All we like sheep
Yet another reason (as if we needed one!) to adore Stefan Herheim: in describing his Konzept for Handel’s Serse, he uses the expression “eine barocke Muppetshow.”
Recent Stories
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau 1925-2012
Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau died earlier today near Starnberg in Bavaria.
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).
Just my Gluck
For all his historical importance Christoph Willibald Gluck remains one of the least known and performed of the great opera composers.
Herbert Breslin 1924-2012
La Cieca has just heard that Herbert Breslin died this morning in Paris.
Party crasher
Karita Mattila is out of all Met performances of Un ballo in maschera next season, replaced by Sondra Radvanovsky.
Happy Birthday Birgit Nilsson
La Cieca wants to get a jump on this busy birthday season by offering a remembrance of Birgit Nilsson a day early.
Lyre’s poker
The Underworld as corporate boardroom, Pluto a “suit,” the damned a bunch of clerks tapping away at laptops.
You got a brand new key signature
You can call Robert Lepage many things (and the critics have!), but one thing you cannot call him is “inflexible.”
“Ne m’accuse pas, pleure-moi!”
Jules Massenet wrote Werther at the midpoint of his very successful career.
The less you know
“Based on journalist feedback,” the Met’s press office has ceased issuing email announcements of cast changes.
Une femme d’un incertain âge
On this, the anniversary of her natal day, May 15, La Cieca likes to think back to that moment…
Not another teen opera
Vincent Boussard’s 2011 take on Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi returned on Saturday (May 12) to Munich’s Nationaltheater.
From Hell
“About the only good thing that can be said for New York City Opera’s Orpheus, which opened Saturday night, is that it made the rest of the company’s feeble season seem scintillating by comparison.”
Flamboyant intermission feature
It’s about time you arrived, cher public!
A little traveling music
Gustav Holst was always searching for deep theses from which to suspend his art.
Buzzworthy chat
Our Own Betsy Ann Bobolink has returned from Capistrano or wherever it is she winters to bring us our first selection of chat subjects for the long, sultry summer season.
The respect opera is entitled to
On Nerva Nelli’s suggestion, La Cieca visited Lyric Opera of Chicago’s website, and it’ dire, my friends, dire.
Season well
Overture! Light the lights! And what heights you hit indeed, cher public, in La Cieca’s “Gold Standard” competition.
The girl next door
Andrea Andermann, the producer who brought you Tosca in the Settings and at the Times of Tosca, Traviata in Paris, and Rigoletto in Mantova, is preparing for a telecast of La Cenerentola.
Recycled
“Katarina Dalayman will sing the role of Brünnhilde in this evening’s performance of Wagner’s Siegfried, replacing Deborah Voigt, who is ill….”
Mouth feel
“The bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, playing Leporello in the Met’s recent Don Giovanni, asked for vegetable sausage…”
Ceasefire
Here’s a change of pace for you parterre chatters as the Met season winds down.
Wholly Grail
Certain opera productions become the stuff of legend as much for the circumstances surrounding the performance as for the musical results.