Studio canal
Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin returns with a late 20th century masterpiece, Britten’s Death in Venice.
Recent Stories
The page of innocence
Parterrians are advised to gather together their parures, aigrettes and lorngettes and saunter back to their loges, because it’s time for discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
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).
New faces
By special requestion of one of your doyenne’s favorite parterriennes, La Casa della Cieca was open tonight for the finals of the 2014 Operalia competition, webcast live from Los Angeles.
Shopping season
After a long summer drought, suddenly new Blu-ray and DVD releases are falling, as it were, from the sky.
The incomplete idiot
Intendant Alexander Pereira halts the merry-go-round briefly to discuss Salzburg and La Scala with Zachary Woolfe of the New York Times.
Lost in space
It’s rare to encounter a video of an opera that has zero redeeming qualities, but I think I might have found it: the latest Arena di Verona La Traviata.
The virgin Einspring
Jamie Barton will make her San Francisco Opera debut as Adalgisa in Norma for five of the opera’s seven performances on September 5, 10, 14, 27 and 30. Ms. Barton replaces Daveda Karanas, who has withdrawn from the production for personal reasons.
Ships in the night
As dear Rosalind Russell once said, “Politics makes strange bedclothes.”
Past perfect
With much laying-on of fanfares and gift boxes our friends at Decca Classics have unleashed Luciano Pavarotti Edition 1: The First Decade on a weary and satiated public.
Coeurs amoureux
La Cieca hears that the Met’s opening night of the 2018-2019 season will be a new production of Samson et Dalila featuring Bryan Hymel and Elina Garanca.
Brooklyn Queen Express
Our own Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin delves back into those days when there was another opera company in New York, and (what’s more) the opera done there was worth hearing.
The opera glasses are half full
Now that we have the good news (or anyway the goodish news) that the Met’s season will continue apace, let’s unbend a bit, cher public, and discuss off-topic and general interest subjects.
Once upon a Thames
“Likewise Susan Bullock and Nicholas Phan—leading exponents of Wagner and Britten respectively…”
Great shakes
The little opera companies of New York are like chanterelles.
Rule number 11
Cher public, you may remember that about 18 years ago a parterre writer called Dr. Repertoire came up with a handy list of rules for stage directors.
Luke swarm
La Cieca (pictured) fears that the parterre hive mind proved itself populated with more drones than workers this time around.
Separated at smirk
“Acciaio Azzurro, Ferrari, La Tigre: sono tutti la stessa faccia!”
Crunching the numbers
Now that it appears the Met’s labor crisis has been averted by successful completion of contract negotiations, La Cieca thought the cher public might be interested in seeing the exact terms of at least one of the pacts.
Practical magic
Notable purveyor of mayhem and infanticide Medea has lately been missing from the local operatic scene, but Sunday afternoon sections of the recently renovated Alice Tully Hall were singed by Canadian soprano Dominique Labelle’s blazing incarnation of the Greek sorceress.
Belt, tightened
AGMA and Local 802 “have agreed to cut a little more than 7% of their members’ compensation during the first year of the four-year contract, growing to 7% in the second and third years.”
Overtime
UPDATE: The Met has reached tentative agreements with AGMA and Local 802. The contract deadline has been extended through midnight on Tuesday, August 19, to allow Local One and the other remaining unions with unsettled contracts more time to secure new deals with the institution.
The songs of La Bohème will live forever
Our Own Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin demonstrates the enduring quality of art with two performances of La Bohème four decades apart.
The sound of silence
This past week of contract negotiations at the Metropolitan Opera has been notable for the absence of any new PowerPoint presentations or fustian proclamations.