Bea in the bonnet
Everyone who revives Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, as the Collegiate Chorale did at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night, calls the piece an “overlooked masterpiece.”
Recent Stories
Going, going, gone!
“New York City Opera, seeking to shed decades’ worth of old sets, costumes and props, has decided to auction off most of the material next month, the company’s general manager and artistic director, George Steel, said on Wednesday.”
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).
Yellow journalism
Our Own JJ‘s nominee for 2012 Newsmaker of the Year: the Met’s Peter Gelb.
The Beatrice generation
Beatrice di Tenda was a problem child, Vincenzo Bellini an alternately protective and disparaging parent.
Captivating in Babylon
Verdi’s first operatic masterpiece is well served by this DVD
of a performance from the Teatro Regio di Parma.
Racette baiting
Protean diva Patricia Racette will perform an ethnic hat-trick in 2013-2014 at San Francisco Opera.
In the details
The saga of the Royal Opera’s production of Robert le Diable, infinitely more melodramatic than the plot of the opera proper, continues.
Ring cycle
Anthony Tommasini and his long-time partner Ben McCommon were married on Friday.
By La Cieca
The anniverary
It’s that date that rolls around once a year, cher public, the date we celebrate the 1993 founding of parterre box and the 1923 birth of Maria Callas.
Fill up the stocking
La Cieca has once again hauled out the holly, filled up the stocking, sliced up the fruitcake and hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough.
First steps
There’s something charming and almost irresistible about early Verdi opera. I always equate it to seeing a grade school test from Albert Einstein.
The woman in white
This new DVD
release from EMI of the Royal Opera’s latest production of Puccini’s Tosca will no doubt be snatched up by hordes of grateful fans around the globe.
Crave the date
It only just occurred to La Cieca that the opening night of New York City Opera’s 2013 season—the premiere of their new production of Powder Her Face—is February 15, a date that sounds oddly familiar somehow.
Limited visibility
La Cieca invites her cher public to open their eyes and ears for this week’s discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
Update on great operatic scandals of the 20th century
Noted junk sculptor Dr. Jonathan Miller is now the subject of a biography and it appears he’s mellowed in his old age.
T’would be a sacrilege to fling at another door
People named Jimmy or Placido don’t seem to know this, but when your brains or your bones send you the message, “Hang up the toe-shoes, Bobolink,” do it!
Somewhere there’s a blu-ray of happiness
The 2012 Bayreuth production of Parsifal directed by Stefan Herheim will be released on Blu-ray and DVD by Opus Arte in April 2013.
Notte e giorno criticar
Imagine if someone left Vermeer’s masterpiece “Girl With a Pearl Earring” out in the rain.
May I have the envelope please?
Our Own JJ (not pictured) is delighted and humbled—well, delighted anyway…
Even smiling makes my face ache
You might even call it “fun.”
It was a blind item
Though his life is blessed with joy and full of hope, which artist could spare only 20 minutes to sign autographs before shouting “I’m done” and stomping away from a queue of disappointed fans?