One Handel, one heart
I don’t usually attend a performance of an opera I’ve known well most of my life expecting a revelation.
Recent Stories
But is it an artful paradox?
It was a timeout—but maybe it was a timeout we deserved.
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).
Light the lights
Which operatic heartthrob—who’s loved everywhere on earth, in fact—plans to make a surprise return to the Met to sing in next weekend’s 50th anniversary gala?
Broadcast: Ariodante
Hear, view and discuss: Ariodante starring Joyce DiDonato.
Life is full of miracles, but they’re not always the ones we pray for
Born on this day 1908 actress Eve Arden.
Broadcast: Der Fliegende Holländer
More Wagner listening excitement this afternoon at 1:00 PM, cher public, on the Met’s Saturday afternoon broadcast.
Apparition
There was a moment during Natalie Dessay’s performance of Schubert’s “Gretchen am Spinnrade” when the singer summoned the ghost of her former self.
The new journalism
La Cieca wishes to extend her heartiest congratulations to that journalistic power couple the da Fonseca-Wollheim-Stephenses.
We live by encouragement and die without it
Born on this day in 1917 actress Celeste Holm.
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!
Yes, we have no Banat
In The Gypsy Baron (Der Zigeunerbaron), currently (through Sunday) enjoying a revival by the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater, you get Strauss waltzes and patriotic marches.
Soreness and burning
“Ms. Fleming, 58, and Ms. Dessay, 52, faced the same problem over the past decade or so.”
Got to know how to pony
>Happy 76th birthday actress Ann-Margret.
Crate expectations
Not a few eyebrows arched on social media when L.A. Opera appropriated the hashtag “Fight like a girl” on street level poster adverts all over town for the revival of their 2013 production of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca.
The song is you
Met audiences might have to wait a very long time for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Die Macht des Schicksals!
Born on this day in 1922 actor Jack Klugman.
I lived, if you can call it living, for art
Since no doubt the New York contingent of the cher public are already shuddering in anticipation of a Kristine Opolais Tosca as a “gala” New Year’s Eve treat, La Cieca thought you might enjoy—again, surely too strong a word—a preview of sorts.
Gewitter und Sturm
The wild tempest that whipped and drenched the audience as it exited the Met after Tuesday’s season premiere of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer mirrored the finer features of the evening.
But who will I take care of?
On this day in 1970 Stephen Sondheim‘s musical Company opened on Broadway.
Arms and the man I sing
Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes up the baton for tonight’s season premiere of Der Fliegende Holländer at the Met, and the cher public will surely all be in place for discussion of The Gun Show.
Strike while the irony is hot
At last the future plans of America’s Most Beloved Semi-Retired People’s Diva have been revealed!
Mitigated Gaul
Kevin Newbury‘s familiar production of Bellini’s Norma with its most frequent leading lady, the American Sondra Radvanovsky.
Bells are ringing
Lakmé, stars Ruth Welting, Alfredo Kraus, and Paul Plishka, conducted by Nicola Rescigno.
