La Cieca

March 15, 2000: La Cieca is happy to predict that Hei-Kyung Hong will have the biggest success of her career when she brings her dazzling Cleopatra to the Met's Giulio Cesare later this spring. Heard last weekend in DC. La Hong big, silvery soprano soared trimphantly through roulades, trills, high pianissimi and the whole kaboodle of bel canto bells and whistles. Furthermore, she caressed "V'adoro pupille" like no one since Leontyne Price. Ah, to hear La Hong as Alcina instead of -- well, you know. At only a slightly lesser plateau was Vivica Genaux in the title role, which, La Cieca thinks, lies rather low for this lyric mezzo-soprano. But Genaux made up for occasionally iffy projection with really aggressive coloratura, as butch as one would like.

The night before, La Cieca was impressed by the intelligence and musicality of Jos� Cura as Otello, though she can't quite escape the feeling he fakes too much of the role. Mr. Cura certainly likes to rush the high bits, and his acting style somehow is reminiscent of a Spanish-language soap opera, emotionally wet and self-consciously statuesque. No such problems with Veronica Villaroel's Desdemona, on the same superb level of accomplishment as Barbara Frittoli's earlier this season at the Met, and if anything, more subtle and daring in musical detail. Handsome in a soft russet-colored wig, La Villaroel simply radiated femininity.

Not since Scotto has La Cieca seen a Desdemona so attentive and in-the-moment in her confrontations with Otello. Miss V (who, one hears, had only two staging rehearsals when she jumped into this production) made one rather charming gaffe. As she soared into her first strophe of the love duet, the soprano tenderly embraced Mr. Cura, but, perhaps underestimating the tenor's height, she grasped him not by the waist but rather right on his beefy butt! (Well, wouldn't you?) The Kennedy Center audience held its breath during her exquisite "Salce" and "Ave Maria" and La Cieca admits she felt a catch in her throat when Villaroel bade her last desperate farewell to Emila.

Jessye Norman, resourceful as always, has devised a novel way to postpone the Mödlrollen phase of her career (she has the turban, all she lacks now is the monocle): something called woman.life.song to be preimiered at Carnegie Hall later this month with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. The piece (which the irreverent are already calling "www.justjessye.com") seems to be a song-cycle with music by Judith Weir and a text by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison � and Clarissa Pinkola Estés PhD., "an internationally acclaimed poet, scholar, diplomate Jungian psychoanalyst in private practice for 29 years, and cantadora � keeper of the old stories in the Latina tradition.... Dr. Estés� teaching and healing stories come from a childhood immersed in the old and demanding oral traditions of her immigrant and refugee family elders, both Magyar and Mexicano." Composer Weir describes the resultant whatever-it-is as "a well-varied narrative of a woman�s lifetime," but La Cieca (though she is not one to pre-judge) predicts that woman.life.song may well win this year's "Marco Polo" award for Technicolor Twaddle.

La Cieca has a suggestion for Ms. Norman: why not bail out of the whole "singer" dodge (no one is buying it anyway) and do what all those other over-the-hill entertainment personalities do: host an afternoon talk show. I'm sure PBS would be glad to find a time around, say, 3 pm daily, where La Jess could dish with intellectuals, share recipes, explore Women's Issues, and maybe demonstrate how to make turbans out of old portieres. "Hello, I'm Jessye Norman. Won't you join me for my new show, Bavardage? It's fun, it's fresh; it has a certain je ne sais quoi. Today my guests are Camille Paglia and fashion maven Mr. Blackwell. And Leon Botstein will drop by to whip up a sinful chocolate soufflé!"

The Met has quietly dropped L'Heure Espagnole from their French triple-bill, La Cieca hears. Why? (All together now!) Because Cecilia Baroli has canceled. Again! In the meantime, if you're wondering about the almost complete lack of reportage on the most recent of Miss Chickpea's increasingly rare operatic appearances, well, the answer appears to be that her first Fiordiligi in Zurich was nothing short of a disaster. According to Seen & Heard :

Cecilia Bartoli disappointed even some of her fans, and the response at her final curtain appearance was short of tumultuous, with even some shouts of 'voce' .... her voice was weak and uneven, with a disturbing husky, toneless breathiness in some registers, which broke up the line in her solo arias. Bartoli's voice was never large and she appears no longer to have the range and necessary power for Fiordiligi's big arias .... "Per pieta" was taken excessively slowly, demonstrating the awkward corners of her voice as she carefully negotiated them.

Keep your eye on Argentine tenor Dario Volont�, who has the biggest, uh, buzz of any on-the-verge singer today. Discovered as a truck driver (yes, it's true), Volont� has made a sensation at the Wexford Festival in such bizarrerie as Siberia and I cavallieri di Ekebu, as well in more standard Italian roles at Naples, Trieste and his native Teatro Colon. parterre box's critic Dick Johnson raves about Volont�'s Manrico, "... personality up the wazoo, and his shaved head and tight little bod got me all wound up. The notes were all there, including a force-of-nature high C erupting at the end of 'Di quella pira' .... This is what we wait for in the opera house, that spark that scorches away all those memories of mediocre performances we endure year after year." La Cieca hears Volont� will sing Manrico at the Teatro Colon in October (with Villaroel and Larissa Diadkova as the women in his life) and Calaf in Pittsburgh opposite Audrey Stottler in the spring of 2001. Click here for more about Dario.

The ever-astonishing Ewa Podles captivated an enthusiastic audience at the 92nd Street Y the afternoon of Sunday, February 27 in a joint recital with Garrick Ohlsson centered on Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. The contralto�s voice is quite simply a wonder of the world, dark and earthy without any hint of artificiality. She remained relatively cool emotionally for the Chopin set, concentrating on a smooth, rich legato with unfussy touches of vocal color to depict the various virgins in these folk-like ditties. The closing number, a lusty drinking song, gave Ms. Podles a chance to unfurl her cannon-like chest tones and indulge in broad humor.

The Tchaikovsky songs of the second half, in the composer�s familiar "clinical depression" mode, inspired Podles to broader vocal gestures, including several brilliant flights of melisma. La Cieca was most impressed at this artist�s willingness to play the emotional content to the hilt. We need more of this grand manner in opera, goodness knows, and it looks like Podles is answering the call: she is adding Erda and Azucena to her repertoire this year, perhaps with more great roles to follow.

Is La Cieca the only one who noticed at the OONY Lucrezia Borgia the spectacle of Matthew Epstein standing outside the men's room, calling to random passers-by, "Isn't Ren�e great?" At the dress rehearsal for that controversial concert, La Cieca overheard that next season OONY is planning Maria Stuarda (Ruth Ann Swenson, Lauren Flanigan), La favorita (Olga Borodina?) and -- enfin! -- Les Huguenots (Olga Makarina, Vivica Genaux, Marcello Giordani, Paul Plishka, and maybe Ren�e Fleming.) Fleming and Giordani are definitely on for Les Vêpres Siciliennes at the Bastille Opera in 2002.

The first year of the new millenium at New York City Opera promises two high-profile vehicles for company assoluta Flanigan. A new Roberto Devereux will nab opening night 2000, and She will return for a revival of the celebrated Frank Corsaro production of Die Tote Stadt in the spring. Other highlights will include a new Love of Three Oranges (designed by twee twin Brits The Brothers Quay), featuring a return of Linda Roark-Strummer as Fata Morgana. Also in the fall, the Davids (Daniels and Walker) star in Rinaldo opposite Christine Goerke and Lisa Saffer.

For no good reason that La Cieca can think of, the intensely hideous Rhoda Levine/John Conklin Rigoletto that blighted Glimmerglass last year will make a tacky, wrongheaded appearance in New York. La Cieca would advise that you just stay home and wax your bikini line those nights -- except that the Verdi will feature the exquisite Christina Bouras as Gilda. Be there!

In the spring we will see a Glimmerglass Acis and Galatea conducted by Jane Glover, and the final new production of the season is The Ballad of Baby Doe with Elizabeth Futral, Mark Delavan and Joyce Castle. (Sounds like a natural for a telecast!) Revivals of Butterfly (Susan Bullock), Figaro, Don Giovanni, Hansel and Gretel, Traviata (Mary Dunleavy), Turn of the Screw (Jeffrey Lentz), Tosca and Boheme fill out the schedule.

Don't expect Vilar's Village to unveil their next season in quite so timely a fashion. La Cieca hears whispers that the Met's season subscription brochures for 2000-2001 will likely be almost as far behind schedule as Opera News is every month. To begin with, it seems the Pav is having second thoughts about making his farewell in Aïda (hel-lo!!!), and as such everyone is scrambling about to reschedule and recast the ten performances of this opera slated for next winter. What's more, the long-awaited new Trovatore seems to have fallen afoul of Joe Volpe's notorious micromanagement. "TBA" is currently billed for stage director and designer, although earlier on Maria Bjornson was announced. have by now delivered her (doubtless) sumptuous designs. And, wait: scheduled to conduct is Carlo Rizzi, universally panned this season. So brace yourselves for another fiasco on the scale of the cow-lady Traviata.

"And only five minutes ago she was so nice"

Patti LuPone, interviewed about "the Broadway theater" by M. Scott Mallinger in Philadelphia Weekly, had this to say:

Ms. LuPone is now in rehearsals for Sweeney Todd; when asked to comment, she said, "If you are going to cut something, you cut 'Green Finch and Linnet Bird,' not my aria! I want new productions, staged well, like here in little Dallas, my God! I will make my enemies go down on their knees! I will not kill them, but I will spit in the faces of my enemies! I can, and I will, and I must!"

Entrances and Exits: Tenor Gregory Turay is the winner of the 2000 Richard Tucker Foundation Award. Leontyne Price has privately informed her management that she now considers herself entirely retired from performance. La Price will not make any formal farewell because, La Cieca is told, the diva found her final Met performance back in 1985 so emotionally wrenching.

La Juive finally will show up at the Met in 2003, with Soile Isokowski in the title role, Neil Shicoff as Eléazar, and Elizabeth Futral as Eudoxie. Met insiders tell La Cieca that the modern-dress Vienna production, imported for the occasion, will be restaged to "tone down the more overtly political themes."

And here's even more gossip from La Cieca!