Sweatin’ to the cabalettas
Here’s a playlist of bel canto favorite suitable for motivating even the most couch potatoesque of parterrians to put in a hard session of weight training.
Recent Stories
Mr. B Natural
This week, Our Own Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin shares a modern classic: Wozzeck from the Opéra national de Paris, featuring Simon Keenlyside.
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).
Bomp in the night
The first single by MU, “The Bomp Bomp Song,” is now available for download from CD Baby.
No you can’t
Identically-coiffed artistes Klaus Florian Vogt and Renée Fleming prove conclusively that American musical theater is not an international language.
A tsar is torn
In Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, all the Russian people starve and suffer, but none has suffering like the mental agonies of Tsar Boris.
Heartbreak fridge
Before there was Verdi’s Otello, Rossini’s Otello was considered the master operatic adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
The wrong box
La Cieca hopes any confusion will be cleared up soon enough that you, the cher public, may engage in your weekly round of conversation on general interest and off-topic subjects.
Rumors addressed
Peter Gelb sent out an email to the “Public Bulletin Board” earlier today, noting that “inaccurate rumors [are] flying around” and attempting to clarify the Met’s position on upcoming union negotiations.
Haydn in plain sight
The operas of Franz Josef Haydn are seldom presented in the great opera houses of the world, but then, they weren’t composed for the great opera houses of his own world.
Norn yesterday
The final day of the Buenos Aires Ring dawns in our latest sampling from the Mike Richter’s trove of CD-ROMs.
Dish night
“Superstar soprano Deborah Voigt and powerhouse opera and theater director Francesca Zambello, friends for over 25 years, came to 92Y to talk opera, inspiration, artistry and friendship.”
Ce bruit de l’or
Legendary diva Montserrat Caballé has been charged by Spanish procescutors with tax evasion for failing to declare some 500,000 euros of income for concerts given in Andorra.
Blinded item
His 75-minute setting of Oedipus in Kolonos, heard in a live 2009 performance on MDR Klassik, illustrates how Mendelssohn tried to link ancient forms with Romantic-era sensibilities by fashioning harmonically adventurous chorales and believable characters instead of abstract musical representations of mythical figures.
Porgy on the bay
A new DVD of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess features an enjoyable live performance from the San Francisco Opera from June of 2009.
Miss Mary Garden climbs Mont Blanc
“For two days after,” she wrote, “I felt absolutely exhausted, and my eyes hurt me from the glare of the snow. But now I feel splendid, and my lungs feel twice as strong and in fine shape for Salome.”
“Donors, Mama. They’re called donors, and every opera company has them.”
Peter Gelb talks about the “social rejection” of the Met.
Song of the lark
Our Own Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin presents Natalie Dessay in recital.
Red queen
Joyce DiDonato is taking her Mary Stuart on the road, so to speak.
Stairway to heaven
Once again, beloveds, we approach the Milanese shrine that simultaneously attempted to cultivate and destroy the career of Maria Meneghini Callas.
Faces of mirth
La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Dorothy Bishop, recently interviewed in Opera News, brings her “Dozen Divas” show to NYC’s Metropolitan Room April 30 and May 5.
Just like girlfriends, with hats on
Let’s all let down our hair, cher public, those of us for whom this feat is possible, and discuss general interest and off-topic subjects.
Change partners
Your doyenne is sure all the familiar faces and screen names will be present at 1:00 this afternoon in La Casa della Cieca, as the Met broadcasts Così fan tutte.
Take another little piece of my heart now, baby!
George Benjamin’s 2012 opera Written on Skin received great acclaim at its opening at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and the Royal Opera quickly mounted it in March 2013.