A Star is Reborn
That superstar of the podosphere, Miss Frances Gumm, is back after six months of laying fallow. Or is La Cieca thinking of Frank Sinatra? Anyway, one of our absolute favorite online destinations, JudyCast, has returned with its distinctive mélange of entertainment gossip and otherworldy warbling as gaily subversive as ever. (No explanation is given for the hiatus, but La Cieca suspects that the recent TCM screening of the bizarre 1968 flick Skiddoo dislodged whatever was creatively blocking Carol Channing and the other JudyCast partipants.)
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La Cieca is happy to announce a special performance to mark the return from exile of 
You, the cher public, have spoken. By a firm plurality of 31%, you have selected 
La Cieca's all-time favorite soprano, 
La Cieca finally got herself back into the studio this evening for a podcast of the second act of Berg's 
gift certificate to the first correct responder.
with a podcast of one of her very favorite operas of that era, Alban Berg's Lulu. It's a 1968 live performance from the Vienna State Opera, Karl Böhm am Pult. Anja Silja is the femme fatale, with Waldemar Kmentt, Ernst Gutstein, Hans Hotter, Manfred Jungwirth, Oskar Czerwenka, Heinz Zednik, Hilde Konetzni and Martha Mödl among the ensnared.
La Cieca (not pictured) is practically beside herself (also not pictured) with glee now that she has published the most recent episode of
, which includes 
La Cieca performs a dramatic reading from The Greatest Opera Novel Ever Written -- and that's merely a curtain-raiser to the second act of Verdi's Ernani, starring Anita Cerquetti, Mario del Monaco, Ettore Bastianini and Boris Christoff, under the baton of that icon of gaiety Dimitri Mitropoulos. Well, what are you waiting for? Go directly to
Placido Domingo stars as "himself" in what looks to be a steamy episode of The Simpsons this Sunday, September 30 on 
The regularly scheduled podcast from Unnatural Acts of Opera will be delayed a bit, not really because of "technical difficulties" but rather because La Cieca is getting herself out of the house for once and attending the opera. Tonight it's the seconda of the Met's 
Sunday, September 16 will mark the 30th anniversary of the death of that most significant of all opera singers, 
Your doyenne La Cieca goes it alone on the current podcast of Unnatural Acts of Opera, doing her best to introduce the third act of Spontini's 
Tending the sacro fuoco this week at 
Surrounding the second act of D'Albert's opera 
The return of 
Something new and interesting (La Cieca hopes) on 
La Cieca has just been informed that soprano Mary Dunleavy will participate in tonight's panel discussion "Opera and Technology" at The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University. No word on whether La Dunleavy replaces or supplements the previously announced Lucy Shelton. Our own JJ will be
The final act of 
In the latest episode of 
The all-new (or at least somewhat-new) Unnatural Acts of Opera relaunched this morning at 8 a.m., only 12 hours behind schedule. 
The celebrated dramatic soprano 
That's the advice Judy Garland gave Liza Minnelli, and I think we can all agree that dear Liza took those words to heart with great success. At the moment, though, La Cieca is wondering how Judy would feel about a "first rate version" of her own legendary self, because that's what the podcast
That Eveready Rabbit of a diva, Montserrat Caballe, is going to camp it up once more at the Vienna State Opera when she makes her role debut as the Duchesse de Krackenthorp (the Ljuba Welitsch part) in Laurent Pelly's production of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment in April 2007. This production, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez, is skedded to appear at Covent Garden and the Met between 2007 and 2008. No word yet if La Caballe will travel with the show, but La Cieca will be the first to encourage her: do it! (If the Met management is skittish about the possibility of a Caballe cancellation, then the obvious solution would be to engage Mme. Vera Galupe-Borszkh as her cover!)
Soprano Mariella Devia -- who La Cieca thought was such a sweet ingenue type -- turns tigress for the title role of Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti). This live performance from 2003 also features Daniela Barcellona (Maffio Orsini), Marcelo Alvarez (Gennaro) and Michele Pertusi (Don Alfonso, Duca di Ferrara) under the baton of Renato Palumbo. The Prologue of this gothic/bel canto masterpiece is now available on
La Cieca's latest episode of 
Now, where was I? Oh, oh yes, previewing the operas. Well, this morning La Cieca was riding into the city on the soon-to-be-trendy 7 train, Ipod earbuds firmly in place, and she got a major earful of Act 4 of Maria Tudor. That's the Gomes opera, you know, about yet one more of those impossibly temperamental British queens, and, let me tell you, Maria is a Dementodiva dream role. Starring in this performance is the Brazilian soprano (and mainstay of the Vienna State Opera) Elaine Coehlo, who is, shall we say, not exactly shy about using chest voice for effect. (That's her in the photo -- as Salome.) It came as no surprise to La Cieca to hear that the soprano is a product of Leyla Gencer's studio, where apparently Coelho majored in glottal attack with a minor in baleful glares.
Backstage drama! The veteran prima donna suspects a conniving newcomer of trying to upstage her -- both onstage and off! No, it's not All About Eve, but almost! Now, on the parterre podcast "Unnatural Acts of Opera," the Prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos from the Salzburg Festival 1954. Lisa della Casa, Hilde Gueden and Irmgard Seefried are the triumphant triumvirate heading the cast, with Karl Boehm conducting. Following the Prologue, a bonus from La Cieca: more della Casa, singing more Strauss, natuerlich! Hear this podcast now at
The reviews for Apple's 
"Unnatural Acts of Opera" -- that's what La Cieca is calling her new opera 
So La Cieca has been thinking about joining the pod people; that is, she wants to try her hand at 
