Questo e Quello
An appearance by legendary diva Virginia Zeani is but one of the highlights of tomorrow night’s Marcello Giordani Foundation Concert and Dinner.
La Cieca is told that Rufus Wainwright announced tonight from the stage of Carnegie Hall (not pictured) that his maiden oeuvre Prima Donna will be performed by the New York City Opera in 2012. (Photo: Clive Barda)
“A profile of Richard Eyre – ‘All good actors are quick-witted’, 27 November, page 12, Review – mentioned the theatre director’s recollection of having played one of the Three Little Maids in a school production of The Pirates of Penzance. Clarification has since come from the interviewee that in Pirates he played Kate, one of…
La Cieca invites the ragazzi (and ragazze) to gather at The Whisky Per Tutti Saloon for a chat during tonight’s Met performance of La fanciulla del West this evening beginning at 8:00 pm. Details after the jump.
What better omen for the an opening night of La fanciulla del West than the first snow of the season here in New York City?
Incredible, but true, I Puritani had not been performed in Great Britain since 1887 when Glyndebourne decided to stage it in 1960 with the main intention to showcase Joan Sutherland, who had been catapulted to international superstardom one year earlier in the legendary Lucia di Lammermoor at Covent Garden. Furthermore, Vittorio Gui, who had already…
With Betsy Ann pulling a Gheorghiu, the lovely and talented M. Croche leaps once more into the b(r)each, saying, “Once again it’s time for the Saturday Opera-Bash. Hai-ku’ed up this week are…”
La Divina was born on (or about) December 3, 1923.
Is Our Own JJ turning Neocon? He certainly has some very positive things to say about the “conservative” Don Carlo in his latest “Rough and Regie” offering! [Musical America] (Photograph: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.)
“’Voice’ is a feminine noun is Spanish, and therefore, must be treated with love and attention, like a woman. This is where the secret lies.” [PanArmenian.net]
New York Festival of Song’s Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay Life is a delightfully lighthearted, deeply personal, and colorful recital made of equal parts sex, camp, melancholy, and tenderness. Steven Blier‘s wide-ranging program consists of five sets of songs, each meant to evoke, as per his program notes, “a quintessential moment of a gay…
The Platonic ideal of the barihunk has arrived, and his name is John Chest. The 25-year-old dreamboat is the winner of the 2010 Stella Maris International Vocal Competition, where he sang music by Rossini, Korngold, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Britten. According to a charmingly phrased press release, “Chest was put forward by the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich,…
“Sombre splendor there is frequently not.” Zachary Woolfe mulls Don Carlo. [New York Observer]
“A book about Mr. Lebrecht’s ‘search for Gustav Mahler,’ as he calls his obsession, this is also a book about Mr. Lebrecht, a far less compelling subject.” [NYT]
German heldentenor and crossover performer Peter Hofmann died yesterday. He was 66.
Controversial diva Marina Poplavskaya is the subject of a profile in the current New Yorker that does not include any bloodhounds snappin’ at her rear end, but that’s about the only life experience omitted. Highlights include the soprano’s lugging a trolley full of luggage across 14 lanes of Buenos Aires traffic following a dispute with…
The prolific “Swan of Bergamo” (as he is almost never called) was born November 29, 1797.
The interpretation of Carmen by Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca has been much debated, many finding her cold and remote, others admiring her subtly smoldering quality. A new Deutsche Grammophon DVD documenting the Met’s January 16, 2010 performances offers us an opportunity to examine the gypsy in close-up. This is certainly not the lusty, passionate, mercurial Carmen…
La Cieca hoped you would have a devil of time with last time’s Regie quiz, but she was wrong. And right, too, of course, since the work in question was Mefistofele. Congratulations to Cara Speme, first to guess, and correct on the first try. More puzzlement after the jump.
“This company premiere features an outstanding cast led by soprano Patricia Racette, ‘the consummate singing actress’ (Chicago Tribune).” [Washington National Opera]
You’ve survived the crowds of Black Friday, but can you face the terrors of Decorator Beige Saturday? Huge savings in every department.
Don Carlo is truly a grand opera, Verdi’s biggest, no matter if it’s the four or five act version. It is a bitch.
The truth, at last: “By Manuela Hoelterhoff and Zinta Lundborg” [Bloomberg]
Chicago’s opera community has been abuzz about this production of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera ever since the 2010-11 Lyric Opera season was announced. A sumptuous production owned by San Francisco opera, major female stars, a solid male cast of experienced Verdians, and stage direction by the legendary Renata Scotto—what more could one ask?
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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