MIra, o Norma
Born in this day in 1899 American screenwriter and producer Irving Thalberg.
Recent Stories
In like Flynn
On this day in 1453 Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, fell to Muhammad II, ending the Byzantine Empire.
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).
Haunted mountain
Beginning with the dark, ominous music of the prelude of Charles Wuorinen and Annie Proulx’s opera Brokeback Mountain, we know we are in for a very different and far less sentimental version of the work than was had with Ang Lee’s iconic 2005 film.
Other places only make me love you best
On this day in 1937 the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, was officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Hell is other turbans
On this day in 1944, Jean-Paul Sartre‘s Huis Clos opened (heh) in Paris.
“Now where did I put that tiara?”
Setting, or surely approaching, some sort of record for sheer breadth of career (70 years!), Lucine Amara returns to the New York stage this summer as the Duchess of Krakenthorp in La Fille du Régiment.
Head of state
To celebrate the 86th anniversary of her birth (25 May 1929), I bring to a close Beverly Sills’ traversal of the Donizetti “Tudor Queens” with this live Anna Bolena from 1973.
Many cats are the death of the mouse
On this day in 1828, the mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser was discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg.
While I was sleeping
If La Cieca’s life were a romantic comedy, then your doyenne would surely be 1990s era Sandra Bullock, you know, the heroine, right?
A bridge too Farrar
On this day in 1430 Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.
Up to speed
“New York is great. Opera is great. They deserve each other. So what can we do to get them together? Who can show us how it’s done? We need to ask the Germans.”
A committee should be organized
On this day in 2015 it was announced that Cecilia Bartoli would sing the role of Maria in West Side Story at the 2016 Salzburg Pfingstfestspiele, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, no less!
My day at the polls has come to an end, I know
The results are in for the 2015 Pubie Awards, cher public, and may La Cieca just say that you could knocked her over with featheras some of the results!
How’s your head?
Now here’s a competition for a parterrian: the Bayerische Staatsoper is looking for a drag performer to lip sync the final scene from Salome!
Here she is, boys!
On this day in 1959 Gypsy opened at the Broadway Theater, to run 702 performances.
Heralded tribune
On this day in 1347, Cola di Rienzo, a Roman commoner, declared himself Emperor of Rome in response to years of baronial power-struggles.
Cooting edge
Fans of the “context-free laundry list” school of opera criticism will be happy to know that “the world’s preeminent philosopher in the field of aesthetics,” Roger Scruton, has now shouldered the white man’s burden of rescuing opera from interpretation.
You mean all this time we could have been friends?
On this day in 1568 Queen Elizabeth I of England arrested Queen Mary of Scotland.
Simon, pure
Celebrating Simon Keenlyside, the most popular artist on your alte Jungfer’s Mixcloud Web site.
Now you see her…
On this day in 1926, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished while visiting a beach in Venice, CA. She reappeared a month later with the claim that she had been kidnapped.
On this day nothing almost happened
On this day in 2015, parterre.com was offline for almost five hours due to a server error.
Words and music
As is happening increasingly in opera productions today (e.g., the Rosenkavalier in Stuttgart), the action of Moses und Aron at the Komische Oper begins some minutes before the music does.
Much Fruit of Sense
On this day in 1711 Alexander Pope‘s “An Essay on Criticism” was published anonymously.