Let’s get serious
Renée Fleming arrived at Carnegie Hall on May 31 with something to prove.
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Getting better and better
Once again, La Cieca thanks you for your concern and patience during May 2023.
Tour de force
On this day in 1975 the Metropolitan Opera performed La bohème on tour in Tokyo.
Variations on salon themes
In French opera—until Pelleas et Mélisande anyway—there is always a great deal of dance; often, dance rather than song is the main event.
June is busting out all over
All the rams that chase the ewe sheep are determined there’ll be new sheep and the ewe-sheep aren’t even keeping score.
Die Frist ist Glum
This Holländer offers neither a clear narrative vision for the work nor a sense of turbocharged drama; it simply sits on the Met’s cavernous stage as a dull gray mass.
Candid theatricality
Out of sheer morbid curiosity last evening I pulled up the “orders” page of my Amazon account and searched Otello to discover that over the past 11 years. I’ve ordered 15 items with that title (one as recently as last night!)
Someone has wounded you
On this day in 1969 the musical Dear World closed at the Mark Hellinger Theater after an extremely disappointing run of only 132 performances.
Der Fliegende Holländer
Tomasz Konieczny stars as the accursed Dutchman in Wagner’s haunting ghost story.
Distinctly human
In the five short years that I’ve been in New York, I have seen that crusty old Franco Zeffirelli production of La bohème more times than I can count on one hand. And there are certainly times when that peeling mise-en-scène really shows its age.
Expected Wagneriennes
Christa Ludwig sings Kundry in Parsifal with Helge Brilioth, Thomas Stewart and Cesare Siepi conducted by Leopold Ludwig, followed by a legendary Birgit Nilsson–Jon Vickers Tristan und Isolde led by Erich Leinsdorf.
“The boy is a genius”
Born on this day in 1899 film producer Irving Thalberg.
Teen angel
On this day in 1962 Barbra Streisand appeared on The Garry Moore Show.
Gone south
On this day in 1940, Irving Berlin‘s musical Louisiana Purchase, satirizing Huey Long, opened at the Imperial Theatre, to run 444 performances.
Pretty poison
The wicked poisoner showed herself in fine form, full of purple passion and lusty music-making that would gladden the heart of any bel canto enthusiast or opera lover in general.
Something better
Broadway floperetta Arms and the Girl closed on this day in 1950, lasting only 134 performances despite a cast headed by Nanette Fabray and Pearl Bailey.
It’s good to be back home
On this day in 1964 Betty Comden & Adolph Green and Jule Styne‘s musical Fade Out-Fade In opened at the Mark Hellinger Theater to run 271 performances.
Die Zauberflöte
“Following her sublime Met debut two weeks ago leading Don Giovanni, Nathalie Stutzmann once again led a fleet and transparent reading full of ravishing detail.”
Cloak and dagger
The opera took place on an actual boat: the Lightship Ambrose in the South Street Seaport.
“Oh noi contenti!”
Born on this day in 1929 soprano and administrator Beverly Sills.
Crazy extremes
Simon McBurney’s Die Zauberflöte, the second new production of the Met’s May Mozart Miracle, opened on Friday to rousing near-unanimous cheers.
It’s a time for making merry
On this day in 1966 Jerry Herman‘s musical Mame opened at the Winter Garden Theatre, to run 1,508 performances.
“A palace in which you know every room isn’t worth living in”
On this day in 1963 The Leopard directed by Luchino Visconti won the Cannes Palme d’Or.