Notes from the underground
Director R.B. Schlather and his team explored Handel’s Orlando and the results, as seen at Monday night’s final presentation, proved uncommonly stimulating.
Recent Stories
Bühne nights
Your doyenne and her faithful confidante Dawn Fatale are off later this week for a safari, seeking the wild Regie in its natural habitat.
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).
The girl in pink tights
Happy 90th birthday to French ballerina and actress Zizi Jeanmaire.
Losing their shirts
If you’ve been putting off seeing Renée Fleming in Living on Love, you’d better get a move on. The show posted its closing notice today and the final performance will be Sunday May 3.
A kid again
On this day in 1965 Barbra Streisand starred in the My Name is Barbra special on CBS.
Lede buried
They were there, opera insiders said, because Chelsea Clinton is a friend of the tenor Vittorio Grigolo, who was playing the Chevalier, Manon’s true love.”
Consolation
While everyone is still buzzing about this year’s Salzburg Easter Festival, I was visited by the Ghost of Easter Past.
It’s hard to be a diva
On this day in 1989 the musical Starmites opened at the Criterion Theater in New York for 60 performances.
The winner’s tale
In a decision La Cieca doesn’t think anybody is going to dispute, the Richard Tucker Foundation has named mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton their 2015 award winner.
She who gets slapped
All those who have been in a rage since the news broke this week that the Metropolitan Opera has invited Calixto Bieito to stage Verdi’s La Forza del Destino can relax and embrace the Juilliard Opera’s new Le Nozze di Figaro which opened Friday night.
“New York, this is your last chance!”
Coming this fall on a basic cable channel near you, Ultimate Diva Jessye Norman tries her hand at situation comedy, playing a 30-something bachelor girl who returns to Manhattan in search of adventure and romance.
Poor little rich girl
The best things in life are free, cher public, including discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
Garden party
Many large opera companies these days host valuable young artist programs dedicated to helping singers negotiate the difficult transition between leaving the conservatory and becoming full-time performing artists.
Anatomy is destiny
On this day in 1886 Sigmund Freud opened his practice at Rathausstrasse 7, Vienna.
Present danger
On this day in 1184 BC (according to tradition) the Greeks entered Troy using the Trojan Horse.
And it was grand just to stand
On this day in 1961, Judy Garland sang a legendary concert at Carnegie Hall that has been called “the greatest night in show business history.”
Grail mix
Contemporary stagings of Parsifal tend to be spare, abstract affairs scrubbed of religious associations, knights in armor and, sometimes, a grail.
“And I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to?”
“This is wrong, wrong, wrong and a betrayal of the spirit of ENO’s Founding Fathers.”
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
Happy 80th birthday mezzo-soprano Fiorenza Cossotto!
Lupa always liked you best
On this day in 753 BC, according to tradition, Romulus and Remus founded Rome.
Halfy birthday
Friend of the box Andrew Whitfield (not pictured) is celebrating his birthday by slashing prices in half on everything in the Opera Depot catalog for the rest of the week.
He writes the songs
Klaus Florian Vogt is a singer oft discussed at parterre pox, but few have had the opportunity to hear him, especially those in the USA.