“In a constellation of the world’s opera stars, one shines brighter than all the rest. But it’s not merely her ravishingly beautiful voice and physical glamour that make Renée Fleming special. In person, she makes an extraordinarily intelligent and articulate interviewee. And it comes as no surprise, since as a probing interpreter of the works […]
In the almost four years since La Cieca pointed out Anthony Tommasini‘s curious penchant for “strapping,” the NYT scribe has been forced to reach, well, a bit farther back on the shelf for his modifiers. TT’s current pet adjective, as La Cieca is sure you all have noticed, is “earthy.”
La Cieca hears that Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians has reached an agreement with the New York City Opera. Since AGMA agreed in their meeting on May 18 that they would go with whatever 802 decided, “it looks like the season is safe for now,” says our informant.
“…if only Oprah had been alive and writing librettos in the 1940s. She’d have stood up to Britten and gotten a much better opera out of him.” David Patrick Stearns reviews The Rape of Lucretia [Philadelphia Inquirer]
La Cieca made monkeys of you all, cher public, with last week’s Regie quiz. The opera depicted was Henze’s Der Junge Lord, in a production by Christine Mielitz for Opernhaus Dortmund. This week’s quiz might be a little too easy, so please, cher public, if you recognize this staging, don’t blurt it out right away!
La Cieca is frankly gobsmacked that Our Own Vicar of John Wakefield has remained mum about the most important sex scandal of the 21st century, and possibly in Western Civilization taken as a whole. Definitive mezzo-soprano Anne Howells has apparently fingered author and TV presenter Clive James as her illicit lover. James, whose name Ms. Howells […]
Premier Kim Jong Il of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea “has assisted at the rehearsal” of a new production of Yevgeny Onegin at Pyongyang’s Kim Won Gyun Conservatory, “and given guidance to the director and performers.” [via Russia Today]
La Cieca hears that Rene Pape has just canceled an upcoming production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Now, we New Yorkers perhaps should not panic quite yet, because the engagement he has just asked to be released from is not at the Met. On the other hand, the Hoffmann Pape is leaving is after his scheduled […]
“Well, you know, this will sound crazy, but because I spent many, many years as a choirboy, I think about service music all the time.” The Man of Steel is Mad About Music on WNYC with Gilbert Kaplan.
La Cieca, you know, is all for modernizing opera stagings to appeal to the young — up to and including (ahem) the use of frank sexual references, even in the works of the divine Mozart. But even your broad-minded doyenne must come to the conclusions that Dallas Opera has gone too far this time! (“Can […]
Boris Pokrovsky, a famed Russian opera director who staged many of the Bolshoi Theatre’s biggest productions in the Soviet era, died on Friday at age 97. [via AP] Here’s a scene from Pokrovsky’s lavish 1980 production of Sadko: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/SaSxMYmAIMQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
La Cieca presents with pride her latest installment of Unnatural Acts of Opera, the Donizetti rarity Belisario, featuring legendary Leyla Gencer as vengeful Roman matron Antonina.
Leyla Gencer: The very name is exotic. She was an artist of Turkish ancestry who, during the 1950s and 60s, held her own despite the presence of Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Renata Scotto, Montserrat Caballe, and Magda Olivero, all of whom shared roles in her repertoire. Ironically, Gencer has a number of important credits attached […]
“Opera is above drugs and alcohol and you don’t have to be fucked up to either write it or see it. It’s about transcendentalism. It’s not of this world. So I’d suggest not being fucked up, because you’re just wasting your money.” Compositeur de musique Rufus Wainwright shares practical penny-pinching tips in Interview magazine.
A snippet from Flatpack: An Opera in Ikea, now playing at the IKEA Wembley, Drury Lane. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/dW2pB7E74eg” width=”425″ height=”261″ wmode=”transparent” /] “The Opera explores issues encountered in everyday modern life and how our consumer decisions and domestic interaction with others are indicators of more profound life choices and personalities. Practically, this focuses on a […]
Andrea Bellissimo (Laetitia) and David Schmidt (Bob) star in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, a presentation of the New York Metro Arts Vocal Ensemble, a group whose name is longer than some of the operas they perform. The opera runs tonight through Saturday; here’s more information.
Mary-Louise Parker, who smokes pot on TV; Angela Gheorghiu, who sings Carmen next year at the Met.
La Cieca is always impressed when a veteran artist chooses, instead of resting on her considerable laurels, to expand upon her knowledge of the art of song. This is especially true when a true diva chooses to study at the knee of another diva, even though the latter diva is younger in years than the […]
Member of the cher public ellerveira informs La Cieca: Juan Diego Florez has given several very fascinating interviews to the Spanish media while in Madrid for his two recitals that will replace his canceled performance of Rigoletto. He explained in some detail why he stopped singing Rigoletto (tessitura too low for his voice and if […]
Francesca Zambello (center), universally critically slammed for her production of The Little Mermaid, has been tapped as director of yet another musical, as if Little House on the Prairie and Rebecca are not enough to keep her busy. She’s helming First Wives’ Club for a July opening at the Old Globe Theatre in Baltimore San […]
La Cieca’s band of elfin techies are moving parterre.com to a new hosting server. What that means to you, cher public, is that you may experience outages of posts, images or media content on this site for a few days. You’ve all been so swell for the last couple of weeks while we worked this […]
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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).
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