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Oh, Rossini, Rossini! You mad, adorable fool! What power could you find in the theaters of Paris to keep you from Neapolitan arms? If you are fond of Rossini (or any other major composer), you will want to collect the whole set. Each piece of the jigsaw adds detail to the picture, but there are…
David Daniels (left) headlines a special sneak preview of The Enchanted Island on Wednesday, December 7 at The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. Also on hand will be Danielle de Niese, Lisette Oropesa and Luca Pisaroni, plus the pasticcio’s creative team, writer Jeremy Sams and director-designer team Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch. Midge Woolsey hosts.…
Yes, in this interview with Naomi Lewin, the word “fiasco” gets thrown around a lot.
There were rumors all day in the usual places, on the search string: Philip Glass, Lincoln Center, OWS. The opera, though hypnotic, passed quickly, and Glass took a curtain call, got a hero’s welcome. Well, we thought, he can’t be both places at once.
UPDATE: Philip Glass emerged from the Met tonight to read to the General Assembly (via mic check) the final lines from Satyagraha: “When righteousness/ Withers away/ And evil / Rules the Land /We come into being /Age after age/ And take visible shape /And move / A man among men/ For the protection/ Of good…
Here’s a new idea La Cieca hopes will meeting with the approval of you, the cher public: a schedule of chats for the upcoming month, centered around the Met’s Saturday afternoon broadcasts and the “Listen Live” features during the week. Comments and addenda are, as always, welcome.
A press release just received from the Met ends with what feels like a SAT question that didn’t quite make it out of the gate. The background on the company’s impending HD of Faust includes the following tantalizing paragraph: “The traditional setting for Faust is 16th-century Germany, a time when alchemists and philosophers were familiar…
Local 802 and AGMA have rejected New York City Opera’s “final offer,” placing the company at an “impasse,” according to an email from George Steel to members of the company’s board.
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Don’t cry because it’s over
Don’t cry because it’s over
Grand Tier Grab Bag hearkens back to the days when Sondra Radvanovsky — who is singing no Verdi at all next season — seemed like the Verdi soprano of reference.
Grand Tier Grab Bag hearkens back to the days when Sondra Radvanovsky — who is singing no Verdi at all next season — seemed like the Verdi soprano of reference.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Rizzin’ to the occasion
Rizzin’ to the occasion
Parterre Box features the Met’s current Eugene Onegin, Iurii Samoilov, in a performance of Rossini ahead of a return to Pesaro this summer.
Parterre Box features the Met’s current Eugene Onegin, Iurii Samoilov, in a performance of Rossini ahead of a return to Pesaro this summer.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
When they go low
When they go low
Nostalgic for bass month, Parterre Box offers excerpts from two young basses to watch: Giorgi Manoshvili and Patrick Guetti.
Nostalgic for bass month, Parterre Box offers excerpts from two young basses to watch: Giorgi Manoshvili and Patrick Guetti.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Nailin’ the coughin’
Nailin’ the coughin’
Rosa Feola, still scheduled for a run of performances as Violetta in New York this spring, is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Rosa Feola, still scheduled for a run of performances as Violetta in New York this spring, is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Landing the plane
Landing the plane
With Nixon, Klinghoffer, and Andris Nelsons on the mind, Parterre Box offers a recording of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s recent John Adams outing.
With Nixon, Klinghoffer, and Andris Nelsons on the mind, Parterre Box offers a recording of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s recent John Adams outing.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Le galant tireur
Le galant tireur
American tenor Charles Castronovo performs a bit of Weber’s Der Freischütz ahead of the opportunity to hear Berlioz‘s take on the score at Carnegie Hall next week.
American tenor Charles Castronovo performs a bit of Weber’s Der Freischütz ahead of the opportunity to hear Berlioz‘s take on the score at Carnegie Hall next week.
Composer Philip Glass will appear this evening in support of Occupy Museums in Lincoln Center plaza during the Met’s final performance this season of his Satyagraha. The demonstration is described by Occupy Museums as “an open conversation at 10:30 pm about the effects of increased privatization and corporatization of all aspects of society, and the…
Which summer festival, barely an hour north of Manhattan, will offer as its opera performances in the summer of 2012 Rossini’s Ciro in Babilonia (with Ewa Podles, Jessica Pratt and Michael Spyres) and Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi (with Kate Aldrich, Eglise Gutierrez and Leonardo Capalbo)?
“An atomic explosion kicked off the last act of Gounod’s Faust Tuesday at the Met, but the production as a whole was more dud than bomb.” [New York Post]
La Cieca (illustration courtesy of the Wall Street Journal) invites you, the cher public, to enjoy a chat tonight during the prima of Gounod’s Faust from the Met.
At one time, the idea of a performance of La Gioconda conjured up images of over-the-top, competitive, passionate vocalism, and big personalities. As a vehicle for great singers (and especially a great protagonist), it was thrilling.
Nicely readable profile of Jonas Kaufmann in the Wall Street Journal today, but how come it’s illustrated with a drawing of Neil Diamond?
It’s kind of shocking, when you really think about it, that the kind of international operatic model that the Royal Opera now operates on barely existed only 50 years ago. Until around 1960 most of the performances at the Covent Garden were given in English and the casting choices were enough to make the Vicar…
Leave it to those Torontonians to blow the lid off an opera story happening in New York! (Goodness knows the local journalists don’t bother.)
Talk of the Town
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Arrigo
A favorite Verdi performance from Arrigo
My favorite Verdi performance is Claudio Abbado Don Carlo opening of the Scala.
My favorite Verdi performance is Claudio Abbado Don Carlo opening of the Scala.
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Peter Russell
A favorite Verdi performance from Peter Russell
The purely musical performance preserved here is thrilling, ratcheted to a higher intensity than the Deutsche Grammophon studio recording
The purely musical performance preserved here is thrilling, ratcheted to a higher intensity than the Deutsche Grammophon studio recording
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from TC
A favorite Verdi performance from TC
Victoria de los Ángeles has always been my Violetta of choice, a portrayal that never ceases to move me.
Victoria de los Ángeles has always been my Violetta of choice, a portrayal that never ceases to move me.
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Anna Netrebko
A favorite Verdi performance from Anna Netrebko
I feel that the best years of Maria Callas’s vocalità, when we hear such a unique freedom and generosity in her singing, were captured in her early recordings.
I feel that the best years of Maria Callas’s vocalità, when we hear such a unique freedom and generosity in her singing, were captured in her early recordings.
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Armerjacquino
A favorite Verdi performance from Armerjacquino
Before the screams of horror begin, it says ‘favorite’, not best.
Before the screams of horror begin, it says ‘favorite’, not best.
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Remko Jas
A favorite Verdi performance from Remko Jas
Elisabeth Grümmer was, of course, very good at Wagnerian prayers, but she also shines in this Verdi prayer.
Elisabeth Grümmer was, of course, very good at Wagnerian prayers, but she also shines in this Verdi prayer.
La Cieca’s looking for a few good commenters to join the exalted ranks of parterre reviewers of new CD and DVD releases. Care to apply? Read on after the jump.
Soprano Mirella Freni is under investigation by the Bologna District Attorney’s office of Bologna for money laundering and exportation of money abroad in connection with the BER bank. The artist from Modena, 76, will be heard by the magistrates in the next few days to clarify her position, now that the DA Antonella Scandellari has…
La Cieca insists you, the cher public, observe the “no whispering” rule during the performance, but, come intermission time, you are encouraged to chatter on and on about anything and nothing this week of November 27.
Indeed those were Cretan windmills seen in the most recent Regie quiz, and once that fact was established, manou and MontyNostry quickly closed the case: the opera is indeed Idomeneo, as performed at the Tiroler Landestheater in a production by Peer Boysen. You’ll find more to puzzle over after the jump.
Our Own Betsy (seen at left in an “unretouched” photo) declares, “Good evening, horror-lovers, and welcome to Tales from the Box. This is your Olde Box-Keeper with a gruesome fewsome to feed your screamin’ Mimìs. Tonight we pay tribute to the upcoming prima at the Met of Fausit, in which an old man pays for…
All La Cieca can say is that so very many of you here shine in diamond splendor, and she only hopes she can stream even a single ray of light into the night of your heart. The results of the “Ian Bostridge” competition are after the jump.
La Cieca is sure that you, the cher public, will have the mostess’ of fun this week with the vast selection of operatic activities available in New York, which is why she’s offering you a few brief recommendations after the jump.
Is Peter Gelb wearing too many hats? Anthony Tommasini seems to think so, adding that one of those headpieces in particular is ill-fitting and might perhaps more flatteringly perch upon some other head. Call La Cieca suspicious, but she thinks the timing of this piece is hardly an accident.
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