca hears that the top spot in Marketing and Communications just opened up today at an opera house that is becoming known for its revolving-door staffing policies.
Blind blurbs
Which diva hopes for a high six-figure advance for a memoir revealing new details of her “so shameful” addiction? And which divo may already feel remorse over his decision to drop out of the Met’s tour to Japan?
Bringing upbeat baby
“If, as rumor has it, conductor Fabio Luisi is poised to succeed the ailing James Levine as music director of the Met, Saturday afternoon’s elegant performance of Ariadne auf Naxos showed he’s the right man for the job.” [New York Post]
Jane heir
Now that it’s more or less official that Elina Garanca is dropping out of the Met’s production of Anna Bolena, it’s obviously up to you, the cher public, to decide who should inherit the role. In interest of gathering the broadest range of opinion on this crucial subject, a poll follows the jump.
Exeunt the rats
Latest from that besieged opera company: the CFO and Director of Administration has just resigned to return to the other end of the transverse; meanwhile artistic staff are seeking positions in the on-premises ballet company.
Ariadne auf Chatroom
It’s our last regular Saturday afternoon chat of the season today, cher public, during Ariadne auf Naxos from the Met starting at 1:00 pm.
Bottom dollar
In Robert Carsen’s 2004 production of La traviata for Teatro La Fenice, the Prelude is staged. During this haunting music, we see Violetta lounging on a huge bed while more than a dozen men pay her for her services with wads of oversized dollar bills. By the time Act One begins, the bed is virtually covered […]
Der Götter Ende dämmert nun auf
This is the end. James Levine has just canceled all engagements between now and October, except for the two remaining peformances of Die Walküre at the Met May 9 and 14. Fabio Luisi will take over the Carnegie Hall concert with Natalie Dessay on May 16 and Levine’s duties on the Japan tour, conducting Don […]
Elena est enceinte
UPDATE: La Cieca has just heard from Ernesto Palacio, manager for Elina Garanca, who confirms that the mezzo-soprano is pregnant. EARLIER: The news has just broken that Elina Garanca “is expecting a baby at the end of October…. Garanca and her British-born husband, conductor Karel Mark Chichon, had informed their friends of the good news […]
Things go better with Coote
“Sophie Koch, a mezzo-soprano favoured by the current management over Brits Alice Coote and Sarah Connolly, sang Charlotte very intelligently and musically, without ever suggesting a woman on the brink of losing self-control.” [The Telegraph]
Separated at Terfel
So, who had the idea first: Robert Lepage or Kenneth Branagh? (Or would it be Stan Lee and Jack Kirby?)
OMG* Levine out of Walküre tonight
*O, meine Götter! This just in from the Met’s press office: “Derrick Inouye will conduct this evening’s performance of Die Walküre, replacing James Levine, who is ill.” Earlier this week Levine appeared at a 40th Anniversary Gala fundraiser on Sunday evening and conducted Walküre on Monday night. He also was interviewed yesterday by Terry Gross […]
Quantum of Naxos
La Cieca’s spy reports from the Met: “A promising and delightful final dress of Ariadne yesterday.”
Breughel, June said
“Adams : Nixon in China. Théâtre du Châtelet – du 10 au 18 avril 2012. Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. Mise en scène par Chen Shi-Zheng avec June Anderson (Pat Nixon) et Sumi Jo (Madame Mao)” [ODB Opéra]
Lyre, lyre, pants on fire
Won’t you join La Cieca (pictured, left) for tonight’s chat during the Met’s broadcast of Orfeo ed Euridice starting at 8:00 pm?
Happy Birthday Roberta Peters
The Bronx Nightingale is 81 today!
Prima la musica e mai le parole
The career of Sondra Radvanovsky has had an odd trajectory. A veteran of the National Council Auditions and the Lindemann Young Artists program, much of her work has centered on the Metropolitan Opera, which her press materials call her “home” theater. Yet her early career there was slow in starting. After numerous Aida Priestesses, around […]
Be careful what you ask for
When our coquine Doyenne invited those interested to review recordings I kindly requested Italian belcanto and early French works. Instead, I got a DVD of Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella (ahem, in German!), thus the title of this review. It was one of those WTF? moments, and I thought La C. was in a PMS attack. […]
Loaves and fishes served
“When the lights went up, Levine beckoned 620 guests to join him on stage where tables decorated with white hyacinths and tulips showed off vintage photographs of the maestro illuminated by flickering votive candles.” [Bloomberg]
Baroque, back
This Cleofide must have been conceived as a perfect target for haters of Italian baroque opera. While many might (grudgingly?) acknowledge that Handel is indeed an important operatic composer, here we have a virtually unknown name often relegated to dusty music history books. Not only has no one ever heard (nor probably even heard of) […]
Lion in winter
When is a DVD recording of a performance without audience more desirable than a CD? Perhaps when the greatest performer of Schubert’s Winterreise cycle is the singer in this DVD. Watching Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau perform with Alfred Brendel at the piano is to experience the intensity and variety of the cycle in a more personal setting, […]
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).