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Since our usual (and always welcome) catalog of webcast radio opera is temporarily interrupted this week (get well soon, Betsy!), La Cieca offers as an alternative a video presentation that will become available at 2:00 PM EST (20:00 CET): Enescu’s Oedipe, from La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels.
Which diva, who is known for being always free to speak her mind, insists that the “illness” blamed for her absence from a recent performance was nothing more than a convenient fiction? She continues to harbor a suspicion that those in charge simply didn’t want her to perform.
NYCO’s George Steel has “…a vision of gradually increasing productions, arriving at 10, with 40 performances…. the company would reach the 10-production benchmark by 2025…. Only about 10 percent of revenue this season is predicted to come from the box office, with the rest mainly provided by donors. The ratio does not change much over the…
The month of operatic novelties continues as La Cieca indicates points of interest during the week beginning November 12.
Bloomberg’s Zinta Lundborg, best known for sharing a single eye and a single tooth with Manuela Hoelterhoff, overlooked the opera on Wednesday night and instead reviewed the PR for Dark Sisters. When a man writes like this, we call it “bitchy,” so when a woman does it, can’t we call her “dickish?”
“Five women singing together: That’s an opera fan’s idea of heaven. And though Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters doesn’t quite reach celestial heights, Wednesday’s premiere offered the promise of an exciting new composer’s voice.” [New York Post] (Photo: Richard Termine)
Last night, Jeopardy‘s Alex Trebek invaded the Met’s costume shop.
Separated at the 14th Street wig store: drag queen Lady Bunny and Disney princess Diana Damrau.
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.
Now, it seems, OONY is returning to its star-driven roots.
The very brunette leading ladies of Adriana Lecouvreur, Anita Rachvelishvili and Angela Gheorghiu, flank the practically strawberry blond by comparison Jonas Kaufmann during bows last night after Opera Orchestra of New York’s season opener.
La Cieca invites those members of the cher public (pictured) who will not be in attendance at Carnegie Hall tonight for Adriana Lecouvreur to hear and to discuss Satyagraha as it is webcast on Listen Live starting at 7:30 from the Met. You will also find much of interest in the company’s Satyagraha minisite, including…
La Cieca (not pictured) was just leaked the information that the next planned revival of the Met’s Ring production (after next season) will be in the spring of 2017, i.e., about five years from now. That’s handy, because five years is the approximate lead time of casting big projects like these; the current crop of…
In preparation for tonight’s Angela Gheorghiu/Jonas Kaufmann Sternstunde at Carnegie Hall, La Cieca invites the cher public to share your favorite memories and YouTube clips of Adriana Lecouvreur performances present and past. (Photo: Alastair Muir)
La Cieca is delighted to congratulate Dame Gwyneth Jones, born November 7, 1936, on her diam0nd birthday anniversary. At 75, Dame Gwyneth is still active, both as the President of the Wagner Society of Great Britain and as a performer, scheduled to return to the Vienna State Opera in the spring of 2012 as Herodias…
Among a number of very amusing guesses (bravi tutti!) at last week’s Regie quiz, our Camille actually was not too far off. No, it wasn’t Menotti, but it was a children’s opera, a new work called Mikropolis (“Die abenteuerliche Insektenoper von Christian Jost“) as performed at the Komische Oper Berlin. A more standard piece (though,…
Open your eyes, sleepyheads! In the news this morning, our own JJ raves about Satyagraha at the Met (“a masterpiece of musical and visual art”); the ever-articulate Nico Muhly takes aim at the Met’s production values (“Mercedes Bass or Anne Ziff paid for the opera. What do you think is going to happen?”); and NYCO’s…
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.
So, when is a diva’s expected surprise guest appearance really a surprise? When she doesn’t appear, of course—though, to be sure, with her track record, a last-minute cancellation is no surprise at all. What is perhaps surprising is the repertoire kerfuffle that escalated into the no-show: apparently not everybody can live for art.
The cher public (pictured) is invited to promenade, play cards, consult with matchmakers, gossip about that wicked Marquise de Merteuil, and, oh yes, discuss anything off-topic during this lovely week of November 6, 2011.
“Due to illness,” Betsy Ann Bobolink is “unable” to “perform,” so the role of chat coordinator will be taken by Cesar Romero‘s bastard grandson Mervyn (not pictured), who thanks you for your indulgence.
“’I’ve almost come to the conclusion that this Mr. Hitler isn’t a Christian,’ muses merry murderess Abby Brewster early in the first act of Arsenic and Old Lace, and to tell the truth I’m beginning to think I’m almost as far behind the curve as she was. Recent new productions at the Met suggest strongly…
Says the Met press office (a propos of nothing much on a quiet Friday afternoon): “Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will conduct the Met’s new production of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung which premieres January 27, 2012, and continues on January 31, February 3, 7, and 11 matinee. Luisi will also conduct the MET Orchestra concert at Carnegie Hall…
Cher public, if you’re anything like La Cieca (pictured), you won’t have any time for lounging about in your silk pyjamas this week because the opera schedule is such a glamorous whirlwind one scarcely has time to breathe!
It would be a shame, I think, if EMI’s stunt video of Angela Gheorghiu “in duet” with Maria Callas backfired powerfully enough to prevent serious opera fans (well, okay, let’s say “enthusiastic opera fans,” that’s more like it) from listening to the Romanian diva’s new CD Homage to Maria Callas. There’s a lot on this…
The already notorious or celebrated or whatever it is version of the “Habanera” featuring (in alphabetical order) Maria Callas and Angela Gheorghiu: it’s been released, and you can experience after the jump.
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