Happy birthday Deborah Voigt
The dramatic soprano (and soon to be belter!) celebrates her golden birthday today.
Questo e Quello
Winged victory
The Archangel of Fabulous (or, as he’s known under that helmet, Andrew Richards) has been following the several Calixto Bietio Parsifal discussions on our little blog quite closely and in fact he has commented, answered and otherwise reacted to a number of the parterriani concerns on his own blog, Opera Rocks.
Future conditional
Can you believe it’s less than two weeks before individual tickets go on sale for the Met’s 2010-2011 season? And you know that that means! It’s the time of year when La Cieca invites the cher public, for the sake of less well-informed opera fans (which, relative to you, of course, means just about everyone!) […]
The doctor is still in
Dr. Jonathan Miller, the autodidact and polymath who has redefined the words “coot” and “windbag” for the 21st century, took a well-deserved hiatus from his — what is it? – 11th or 12 absolutely final irrevocable annual retirement from operatic stage direction to announce that he doesn’t attend the theater, and, what’s more, nobody begs […]
Angel of peace
La Cieca’s fans worldwide will be happy to note that she doesn’t think scandals are limited to only New York and Bayreuth. In fact, wherever Patti LuPone goes, scandale follows. Right now, La LuPone is in Chicago, and, yes, the Hogtown natives are restless.
Anna’s anthem
Awesome Anna Netrebko wraps her considerable talent around a the Europop hit “La Voix.” Note the correct use of hair extensions (without those ridiculous “rocker chick” bangs) and the plain but striking red gown.
Hingegeben war ich stumm
“A tousle-haired and radiant young man called Ein Gast… appears” [NY Times]
Waiter, there’s a fly in my Regie
Who better than Straussmonster to speak up at just the right time to identify Die Schweigsame Frau, a Barrie Kosky production at the Münchner Opernfestspiele. The “Walküre” in question is Aminta, in the person of the gallant and gravid Diana Damrau. Following the jump, the ADD-rific trailer for the show, and then this week’s challenge.
Head hunter
Salome, webcast live right now from the Verbier Festival. Valery Gergiev conducts Deborah Voigt (Salome), Dame Gwyneth Jones[!!!!] (Herodias), Siegfried Jerusalem (Herodes), Evgeny Nikitin (Jochanaan), John Tessier (Narraboth), Catherine Hopper (Page). On-demand video after the jump.
Social notes from the Left Coast
JumpingClappingMan deserves a long, loud round of applause for organizing the first gathering of Parterre’s SF Chapter (artist’s conception of the scale of the event pictured above). The highlight of the afternoon was our host’s heart-rending, toe-tapping, gut-wrenching account of “Signore ascolta,” soon to be a major motion picture thanks to Chang‘s Zeffirelli-scale direction and […]
Not very epic opera
On Thursday night, July 29th, I attended the Colorado Music Festival’s concert entitled “Epic Opera”. The program as advertised on the CMF website was to feature the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde with soprano Jane Eaglen, followed by Lorin Maazel‘s suite “The Ring Without Words”. Unbeknownst to me, or presumably anyone else until […]
Gingerbread housing shortage
La Cieca hears that the Met has just freed up about 60 storage containers in their production storage facility in New Jersey, disposing of 14 old productions including such venerable classics as the Robert O’Hearn Hansel and Gretel, the Beni Montresor Gioconda and the Franco Zeffirelli Falstaff.
From a distance
Asking New Yorkers to travel two hours to the remote but beautiful campus of Bard College in New York’s Hudson River Valley to see an opera can be like asking them to cross the Sahara. Yet if there is any opera I would put my life at risk to see again, it just might be […]
Electronica
This is a rather old story, but La Cieca heard it confirmed just recently. You all have heard, I trust, that this summer the Arena di Verona, for the first time in its nearly 100 year history of opera performances, is miking both singers and orchestra. Why? Because Franco Zeffirelli, director of all five of […]
A thousand words is worth a picture
You know how La Cieca gets when one of her darling Regie productions gets dissed sight unseen, as happened on these shores with last Sunday’s unveiling of the Hans Neuenfels Lohengrin at Bayreuth. (Not so much on this site, because La Cieca is happy to report that here at dear parterre.com all schools of opinion—even […]
E pluribus unum
It looks like the Washington National Opera is going to be absorbed by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. [Wall Street Journal]
Come in, Ms. Tact
“Before the shoot, I Googled female rock singers like Courtney Love and Patti Smith, everyone I could think of, to check out their image. They all had bangs and this disheveled, unplanned look.” [Daily News]
Happy Birthday Olga Borodina
The “phlegmatic diva” is 47 years old today.
The Celluloid Muse
So how about another angle on Mawrdew Czgowchwz? Since, at the end of the novel, the eponymous oltrano decides to take a brief hiatus from her métier of “musicry” to star in motion picture, how about we produce (in the boundless realm of imagination) a film based on the McCourt novel? Above, La Cieca’s nominee […]
That which we call a rose
The Sultana of the Sobriquets herself, Renée Fleming, has copped another cognomen. The Mom of Many Monikers has just been dubbed “la Grace Kelly della lirica” by no less than Il Corriere della Sera!
You know we’ve got Regie in the cellar?
The premiere of a new production of Lohengrin at Bayreuth is obviously this week’s hot topic. La Cieca suggests we continue on this thread thd discussion that began elsewhere on parterre.com and is also raging over at opera-l. (La Cieca invites the cher public and visitors to post links from other sites as well where […]
So well built, we can’t show you the second act
La Cieca hears that a big axe just fell in the marketing department over at Sterling Cooper Draper Gelb. Look for a new director to be hired from outside the company.
Royal rascals
The Post decided to pass on a review of the Caramoor Maria di Rohan (July 24), but the presentation is definitely worth a mention and some discussion, so let’s take it to parterre.
The return of Glimmertrash
Given the choice, I’ll take Hans Neuenfels.
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).