Questo e Quello
“There is a noise inside the tabago factory and the revolting cigar-makeress bursts into the stage,” reads the classic fractured English synopsis of Carmen. Now a Korea-based English-language site steps up to the plate with a season preview fetchingly entitled “Glamorous Opera and Moist Aria.” Some highlights: The set of the Roman Theater that reproduce…
Beginning tomorrow night with the season premiere of Rigoletto, the Met will offer weekly free (yes, that’s right, free) streaming broadcasts of opera performances over their website, metopera.org. Further broadcasts through the end of the year will include: Rigoletto (Siurina, Calleja, Pons) Wednesday October 25 Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci (Guleghina, Racette, Licitra) Monday, October 30 Il Barbiere…
Anna Caterina Antonacci is not, in fact, coming to the Met. Admittedly her scheduled debut was Donna Elvira and nothing definite after that, but still, she’s an interesting artist who isn’t heard enough in the U.S., and a few Elviras is better than no Antonacci at all. Apparently Antonacci was bumped in favor of Angela…
Andy‘s take on the Tommasini “lamentation” — The Opera House is Half Full.
From today’s NYT “Dearth of Divas” — Leontyne turns time-traveler.
Our story this far: 17 October 2006: La Cieca reports (erroneously) that Andrea Gruber is about to be “bought out” of a Met revival of La fanciulla del West. 20 October 2006: La Cieca discovers that the Fanciulla isn’t happening; Gruber and Salvatore Licitra possibly to be cast in the replacement opera? 21 October 2006:…
Pronounced “oog,” as in Wowkle, that is. You may recall that La Cieca said something a few days ago about a rumored departure of soprano Andrea Gruber from a Met revival of La fanciulla del West scheduled for next season. Well, further information has filtered in that suggests a different story. You might say, in…
La Cieca has just heard that irresistable, irreverent, erudite Ira Siff will be Margaret Juntwait‘s guest during the intermission of tonight’s Sirius broadcast of Cav/Pag from the Met.
To begin with: everybody was there. People you haven’t seen in 20 years were there. People you were sure were dead were there. (They were alive, at least as of the third intermission.) The house was quite nearly full, and there were no significant defections as the long evening wore on. Miss M herself began…
Helena Bonham Carter has been announced for the role of Mrs. Lovett in the Tim Burton film version of Sweeney Tood. According to the announcement in Variety, La Carter will do her own singing of the Stephen Sondheim score. She will star opposite long-time Burton collaborator Johnny Depp, who will play the title role. The…
La Cieca’s (of course) impeccably reliable sources are suggesting major casting changes afoot among the Met’s dramatic soprano roster. La Cieca hears that Deborah Voigt has expressed a strong preference for Italian roles in future seasons instead of the German vehicles she has mostly sung so far. Since Voigt’s rumored future engagements include a revival…
The slow but stead Podlefication of New York continues next summer when Ewa herself sings her first local performances of Azucena. Now, by local, La Cieca means “a quick bus ride away,” because these performances of Il trovatore will be presented by the Caramoor Festival under the baton of Will Crutchfield. Opposite La Podles will…
UPDATE: Per Robert Tuggle of the Met archives, the “cancellation” of Millo’s Gioconda broadcast was actually a clerical error in the database. The show (and the Sirius) go on as planned on Wednesday night! Now, this is puzzling. As we all know, next Wednesday’s Met performance of La Gioconda (featuring Aprile Millo in the title…
As if the season were not glamorous enough, it’s already time for “The Second Annual F. Paul Driscoll Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence,” or, as some insist on calling the prize, “The Opera News Awards.” (No zing, no zazz, no punch…) Anyway, the lucky honorees this year are “Wagnerian tenor Ben…
… isn’t all bad, La Cieca hears. Scheduled for Toulouse in 2008, Anna Caterina Antonacci as Norma, opposite Sophie Koch as Adalgisa.
Okay, maybe not all that mysterious, but it’s a very cool skin design for Unnatural Acts of Opera, plus what La Cieca hopes will be a more user-friendly interface. You can try out the new podcast player here, or skip on over to Unnatural Acts of Opera for the new player’s debut presentation, a 1969…
It looks like La Cieca spoke too soon. Dr. Jonathan Miller‘s 2004 announcement of his farewell to opera direction has turned out to be, like so much the good doctor says, a load of bullshit. “England is obsessed with the cutting edge, the new thing, and if you’re as old as I am, you’re assumed…
The Sirius Metropolitan Opera Radio website now includes a schedule of performances for the upcoming week. For details on who sings what in the archival offerings, you can turn to the Metopera Database.
In the current issue of the New Yorker, Alex Ross offers a thoughtful response to the Met’s Butterfly and related Gelberei.
Unnatural Acts of Opera salutes bass-baritone Thomas Stewart with selections from Der Fliegende Hollaender, Die Meistersinger, Die Walkuere, Arabella, and American songs.
Announced today: highlights of the archival Met broadcasts to be featured on Sirius during the month of October: Carmen (1/9/37) Papi; Ponselle, Bodanya, Rayner, Huehn Lucia di Lammermoor (2/27/37) Papi; Pons, Jagel, Brownlee, Pinza Die Walküre (12/2/44) Szell; Traubel, Bampton, Thorborg, Melchior, Janssen, Kipnis Roméo et Juliette (2/1/47) Cooper; Sayão, Benzell, Turner, Björling, Brownlee, Moscona…
La Cieca has just noticed that when you go to the Sirius.com website, the first thing you see is a big splashy ad for the Sirius/Met partnership. Cool, right? Well, here’s more coolness. parterre.com has become an affiliate with Sirius to promote their new channel, and if you click through either of the ads on…
powered by ODEO The undisputed highlight of this track begins at 02:04.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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