Your conduit to the spirit world, La Cieca, isn’t feeling quite as clairvoyante as usual today, cher public, so she’s going to ask your help in predicting what will happen in the course of the Met’s current labor negotiations.
“The labor strife at the Metropolitan Opera took on a new urgency Wednesday, when the company’s general manager, Peter Gelb, sent its orchestra, chorus, stagehands and other workers letters warning them to prepare for a lockout if no contract deal is reached by next week.”
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).
“Renee Fleming appears to be having as much fun as the audience with her send-up of a fragile opera diva.” [Troy Record]
Bel Canto at Caramoor is something that I’ve always wanted to attend but never have because … well because frankly I’m just too lazy during the summers, and I’m also a big baby about outdoor performances.
Two operas both alike in dignity, set in dimly lit Renaissance towns ruled by seething, conspiratorial courts.
Our Own Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin gets all giddy and girlish as she salutes the opening of the 103rd Bayreuth Festival this week.
No need to crowd, cher public: there’s plenty of room for everyone to discuss off-topic and general interest subjects.
Hey, folks! I wanted to put together a compilation of arias from a unique part of opera history, French grand opera. Today, from that genre, we’re going to hear great tenor arias.
“Peter Gelb says opera in the United States is having trouble finding an audience.”
Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of that superb American soprano Eleanor Steber.
One of the late Mike Richter‘s most endearing traits was his fascination with rare or downright offbeat recordings, such as this complete 1963 performance of Verdi’s Don Carlos in Russian by artists of the Bolshoi.
“The description I read of this Boris, which I have not seen…”
“Who will dare dance with me the ancient Dagger-Dance of the Californians?”
Starting in less than half an hour, “Le Concert de Paris.”
Our Own Jungfer Marianne Leizmetzerin delves into the seedy personal lives of royalty (especially queens) with this performance of Semiramide from San Francisco.
The prolific American conductor and composer died earlier today in Virginia.
Opera-lovers who attend too much modern opera may find that it feels like duty.
Zofia Posmysz spent two years as a prisoner in Auschwitz—and she’s still alive and standing pretty tall, in New York for the Lincoln Center Festival God bless her.
Never let it be said that La Cieca does not pamper her cher public. After the jump, and exclusively on the web, listen to the role debut of Anna Netrebko in Verdi’s Macbeth.
In celebration of the 90th anniversary of the birth of Carlo Bergonzi, our friends at Opera Depot are offering discounts on their entire catalog of the legendary tenor’s performances.
There’s hands-on and then there’s hands-on, and the latter was definitely in play in the lobby of the Kaye Playhouse just before Thursday night’s performance of La traviata by the Martina Arroyo Foundation’s Prelude to Performance program.
If Facebook is to be believed, Anna Netrebko and “Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov (age 37)” are engaged.
Mike Richter, via CD-ROM, takes us back to the golden age of concert opera in New York City with Il pirata starring Montserrat Caballé.
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