Questo e Quello
La Cieca is not at her happiest dishing a librettist; I mean their dreary overshadowed inkstained lives are already punishment enough, right? But still, it gets under your doyenne’s skin more than a bit to hear Terry Teachout‘s blogging self-aggrandizement at the expense of one of the greats of English literature. Teachout is, as well…
La Cieca has heard the sad news that maestro Nicola Rescigno died earlier today in Viterbo, Italy. The Dallas Opera website now has an obituary for the conductor and co-founder of the company. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/4fsOVCnE_WY” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Tamerlano didn’t sound any too confident, but the answer to last week’s Regie quiz was indeed Das Liebesverbot, the early Wagner rarity recently revived at Glimmerglass in a staging by Nicholas Muni. (The photos are by Cory Weaver for Glimmerglass Opera.)Â The very male Ryan MacPherson is heard and seen as Luzio in a scene…
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/EDFgtFXfnv0″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
The ideal match of subject matter to critic: the role debut of Teddy Tahu Rhodes in Billy Budd, as reviewed by Anthony Tommasini. (“On being pressed into service, Billy is made a foretop man, and repeatedly throughout the performance Mr. Rhodes climbs up and down rigging with abandon, sometimes using only his arms.”)
Another serving of Hamlet, courtesy of Unnatural Acts of Opera. Hamlet (Thomas) Act 2
Since the new Bayreuth Parsifal was so easily recognizable and the all barechested barihunk all the time Don Giovanni from Salzburg not particularly challenging, La Cieca offers a bonus Regie quiz for the first week of August. Blurting out the answer (as in “I saw this production last week: it’s [title]” or “I saw these…
This photo by Nancy Palmieri for The New York Times illustrates a review of Karol Szymanowski’s King Roger, a production that even Tony Tommasini thought was just too gay. Perhaps the cher public have ideas for an alternative caption for this photo?
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/g5K5-dBnIlU” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Nothing tantalizes the diehard opera collector like a new version of Wagner’s mighty tetralogy. So La Cieca is pleased to offer for your consideration “The Copenhagen Ring.”
Well, NachtundTraume buzzed in first with all eight names in the correct order for the “Mon coeur” quiz. Since this week’s Regie seems already to be a wash as a guessing game, La Cieca will try to keep you entertained with yet another performance of the celebrated selection from Samson et Dalila. Can you identify…
You can’t get anything past Our Own tannengrin, who almost immediately identified Simon Boccanegra as the subject of the most recent Regie quiz.Â
After decades of acclaim both as a People’s Artist and as an international monstre sacré, what is left for a diva but to join in that hip-hop all the youngsters are doing these days? [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/BgC0jQq_AXI” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Eight Dalilas, courtesy of Our Own Sanford. Can you identify them? Mon coeur contest
La Cieca hears that the “all 20th century” concept of the first Gerard Mortier season at NYCO may be subject to modification. According to an impeccably reliable source, the first season will include a rarely-seen French Grand Opera and an evening centered around pieces of Verdi done with a double chorus – one all African-American,…
Let us put away gloomy thoughts for a while and enjoy the singing, acting, dancing and costume-changing skills of inimitable Anna Moffo. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/DfM4GxzNYWc” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Well, cher public, La Cieca thinks it’s safe to say that April 19, 2007 will stand in history as Andrea Gruber‘s Metropolitan Opera farewell. The soprano’s dates for Cavalleria Rusticana, her only appearances scheduled for the 2008-2009 season, have now been reassigned to Waltraud Meier and Ildikó Komlósi.
That deucedly clever Bridget Jones was the first to guess the correct title for our previous Regie puzzler: Cavalli’s La Calisto it was! So now let’s all put on our thinking caps and decide which opera this might be: A REMINDER: if you have seen this production, please don’t blurt it out: the point of…
Lego Opera returns with an adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen, courtesy of the gifted regisseur BarkingBartok. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/5p9lzLLT4A8″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
The grandeur of Unnatural Acts of Opera continues with a podcast of Hamlet by Ambroïse Ambroise Thomas. Hamlet, Act 1 Hamlet: Simon Keenlyside; Claudius: Robert Lloyd; Gertrude: Yvonne Naef; Ophelie: Natalie Dessay; Laerte: Yann Beuron; Le Spectre: Markus Hollop; Marcellus: Edgaras Montvidas; Horatio: Graeme Broadbent; Polonius: Jonathan May; Gravediggers: Darren Jeffery, Matthew Beale. Orchestra of…
Erogenous Erwin Schrott is the subject of a newly-launched Decca artist site publicizing his new CD, due for release July 22. And speaking of twins, did La Cieca mention that Mr. Schrott was separated at birth from Jonathan Rhys-Meyers? Though, of course, the always independent OperaChic has her own ideas of who’s the Doppelgänger.
A “lost” selection from a 1972 gala. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/2fBoaPF7F6U” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Can it be that in mid-July we are already thinking about the last days of summer? Well, La Cieca is, especially since she’s just found out that Robert Wilson‘s Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation will offer the unlikely duo of Rufus Wainwright and Jessye Norman in a concert entitled “Last Song of Summer” on August 30.…
At long last, scent-lovers who want a perfume container that looks like the powder room chez Alberto Vilar will get their wish. The packaging for “La Voce Renée Fleming” has been unveiled!
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/3mmpcdNNMos” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Thackeray Gnomey has already pointed out this video in the comments, but La Cieca feels with all her heart that it deserves a featured place on this site. Among the subtler pleasures of this cavalcade of visual filth: the expression of stoic acceptance on the face of Waltraud Meier.…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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