Questo e Quello
The entire new CD “The Italian Tenor” (featuring Vittorio Grigolo) may be heard here. (If it tickles your fancy, you may want to purchase a copy as well.)
According to Mary Garden’s autobiography, Claude Debussy first encountered the Scottish-born diva at the Opéra Comique. After rehearsing her at the piano in a few scenes from his newly completed opera, Debussy said to Garden: “To think that you had to come from the cold far North to create my Mélisande.” He then turned to…
Chandos’ Opera In English series continues with a new two-disc set of Strauss’ much-admired Ariadne on Naxos, with the Hofmannsthal libretto translated by Christopher Cowell. Sir Richard Armstrong conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a starry if uneven cast led by Christine Brewer in the title role. This reviewer has never fully warmed to the…
La Cieca is delighted to announce the latest addition to the parterre collection at La Cieca’s Boutique: the Bubble Graph Tee. Wear your diva quantification with pride in 100% cotton, and as you walk away, they’ll know you’re a fan of parterre box. (Which is probably the best time to let that sort of information…
“Perhaps we’ve seen too many commercials with toffs in penguin suits to accept the fact that operagoers are, in fact, a motley middle-class lot. And the Wagner audience is the motliest of all — emeritus professors sit side by side with Ring-loving schoolteachers, fanatic record collectors, neophyte opera mavens and that woman wearing a Valkyrie…
The Met’s 1979 telecast of Mahagonny exposed one of the lesser-known factors contributing to the demise of disco: the global supply of eye shadow, rouge and lip gloss was exhausted for the next decade by a cast featuring Klara Barlow, Louise Wohlafka, Nedda Casei, Gwynn Cornell, Joann Grillo and Isola Jones—and stilettos, garter belts and…
Tamara Mumford (Flosshilde in Das Rheingold) explains the concept of the Met’s new production of the Ring.
Country wailer Patsy Cline and ex-farmgirl Birgit Nilsson.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who are the greatest divas (Classic and Contemporary) of them all?” And the mirror replied, “I’ll tell you right after the jump!”
Which American intendant (who’s straight, by the way) is about to change his anthem from one Judy Garland encore to another? And, speaking of “Over the Rainbow,” which final high-tech special effect of which very expensive new production reportedly failed to work at the (closed) dress rehearsal?
Now available on Amazon.com: James Levine: Celebrating 40 Years at the Met – CD Box Set and James Levine: Celebrating 40 Years at the Met – DVD Box Set, as recently reviewed on parterre.com.
Parterre Contemporary Diva finalist Cecilia Bartoli has added another hat to already extensive headgear wardrobe: artistic director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. Her first project: Handel’s Giulio Cesare in 2012. [Washington Post]
As we launch into the fourth and final movement of our étude, La Cieca asks the musical question, “Can a Contemporary Diva achieve Grandezza, or, for that matter, Drag Imitability?” Let’s see what the numbers tell us.
La Cieca’s newest and nicest trickster god Fartnose McGoo (pictured) attended a lecture at the Met tonight introducing the new production of Das Rheingold. After the jump, some of his observations.
And now, cher public, let’s put today’s singers, the Contemporary Divas, under the microscope. How do they stack up?
David H. Koch, best known here in New York as the guy they named the theater after, is active on other coasts as well. In fact, just this morning it was announced that he (and his brother) have invested ONE MILLION DOLLARS in an effort to overturn a California law “that many hoped would serve…
Monsters and Critics reveals: “Although acclaimed mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli has achieved almost everything there is to achieve in the world of classical music, she says she is still anxious ahead of every performance. In an interview with the German Press Agency dpa this week, the 44-year-old Italian opera star said a certain dose of stage…
La Cieca continues to apply the Kang Method to the dozen divas of the Classic mode. This time, our five criteria for diva status offer fewer total points, but the difficulty level remains the same. Especially for Renata Scotto.
We begin our Kang Method statistical analysis of That Which is Called Diva with a dozen Classic Divas: Hildegard Behrens, Montserrat Caballé, Régine Crespin, Mirella Freni, Marilyn Horne, Christa Ludwig, Jessye Norman, Leontyne Price, Leonie Rysanek, Renata Scotto, Joan Sutherland and Tatiana Troyanos, henceforth called by first name or nickname as applicable. Our first report…
La Cieca is delighted to announce a week-long series of investigative reports deciding once and for all the question “Who is the greatest opera diva of our generation?”
A little deductive reasoning applied to a little black dress resulted in a late in the game victory for cosmodimontevergine: in the most recent Regie quiz the director (as revealed by his signature minimalist frock) was Christoph Loy, and work was Les Vêpres Siciliennes for the Nederlandse Opera. More quiz follows after a minimal jump.…
Okay, it wasn’t Sister Act all the way, but in the middle of Acts IV and V, ENO’s new production of Gounod’s Faust (September 18) almost turned me into a straight Catholic Republican conservative. But we’ll get to the reason why a bit later.
Betsy is back in Pike or wherever she hails from, so this week we don’t have the usual smörgåsbord of listening selections she ordinarily provides. Our Own Hans Lick, though, has nominated a brace of broadcasts of possible interest to the cher public.
Takesha Meshé Kizart will make her Met debut as Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème on October 16, also singing performances on October 20, 23, 28, November 1, and 5. She replaces the originally announced Kristine Opolais, who has “withdrawn“. (In case you’re wondering, Nina Stemme was the one who canceled.) (Photo: Maja Slavec)
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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