Questo e Quello
Departing Wiener Staatsoper General Director Ioan Holender has signed a two-year agreement to act as consultant to the Met. La Cieca speculates: is he replacing the less than effectual Eva Wagner-Pasquier? [Die Presse]
“Francesca Zambello, the new general and artistic director of the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y., has put an immediate stamp on the institution, changing its name to the Glimmerglass Festival and adding a regular piece of musical theater to the agenda…. The musical will be Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun.” [NYT]
It’s too bad bookmakers don’t offer odds on the casting predicted on Bradley Wilber’s Met Futures Page. Because, if they did, it would be hilarious to see just how long the odds would be against a 2011-2012 “NABUCCO with Maria Guleghina.” Or do you think there is any less likely casting anywhere in the latest…
A century ago, Mary Garden parlayed an interview with the New York Times on the subject of her bizarre attire into blatant promotion for an upcoming tour date. Miss Garden truly was the Lady Gaga of her day. [The Awl]
Next music director at the Metropolitan Opera? Well, it’s sure not going to be Yannick Nézet-Séguin. [NYT]
La Cieca hears that Opera Orchestra of New York’s 2010-2011 season will represent a step up from last two years of stopgap recitals as well as a step back from the three-opera seasons of yore.
No luck with last week’s Regie quiz, cher public? In fact, nobody guessed the answer, perhaps because La Cieca didn’t include a photo of the title character of the opera. Check after the jump for said photo.
UPDATE: La Cieca is going to call this one for L’elisir d’amore from LOC, though depending on the enthusiasm and whim of the cher public, we may dart over to La donna del lago in midafternoon. Details after the jump.
The tutelary goddess of parterre.com performs a few phrases of La bohème — in 2010.
Take a Wild Ride with a Valkyrie!! Yes, that’s what all the signs say around Old Baghdad-by-the-Bay…. So, fasten your seatbelts, y’all, it’s going to be a bumpy night! As it turned out, Die Walküre was an unexpectedly wonderful ride, marking the debut of someone who could be a very important new Brünnhilde, Nina Stemme.…
The wealthy suburban community of Greenwich, CT is a place where diamonds are in no short supply. Yet there are still some diamonds of artistic excellence hidden in this seaside town, including the shockingly well-done production of Hans Werner Henze’s The Runaway Slave (El Cimarrón) by the Greenwich Music Festival. This most likely will be…
“If [Francesca] Zambello were a composer, she would surely be Meyerbeer.” [MusicWeb International]
A young opera fan is looking for advice.
[La Cieca welcomes the newest and most lissome member of the parterre espionage force, Mlle. La Taupe, who just last night invaded the first performance of San Francisco Opera’s La fanciulla del West.] UPDATE: The last act!
Congratulations to La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Wenarto on the occasion of his 1,000th video on YouTube!
The tuneful Peruvian was born June 9, 1891.
After the jump, a preview glimpse of Deborah Voigt and company in San Francisco Opera’s production of La fanciulla del West.
La Cieca has heard that, not to be outdone by Peter Gelb‘s discovery of hot young directors like Luc Bondy and Patrice Chéreau, NYCO’s George Steel is boldly leaping forward into the 20th century by signing up Peter Sellars for a series of productions. In other music news, everyone down at Danceteria is just wild…
A long-awaited DVD from the Met documents one of the great “42nd Street” episodes in operatic history: on December 20, 1980, a largely unknown Julia Migenes (or Migenes-Johnson, as she was called in those days) stepped in on a few hours’ notice for an ailing Teresa Stratas as the anti-heroine of Berg’s Lulu. A prodigiously…
It’s true, it’s true! Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch are going into A Little Night Music! The iconic pair will open in the show on Broadway on July 13. Note: autoplaying video and after the jump!
La Cieca’s faithful spies once again have done their jobs well! What you learned here a week and a half ago about refitting to the Met stage to accommodate the ginormous weight of the Lepage Ring set has finally made its way into the New York Times. Also (love him or hate him) you have…
The greatest week in the history of show business begins today in preparation for the Drop of That Album here in the USA, at this writing barely 15 hours away. In support of this release, Renée Fleming is making a whirlwind tour of personal appearances, including a command performance last night before President and Mrs.…
Which Hochdramatische will lay down her spear and shield during the summer of 2011 to take up firearms for a Berlin debut? (PS: Not the city, the composer.)
Market forces at work in a London music shop.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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