Questo e Quello
As usual when it’s a Fleming Flapper doing the writing, everything is everyone else‘s fault: poor Renée just sort of wanders in off the street and all this stuff keeps happening to her:
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/7HMCZ589eKc” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] “WHAT in GAY hell was jumping around him?” exclaims a puzzled YouTube fan, and La Cieca agrees that even the gifted Stephen Costello seems nonplussed by, well, all that gay hell. (This clip is from a recent Rigoletto performance.)
In what La Cieca believes is the gayest photograph ever taken, Rufus Wainwright strikes a pose with Faye Dunaway on the red carpet at the Met’s opening night. More heart-warming news from Women’s Wear Daily: Oscar de la Renta will not, after all, boycott the Met as he previously threatened. The designer had complained to…
I was there in the house and it was a good night. I still think that Mattila and the production were fresher in 2004 with a wider range of colors and dynamics. However, she didn’t sound frayed or at the end of her rope. Some of the louder high notes can get a blanched quality…
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/hen9Gyc6ovs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] This next stuff falls under the category of “housekeeping,” and believe you me, it’s not one of La Cieca’s favorite subjects, and if you ever saw her house, you’d know what she means. Anyway, your doyenne has noticed that of late the delightfully freewheeling discussion here has from time…
“Discovering that music and fragrance have harmony and even individual notes in common has taken me on a delightful journey,” Fleming says. One port of call on this journey: “The Making of ‘The La Voce Renee Fleming Ad’ Promo” video.
Antifashionista Tony Tommasini says (among other things) this morning “You can see for yourself in an online montage linked to this article, not to mention a lavish spread in the current issue of Vogue, with Ms. Fleming modeling all of her designer costumes.” Okay, La Cieca gives up. What “online montage?” Where’s the link?
La Cieca hears that critic/cat lover Alex Ross is one of this year’s recipients of the MacArthur “genius” grant, to be announced later today.
Tuesday morning: A further report from Lindoro Almaviva: Over all the night was a success d’estime. It was a Renee worship night and we got just that. I am sure you will be able to talk in better terms about the singing or lack thereof. My impression is that Renee had an “acting” night, as…
La Cieca thanks all her cher public who participated in our first chat of the season.Â
Some very interesting responses to our previous Regie quiz included a correct one from Melot’s Younger Brother. The opera was indeed Król Roger, a fascinating work which (in audio form) will soon grace Unnatural Acts of Opera. Now, cher public, it’s up to you to decide whether our puzzler this week is the sort of…
La Cieca’s spy reports on the Met’s pre-season:Â
Keep watching parterre.com later this afternoon for a sneak preview of the Met’s Opening Night Renéessance.
Pirates three: Kevin Kline, Rex Smith and Patricia Routledge. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/qbYScGigjd4″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
The final act of Wagner’s Lohengrin, along with a preview from La Cieca of Monday’s festivities. Lohengrin, Act 3 Â
La Cieca doesn’t know how she manages it, but somehow Opera Chic managed to be first to get her hands on the official “debut” photos of The Schrott Tot. More perfectly adorable photo scans of l’il Tiago Aruã and his very attractive mom and dad are on the Chic’s site.
Need you ask who discusses the subject of nudity in opera (among other performing arts) in today’s Times? [W]hen nudity seems called for and natural, it can lend disarming humanity to a drama. There was, for example, Richard Greenberg’s “Take Me Out,†at the Public Theater in 2002, about a superstar baseball player who reveals…
Legendary Metropolitan Opera wig mistress Nina Lawson died last week at the age of 82. Above, a sample of Ms. Lawson’s coiffure for Joan Sutherland‘s first Met Norma at the peak of the Big Diva Hair era, circa 1970. [via NYT]
Cher public, you may recall that it was La Cieca who was the first to break the story that Gérard Mortier was under consideration to be the next General Manager of the New York City Opera, not quite a week before confirmation appeared in the moribund print media. Since then the irreverent intendant has made a…
Better loosen up those typing fingers, cher public, because La Cieca is bringing you another of her notorious online chats. On Monday, September 22 beginning at 6:30 PM EDT, La Cieca will present Opening Night in Exile, a chat celebrating the the broadcast of the Met’s 2008 opening night starring Renée Fleming, the diva and…
La Cieca has just heard that Patrick Summers will conduct all performances of Richard Strauss’s Salome at the Met this season, “replacing Mikko Franck, who is ill.”
At first La Cieca thought this next clip was an excerpt from the film version of La bohème lensed earlier this year in Vienna and currently in post-production. But the director of that film is Robert Dornhelm and (at least as credited) the director for this video is Vincent Paterson. Your doyenne is further not…
The winner of our non-traditional Regie quiz is Graciella Scusi for her clever interpretation of the scenes depicted as moments from Candide. La Cieca was particularly amused by the notion of the Old Lady’s doing a variation on “Find Me a Primitive Man.” The work was, of course, not Candide at all, but rather the…
In case you’re still wondering, here’s what the whole thing sounds like: The Whole Thing In her characteristically grudging fashion, La Cieca will say that this does sound like the sort of thing you will really like if you really like that sort of thing. And so, if you do like that sort of thing,…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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