Neuzheli nikto o detiakh ne zabotitsja?!
Russian children’s ombudsman Pavel Astakhov called upon the newly appointed culture minister to check a Russian-British opera production for sex and drug scenes.
Recent Stories
Tony award
For decades New York City Opera was a model of an organization with a clear mission.
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).
Regie like a fox
ell, La Cieca thought for a while there that last week’s Regie quiz had stumped the entire panel, but then along came floridante2k with the right answer.
Pillow talk
Francesco Cavalli’s 1649 opera Il Giasone (Jason) was virtually a model of the many conventions that had come to be expected in Venetian public opera in the seventeenth century.
Max impact
Here’s an offbeat midweek attraction: a webcast of Vivaldi’s Farnace from Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg, featuring Max Emanuel Cencic, Vivica Genaux and Ruxandra Donose in a production by Lucinda Childs, conducted by George Petrou.
And the Pubie goes to…
La Cieca, having worked her fingers to the bone counting votes, now is ready to reveal to you, the cher public, the winners of the Third Annual Parterre Box Awards.
Grand, hotel
Sneaking in under the wire during the final week of May were two highpoints of New York’s opera season: the Cleveland Orchestra’s Salome with a stunning Nina Stemme and operamission’s revelatory US stage premiere of a complete edition of Handel’s first opera Almira.
Unexpected ghost
Frustrated, perhaps, by the bulky requirements and dubious future of grand opera—and grand opera commissions—Benjamin Britten created some of his most intriguing and, nowadays, popular pieces for small casts and chamber orchestra.
Encouraging young things to grow
La Cieca has reviewed the parterre circulation numbers and she is delighted and not a little perplexed to note that the day of the Great Opera News Kerfuffle provided our site with the highest number of pageviews in history.
A dandy intermission feature
Once the poor “fell0” has recovered, perhaps he will join in this week’s discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
Space cadet
Yes, that’s the lovely and talented Cecilia Bartoli peeking out from under those bangs, offering us a glimpse of her first staged Cleopatra.
Home on the range
Our Own Betsy Ann Bobolink (not pictured) writes: “Well, let’s see. They’ve used sinks, bathtubs, commodes. Except for bathroom scales, that takes care of the primary fixtures in la salle de bain. Boudoirs have been done to death. Clocks, chairs, chandeliers are all hopelessly passe. The only room left for an aspiring director to seek inspiration […]
Down in the Regie on the ninetieth floor
Our most recent Regie quiz provided a rare occasion on which La Cieca can perform her own victory cantata the celebrate the defeat of the nimble minds of the cher public.
Expect opera, pay less
You may remember, gentle readers, that last year about this time Peter Gelb decided to enter into an unholy alliance with Target to benefit their mountainous number of opera loving customers by pre-releasing two Met performances exclusively in their fine emporiums.
The Third Annual Pubie Awards
Tanned, rested and ready to present, La Cieca invites you, the cher public, to vote on the best, worst and most egregious opera performances of the 2012-2013 season.
Turban planning
Press release: “Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Renée Fleming Wears Her Creative Consultant Hat in Chicago and On the Road”
Aftermath
“Aus den Trümmern der zusammengestürzten Halle sehen die Männer und Frauen in höchster Ergriffenheit dem wachsenden Feuerschein am Himmel zu.”
The Way We Were
“Opera News, 76 years old and one of the leading classical music magazines in the country, said on Monday that it would stop reviewing the Metropolitan Opera, a policy prompted by the Met’s dissatisfaction over negative critiques.”
The end of glasnost?
When Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the mantle of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, a palpable change was felt in the air, from Novosibirsk to East Berlin. Words like glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) began to replace the gradually outmoded Leninist philosophies that had become warped under Stalin and Andropov.
Il le faut, il le faut
Due to health reasons, Natalie Dessay has withdrawn from the performances of Massenet’s Manon.
Senta’s bicep
Two-time Tony-winning director Julie Taymor is working on developing… a modern [film] update of Richard Wagner’s opera The Flying Dutchman, called Riders of the Storm.
O sink hernieder, Nacht der Pause
La Cieca’s still thinking about yesterday’s stellar performance by Anna Netrebko in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, but she’s willing to listen to discussion about off-topic and general interest subjects as well.
Photo finish
La Cieca’s choice of chat topic today is of course I Capuleti e i Montecchi, as webcast from the Bavarian State Opera at 1:00 PM EDT. Our own Betsy Ann Bobolink, however, naturally has her own ideas, as she will expound after the jump.