Lulu (some)
Daniel Barenboim does not want to conduct Berg’s Lulu. Or so it seems.
Recent Stories
Square cut or pear shaped
La Cieca (in larger tiara) thinks it’s high time we all took a break from Regie watching and everything else…
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).
There will have been blood
There’s nothing like a good performance of Verdi’s Macbeth and here is proof positive because this dvd is (almost) nothing like a good performance.
Daniela abbandonata
Our own Ercole Farnese has alerted La Cieca to a breaking story in Il Secolo XIX: Dessì diserta Genova per amore.
Geherheimnis
“Since no opera company in the U.S. has quite got up the courage to present a Herheim production, this webcast offers us a chance to sample this director’s unique style of Regie.”
Cover up
Says the Met’s press office: “Hei-Kyung Hong will sing the role of Violetta Valéry in Verdi’s La Traviata at tomorrow’s performance, replacing Natalie Dessay, who is ill.” (Photo: Marty Sohl)
It might as well be spring
…and songs from her 2010 indie rock album Dark Hope.
I’ll plant my own tree
Nicholas Hytner’s much-travelled and well received 1985 production of George Frideric Handel’s 1738 opera Xerxes has been released on DVD
from Arthaus Musik, in a performance recorded live from the English National Opera in 1988.
Damage control
Just in time for the beginning of the first cycle of the Robert Lepage Ring (pictured), Peter Gelb tries to convince Anthony Tommasini that everything is just fine, thank you…
Red dress diaries
La Cieca has just received a complete report from her spy at today’s open dress rehearsal of La traviata at the Met.
Sunday in the park with Tannhäuser
Certain contemporary opera directors have taken to portraying Wagner protagonists as visual artists to better illuminate the characters’ moral and aesthetic struggles.
By Adriel
7 comments
J’ai désespéré dans les feux de tes charmes
Since wer’re already in a Massenetesque frame of mind, cher public…
8-bit Regie
Even if no one guessed the correct opera on our most recent Regie quiz, Our Own Batty Masetto did the next best or perhaps even better thing…
More news from the future
Here La Cieca has scarcely returned home from a very pleasant concert performance of Pipe Dream (feeble show, attractive songs, fine cast) and what should she find in her inbox but an alert from the Playbill Club.
Slut shaming
The Wall Street Journal‘s Heidi Waleson is the latest to chime in with the “Manon must be an innocent virginal child” thesis, and La Cieca is uneasy about the implications of this line of reasoning.
Fishy realness
Rusalka, in the marvelous production by Stefan Herheim, is now streaming live from La Monnaie.
The party’s over
When the hard-partying heroine of Massenet’s Manon hits bottom, she literally lands in the gutter.
The Ironic Lady
Another grim narrative of the Gelb years, and one I think is generally hogwash, is that the Met has (at least in theatrical terms) lost its way entirely.
The world is your balloon
If it wasn’t anything special as art or even entertainment, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s recent production of Rinaldo (March 24) does offer an excellent peg on which to hang an argument about the future of opera in America.
Saint Peter
La Cieca hears that for coming seasons at the Met, Peter Gelb plans to mix a little religion in with the opera, or non-opera as the case may be.
Premium blind
Which erstwhile mezzo-soprano has had it with all those florid soprano roles she’s recently attempted?
Royal Hunt
I have been a devotee of Berlioz’s Les Troyens since I first discovered the Covent Garden recording conducted by Colin Davis.