January 16: Any doubts La Cieca or anyone else had about the direction of Deborah Voigt's career (and there were a few expressed here and there about a year ago) can be dismissed. Monday night's Aida at the Met found her in superb form, with a big, rich sound in the voice -- it seems to be "growing in" to its full bloom. The occasional intonation lapses of the last couple of years have improved very dramatically, especially once the voice warmed up. She absolutely triumphed in the Nile Scene, with a full-voiced, exotically colored "O patria mia" and a tear-drenched duet with Amonasro (Mark Delavan, a strong debut). The high pianissimi were shimmery and well-tuned, and the chest register is just sinful. I continue to marvel at the connection Voigt has between voice and body, which I think promotes her wonderful grace and presence on stage. This woman is going to be the Isolde of our generation, all fire and velvet.

I don't see the point of being unduly hard on Mr. Pavarotti; yes, he sounds old, and yes, he did rush "Celeste Aida." But the Tomb Scene was really beautiful singing that an artist half the Pav's age could be proud of. He did save up the whole evening for it, most noticeably in the Nile act where he scarcely seemed to be singing at all.

New York City Opera is "seriously" looking for a new home -- at least that's what the buzz was backstage at the company's "Season Preview" presentation Wednesday night. As part of the Lincoln Center renovation program, there have been plans floated to build a new theater in the general vicinity of Lincoln Center. NYCO, we hear, is proposing that they be the primary tenant in the new theater. But don't hold your breath waiting; company insiders don't foresee so much as an announcement of plans for several years yet.

Meanwhile, the official business of the gathering was to announce repertoire for the 2001-2002 season, to include Flying Dutchman directed by Stephen Lawless to star Mark Delavan, Susan B. Anthony and Carl Tanner; The Mikado in the Jonathan Miller/ENO production; I Capuleti ed I Montecchi, a co-production with LA Opera directed by Thor Steingraber with Mary Dunleavy and Sarah Connolly; Lilith by Deborah Drattell, produced by Anne Bogart with Lauren Flanigan (Eve, the larger role) and Beth Clayton (Lilith). In the spring we will see a new Don Giovanni with costumes by David C. Woolard (The Rocky Horror Show); Peter Coleman-Wright, Nathan Berg, Amy Burton and Alexandrina Penantchanska star. Ritorno d'Ulisse, Aggrippina and The Glass Blowers are all Glimmerglass imports. Revivals include Macbeth with Richard Paul Fink and Ms. Flanigan, plus the usual stuff.

La Cieca has just heard that the Chor�gies d'Orange festival are arranging to have Dreamlife release on video and DVD some of their most famous historical telecasts. Of course the films of the Caballe/Vickers Norma and the Nilsson/Vickers Tristan und Isolde have been available for some time, but now we can expect such goodies as the superb 1991 Elektra with Dame Gwyneth Jones and Leonie Rysanek at their respective peaks. (Already available from Dreamlife: the legendary Chereau/Stratas Lulu from the Paris Opera.)

La Cieca further hears that alluring Alessandra Marc will return to the Met next season for some performances as the Kaiserin in the new Frau Ohne Schatten (Deborah Voigt gets the prima); Adrienne Dugger will spell Gabriela Schnaut as the Faerberin. Marcello Giordani and Barbara Frittoli are the attractive second-cast couple in Luisa Miller. In rather less exciting news, Andrea Rost and Angelika Kirschlager team up for Nozze di Figaro.

Dr. Repertoire's All-Diva Opera House (the Web radio show) has been upgraded and expanded, with selections from Leyla Gencer, Alessandra Marc, Eleanor Steber, Joan Sutherland, Anna Moffo, Renata Tebaldi and Birgit Nilsson. The program now offers almost eight hours of non-repeating diva excitement. Here's the playlist.

The Richard Tucker Foundation celebrates its silver jubilee at Avery Fisher Hall on February 4, 2001 at 7pm. Featured are a host of Richard Tucker Award winners from the very first recipient, Rockwell Blake to the most recent, Gregory Turay. Scheduled are Aprile Millo, Patricia Racette, Ruth Ann Swenson, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Larmore, Dolora Zajick, Paul Groves and Dwayne Croft, Tucker winners all. And as if that's not enough talent in one room, Marcello Giordani and Sam Ramey will be there too. Julius Rudel conducts and jovial Joe Volpe is compere.

You know La Cieca doesn't care all that much one way or the other about Charlotte Church, but she knows a lot of you do. Well, Ms. Church's recent appearance on Oprah's television show has kicked up some controversy because Oprah said some nonsense about how Miss Church sings better than most opera singers. It all sounds pretty silly to me, but it does offer an opportunity for Oprah's show to do something positive: how about you send an email suggesting Ms. Winfrey have some real opera singers on her show? Deborah Voigt, Catherine Malfitano, Denyce Graves and David Daniels (to name a few) are all good talkers with interesting stories to tell, and none of them the stereotyped "opera star" dizzy diva or chubby tenor. And if you do drop an email to Ms. Winfrey, remember, my dears, honey catches more flies than vinegar.

James Levine has withdrawn from the Met's new production of Busoni's Doktor Faust on his doctors' advice. Apparently he suffered a flareup of sciatica during his recent gig with the Munich Philharmonic. Levine, who was frankly the raison d'etre of the Busoni production, will be replaced by Philippe Auguin, music director of the Nuremberg Opera. Levine still plans to conduct Fidelio and the Pav's Aida farewell in January.

Yes, the Cow Ladies are forever banished from the Met's Traviata, and, as of last night, the Sacred Diving Board (Convent Scene) and the Stairway to Heaven ("Di quella pira") were 86ed from Trovatore. Di Luna chopped down only one of the calla lilies. And, even better, according to backstage whispers, the Moonscape Taco Chip (Prison Scene) and the Charlie Chaplin makeup are the next of Graham Vick's ideas to bite the dust as this production continues its "out of town tryouts." Verdi lovers will also be pleased to note that conductor Carlo Rizzi was lustily booed at the opening of the second half and at his curtain call. This guy better either learn to conduct or else get pregnant.

This floperoo Trovatore production (seen December 7) is enough to make one nostalgic for the Star Wars towers and porta-rogo of the old Frigiero staging.

Neil Shicoff was announced as having the flu; his singing in Act 1 was labored and, toward the end of the Convent Scene, beginning to spread and turn hoarse. After an interval of something over 45 minutes, he pulled himself together and sang the last two acts powerfully, if without nuance or poetry. Maybe it's just trying to sing over a cold, but even the "Ah si ben mio" sounded like rant. As a performer, Shicoff's nebbishy stage persona transformed Manrico into Motel the Troubador, and the costume made him look like Eric Idle doing Major Murgatroyd from Patience. I have never seen a performer with quite so much egg on his face as Shicoff had when he entered down the crucifix ramp in the Convent Scene -- the audience broke up twice while he stood there like a salami.

I was not as taken with Marina Mescheriakova as some in the audience. It's a quality voice and she threw herself into the staging with great vigor. But I question her overuse of high pianissimo, which a) gets dull after a while, and b) royally screwed up her loud high C in the "Tu vedrai" cabaletta. Like everyone else in the cast, she spent the night playing tempo tug-of-war with Rizzi. What is it he supposedly does so well that has made him a big-name high-priced maestro? He sure as hell can't take the hint and follow a singer in trouble!

Roberto Frontali was nothing very special and Dimitri Kavrakos something less than that. Dolora Zajick surpassed anything I have ever seen her do before, singing with real poetry and, when required, astonishing piledriver power, all of it seemingly effortless. But what really blew me away was her acting performance. I don't think I exaggerate when I say it was comparable to Martha Moedl in its concentration and simplicity of means. Before, I have found Zajick either too busy on stage or else somewhat clumsy, but she proved tonight that she has inside her a singing actress, one of the greatest ones of our day.

The production? Oh, dear. It's dreary and gray, with two of those Wozzeck walls. The scene changes take just about 10 seconds short of eternity and when the curtain goes back up, one of the walls has shifted about two feet. Everybody is made up and wigged like actors in a Victorian melodrama with pounds of eyeshadow and miles of swirling capes. The show is littered with Eurotrash ideas like corpses schlepped across the stage during the "Miserere" and poor Shicoff having to sing "Di quella pira" 15 feet above the stage on a rickety Mardi Gras float. The production team sneaked out for one very tentative bow, then retreated before some loud booing. There would have been more, but easily half the audience was gone by then, bored or annoyed.

Two quick questions, and then La Cieca will let it go.

1. What the fuck kind of drugs is Joe Volpe on if he thinks this is the kind of Trovatore production that can play successfully in a repertory house?

2. When will the ex-carpenter wise up and hire someone who knows something about mise-en-scene instead of relying on his own (obviously execrable) taste?

And here's even more gossip from La Cieca!