My life as a doge
Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin has a rare treat up her engageantes this week, a live performance of Verdi’s I due Foscari featuring baritone-era Plácido Domingo.
Recent Stories
Evil twin
“Rely on the flamboyant German soprano Simone Kermes to steal scenes as La Jolie.”
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).
Graven image
Please don’t stand on ceremony, cher public: jump right into the discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
Talking in her sleep
La Casa della Cieca is open this afternoon for a cozy chat during the Met broadcast of La sonnambula starting at 1:00 PM.
Spunk
In issue #46 of parterre box the queer opera zine (“Spunk”), you will find an endorsement by the legendary Astrid Varnay.
Spring breakers
Alan Gordon has mass emailed AGAM again, and La Cieca’s got a copy of the missive.
Bridge over troubled writer
Ineffable Igor Toronyi-Lalic (pictured, right) either spouts a novel canard or perhaps just froths incoherently. La Cieca will let you be the judge.
“Forever,” darling
Divalicious Diana Damrau sings cuts from her new disc Forever tonight at Le Poisson Rouge, and, you, cher public, can see it livestreamed right here starting at 7:30 PM.
Le roi danse
“This summer, [Susan] Graham will cap her season in Paris by making her role debut as Anna in The King and I at the Théâtre du Châtelet (June 13-29).”
Spring will be a little late this year
La bohème is such a popular romantic opera that hardly anyone ever notices that Mimì and Rodolfo undergo what in modern terms would be called speed dating.
Ladies in their sensitivities
As someone who thinks Verdi is the greatest composer who ever lived and who feels pretty meh about Mozart, I expected to love the Verdi and be bored by the Mozart. I wasn’t far wrong.
The Met: Can it be saved?
Short answer: yes. But let’s begin by dismissing the a blatant canard. One thing that the Metropolitan Opera does not need to do is to scale back the number of performances in a season.
Flame on
From the Mike Richter collection, Act Three of Die Walküre at the Teatro Colón, featuring Hans Hotter and Birgit Nilsson (not pictured.)
And then I clicked, “Close tab, for the love of God”
“Rufus Wainwright: Why I love composer Olivier Messiaen“
Where the boys are
When Norman Lebrecht is declaring on an almost daily basis that classical music is dead, it’s perhaps heartening that four of today’s prominent tenors have recently released what might be called fluff/vanity albums.
Pickled
La Cieca hears that Indianapolis Opera plans to cancel the fourth and final show of its season, Britten’s Albert Herring, “amid ongoing financial issues.”
They’ve gone about as far as they can go
“Last year, Freud sold 80 percent of available seats during the 2012-13 Lyric Opera season.”
Mary Garden better
“Mary Garden, it was announced last night, ate a Christmas dinner consisting of ‘sweetbreads, petits pois, and Maraschino punch’.”
Mob cap rule
La Cieca (pictured) invites the cher public to join in the fun tonight at La Casa della Cieca during the Met’s broadcast of Andrea Chenier, starting at 7:25 PM.
Name that Neptune
Masterful mezzo Joyce DiDonato heads the cast of this 2010 performance of Mozart’s Idomeno from the Edinburgh International Festival
“Opera and Ballet International to present Verdi’s Nabucco at The Anvil”
“This powerful tale is laced with revenge, destruction and jealousy and the spectacular traditionally staged production features magnificent sets and costumes with amazing lighting and stage effects.” [Basingstoke Gazette]
Extra loge
No matter where you’re seated, cher public, you are encouraged to join in the general interest and off-topic conversation for the week.
A Life in the Theater
Devotees of Dawn Fatale (and you are legion!) will be delighted to hear that the parterre scribe made an early (2001!) appearance in issue #45 of parterre box, the queer opera zine, ranting about the “squish-squish school of opera direction.”