Inside of you there are two Marias
“The first two images of Angelina Jolie as famed diva Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s upcoming biopic Maria have been revealed”
this diva looks like that diva
Sneer and sneer again
Separated at smirk: base George Sanders and bass René Pape.
Come and knock on her door
High concept! Joyce DiDonato is Mrs. Roper!
A right to sing the blues
Tyne Daly will star as Maria Callas in that awful play Master Class, which La Cieca has to say strikes her as somewhat counterintutive. And while we’re on the subject, why hasn’t somebody written a play about Eileen Farrell? [theatermania.com]
Wait ’til you’ve refined it
A controversial new production of Massenet’s erotically-tinged opera Manon featuring “it girl” soprano Anna Netrebko opened last night in…. Oh, all right. Obviously that’s not our Anna. In fact it’s ecdysiast Dita Von Teese performing her signature “cocktail glass” strip. The model and performer (whose adorably mousy real name is Heather Sweet) has accepted an […]
Honestly insincere
[Via Likely Impossibilities]
Separated at death?
In related macabre news, (reportedly) gay tenor Sergej Larin died this weekend, and La Cieca has just heard an unconfirmed report that another gay tenor, Giuliano Ciannella, has also passed away.
Mozart is for little people!
In a startling example of casting against type, protean singer Cecilia Bartoli has agreed to take on the most demanding role of her career in La regina della meschina, an operatic version of the life of Leona Helmsley. (“Voice From the Past Becomes an Obsession” in the New York Times.)
Whatever happened to Katia Ricciarelli?
In fact, she became Peggy Lee.
Let’s be buddies!
Graefin Geschwitz meets Vera Charles
The blonde leading the blind
Imagine La Cieca’s delight when she heard that Julia Roberts has been cast in the starring role of Voce di Donna, a biopic based upon the whirlwind adventures of your very own doyenne. Oscar-winner Roberts (left) beat out A-listers Nicole Kidman, Susan Sarandon and Dame Judi Dench to portray “Older Cieca.” The character in more […]
Your pathetic, your loathsome, your despicable majesty!
Dame Kiri te Kanawa embraces her inner Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan for this scene from the Handelian pastiche The Sorceress. Despite the film’s 1993 release date, the sensibility is pure ’80s: massive hair, voluminous frock, garish lighting design… and don’t overlook the multitude of smirking supers! (Just so you know, the aria is […]
Lord help the sister who comes between me and my man!
Not the newest observation, but perhaps relevant again at the moment. So, tell me, what do these two ladies have in common (besides the family resemblance, of course)? [UPDATE: I’ve traded out the original image of Joyce Castle for something more representative.]
Pop-top frocks
New York-based artist Nikos Floros has created an artistic tribute to La Divina herself from 20 thousand beer and soft drink cans for an art exhibition in Athens. The exhibition includes a sculptural gown inspired by Maria Callas’s costume for Iphigénie en Tauride featuring ring-pulls that become a lace-like collar. A kimono sculpture is inspired […]
Where is style? Where is skill? Where is forethought?
Yes, another YouTube posting, but this one is something very special indeed. Legendary Zarah Leander is seen in a few moments from her 1975 triumph as Madame Armfelt in Das Lächeln einer Sommernacht (A Little Night Music) at the Theater an der Wien. La Leander also cavorts about a studio, lipsynching a medley of her […]
Isn’t it ironic?
BTW, this film is called La donna più bella del mondo, and it’s very loosely suggested by certain events and characters in the life and legend of Lina Cavalieri. (In other words, it’s utter and pure fiction.) But anyway, la Cavalieri is portrayed by Gina Lollbrigida, who certainly lives up to the title “The Most […]
Das Traumboot
Bayreuth scion-apparent Katharina Wagner‘s production of Die Meistersinger opened yesterday at the Festspielhaus. As you can see, this production is rather curiously cast with David Beckham as Walther and Aprile Millo as Eva. Oh, well, all right, La Cieca must have her little joke, you know. The tenor is in fact Klaus Florian Vogt, whom […]
Tu che le vanita project
La Cieca must first of all express how startled she is that this particular item didn’t appear first on NYC Opera Fanatic — after all, Lana Turner as Elisabetta in Don Carlo? Well, in fact, Miss Turner never did sing any Verdi, on- or off-stage (unlike her precursor Joan Crawford), but my goodness, doesn’t she […]
camp, Critics and Their Criticism, Diva, festoonery, gay gay gay gay gay, this diva looks like that diva
I laughed for art, I laughed for love
“This writer approached the new off-Broadway play The Second Tosca with more than a bit of trepidation, worried that it might amount to no more than second-rate Terrance McNally or, even worse, unfunny inanity like Lend Me a Tenor. What a relief, then, it is to report that The Second Tosca is a delightful, campy, […]
Shirley Dearest
A belated happy birthday to Shirley Verrett, who so far as La Cieca knows never appeared in such operatic rarities as Gianni Chitarra, La femmina sulla spiaggia or even Che fine ha fatto Baby Jane? Had it not been for the allergies, though…
The Swenson solution
The Met isn’t interested in you any more as a lyric-coloratura? Well, in that case, why not try transforming yourself into Marilyn Horne?
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
I’ll take the fall
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).
