The blood of a poet
Death and its terrible aftermath hang like a pestilent fog over director Stefan Herheim’s fascinating and chilling production of Puccini’s La Bohème for Den Norske Opera.
Recent Stories
Rare opera well done
“When the cross-dressing dude is the gifted singer Jeffery Roberson, and the opera is Menotti’s spellbinding The Medium, the result is prime musical melodrama.”
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).
The little people
As an opera, La Traviata is defined by its characters.
A dude? Am I a dude? Madame Flora, a dude?
It’s just not true that Gian Carlo Menotti composed The Medium as an opera only because he couldn’t get Joan Crawford to do it when his libretto was originally a screenplay.
Can this “Marriage” be saved?
The performance at the Metropolitan Opera last night proved that yes, it is possible to kill this opera. I don’t know how they managed it, but they did.
Parma violence
This DVD of Ernani is part of a series from the Teatro di Parma, a “Tutto Verdi” collection recently produced by Unitel Classica.
One thousand four
My mother asked me once, whilst staring aghast at my CD collection, why I needed so many copies of Don Giovanni.
Scent of mystery
Which Met prima donna whacked the leading man over the head with her score after he had the… what’s the word?… audacity to wear cologne to a rehearsal of their one scene together?
Mission statement
Can it be nearly a quarter-century ago that an Italian mezzo-soprano in her early twenties recorded her first recital?
Reflections in a golden regie
Our Own Ercole Farnese demonstrated that his brain is as well-developed as his trapezoids by guessing, quickly and accurately, that last week’s Regie Quiz depicted Rienzi.
Isle, be seeing you
“Like the Shakespeare play it’s based on, Thomas Adès’ opera The Tempest is set on an enchanted island.”
The odd Pasquale
At the age of thirty, Donizetti was already the experienced composer of about eighteen operas, both serious and farcical, but as Olivo e Pasquale (currently undergoing its American premiere run at Amore Opera) makes clear, the comic works were no slight matter.
To tell the truth
Four of La Cieca’s favorite people, Diana Soviero, Ira Siff, Robert Lombardo and Ken Benson, assemble on November 9 at the impressively named “Metropolitan Opera Guild Learning Center”…
Our retrospection will now be all to the future
La Cieca predicts you won’t be seeing any puritans at the Met next season, except of course for the ones who slouch around during intermission hissing, “You call that a trill?”
No, No, Lorgnette
La Cieca invites her cher public to discuss—in a dignified manner, if you please—the week’s off-topic and general interest subjects.
O Caftan! My Caftan!
Unconcealed by the voluminous folds of this Jessyesqe muumuu is queen-sized talent Jeffery Roberson (also known as Varla Jean Merman.)
Strange fruit
An odd week. Of the 26 operas available, just half are regular rep
Def Man Glance
Since 2010 I’ve been reading nothing but horror being heaped upon the Met’s new Ring. It’s been like a cross between a cruise ship size buffet spread of internet snarking and a slasher film re-cast with music critics.
Are you available for dancing in the streets and shouting from the housetops?
La Cieca is looking for a few good part-time reviewers.
Le grand regie
A name new to La Cieca, but surely soon to become familiar indeed, Phantom Violist, cracked the regie code last week.
George sent me
La Cieca is sure it’s nothing, nothing at all, but she does think it’s curious that (per a tipster) George Steel has quietly called a staff meeting for NYCO tomorrow…
Crack of doom
It took about 30 minutes for me to grow restless watching the world premiere video of Gyorgi Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre from Gran Teatre del Liceu.