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This week’s canard is contributed in by the artistic director of Gotham Chamber Opera, Neal Goren.
Where else would you be this evening at 7:25, cher public, but in La Casa della Cieca whilst Die Frau Ohne Schatten emanates from the Met?
Again dipping into the rich archive of live recordings remastered and made available by the late Mike Richter, we find this selection from his early disc “Odd Opera 2.”
La Cieca is happy to announce a meet-and-greet gathering for New York City area parterre readers on November 24 starting at 2:30 pm at Symphony Space. The focal event of the afternoon will be a screening of Les Vêpres Siciliennes from the Royal Opera House at 3:00 pm, with socializing (pictured, above) to occur during…
The abrupt withdrawal of Katharina Wagner from an abridged seven-hour Ring cycle she was to direct at the Teatro Colon last year prompted no shortage of scorn and Schadenfreude.
“The uncharitable suggestion is made that the Australian diva has taken umbrage at Oscar Hammerstein’s enthusiasm over Mary Garden…”
Which much-disliked diva at the Met will be replaced for the 2017 New Year’s Eve gala, repaid thus after only eight seasons on the roster?
Before you depart the Met at the end of this season, Ms. Billinghurst, you have the chance to do some good for both the Met audience and James Levine.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Poetic license
Parterre Box shines a light on Liparit Avetisyan, who made his Met debut as Alfredo earlier this spring.
Parterre Box shines a light on Liparit Avetisyan, who made his Met debut as Alfredo earlier this spring.
Frau Miina-Liisa will es werde Nacht
Parterre Box features soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä, making her title role debut in Die Walküre in Munich next week, in a performance of Tristan und Isolde from 2021.
Parterre Box features soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä, making her title role debut in Die Walküre in Munich next week, in a performance of Tristan und Isolde from 2021.
Lux aeterna luceat eis
Grand Tier Grab Bag this week honors the late Limmie Pulliam with a bit of his Verdi Requiem.
Grand Tier Grab Bag this week honors the late Limmie Pulliam with a bit of his Verdi Requiem.
Kathryn the great
Parterre Box previews Kathryn Lewek‘s upcoming Salome with clips of her as another unhinged lady of antiquity.
Parterre Box previews Kathryn Lewek‘s upcoming Salome with clips of her as another unhinged lady of antiquity.
Count your blessings
Fast-rising Verdi baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbataar is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Fast-rising Verdi baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbataar is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
One man’s Junker
Handel’s Deidamia — and one of its current champions, soprano Sophie Junker — are the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Handel’s Deidamia — and one of its current champions, soprano Sophie Junker — are the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
La Cieca asks all members of the cher public in the New York City area to pencil in 3:00 pm on Sunday, November 24 as combination meet-and-greet of the parterriani and viewing of the HD film of Les Vêpres siciliennes at Symphony Space.
La Cieca expects a capacity audience for this week’s discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
What better way for the world’s leading opera diva to celebrate Halloween than to dress up as “Slutty Zombie Circa 1972 Elizabeth Taylor?”
La Cieca has just been informed that Deborah Voigt‘s engagement as Leonore in Fidelio at Liège has quietly disappeared from her website.
“An ‘opera production’ is defined as a collection of sets and costumes plus a list of instructions of movements from one part of the stage to another.”
What better way to welcome Halloween than with that scariest of all operas, Salome, in a performance culled from one of Mike Richter‘s magnificent CD-ROMs?
“Two Boys demonstrates that Mr. Muhly is capable of very great things indeed, offering extended glimpses of the kind of masterpiece he just missed writing here, and, more happily, of the kind of masterpiece I feel confident he will write in the future.”
“A wonderful collection of them in Mary Garden, mushroom and Cossack turban styles; they are trimmed with quills, wings, French flowers and soft messaline ribbon.”
Talk of the Town
Giannina Arangi-Lombardi never made it to the Met
Giannina Arangi-Lombardi never sang at the Met.
Giannina Arangi-Lombardi never sang at the Met.
Andrée Esposito and Alain Vanzo should have made it to the Met
This Mireille duet unites Andrée Esposito and Alain Vanzo and shows the timbral and stylistic qualities that made them exemplary.
This Mireille duet unites Andrée Esposito and Alain Vanzo and shows the timbral and stylistic qualities that made them exemplary.
Ebe Stignani and Anita Cerquetti should have made it to the Met
Subtlety is for cowards, say the blazing Anita Cerquetti and the blaring Ebe Stignani.
Subtlety is for cowards, say the blazing Anita Cerquetti and the blaring Ebe Stignani.
Sena Jurinac should have made it to the Met
Sena Jurinac, a celebrated Mozart and Strauss singer here as the Composer, a signature role.
Sena Jurinac, a celebrated Mozart and Strauss singer here as the Composer, a signature role.
Janet Baker should have made it to the Met
The divine Dame Janet Baker never sang at the Metropolitan, sadly for American audiences.
The divine Dame Janet Baker never sang at the Metropolitan, sadly for American audiences.
Dorothy Maynor should have made it to the Met
We had to wait for Marian Anderson to break the color barrier at the Met and many great Black opera singers never had a chance there.
We had to wait for Marian Anderson to break the color barrier at the Met and many great Black opera singers never had a chance there.
That 60 Minutes piece everyone’s been talking about, with Peter Gelb describing opera as “blood sport,” after the jump.
I can think of no other case that resembles Handel’s complex relationship to the story—derived from Ovid’s Metamorphoses—of the ill-fated love between the shepherd Acis and the sea nymph Galatea.
Sleep soundly tonight, Kasper Holten: your Vêpres Siciliennes casting problem has just been solved!
Now that many of us are leaping to the altar unfettered by those pesky legalities of yore the problem of what to put on the bridal (or groomal) registry has become an atrocious head scratcher. So many of us have had housekeeping set up for so long now that we really don’t want for anything.…
La Cieca hears that soprano Alex Penda is en route to London on a rescue mission, for which her friends (young or otherwise) are doubtless giving thanks.
Just think of it, cher public, a whole extra hour in which to discuss off-topic and general interest subjects!
Baden-Baden 1927 is the title Gotham Chamber Opera has given to its evening of four brief operas that premiered together at a festival in, yes, Baden-Baden on July 17, 1927.
With visuals like this, how can anyone say opera is only about singing?
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