Recent Stories
La Cieca (left) is delighted to congratulate dear Alex Ross (right), whose little column The Rest is Noise has been named #1 among Classical Music blogs, according to blogrank. In other family news, Our Own JJ (not pictured) reviews Caramoor’s Guillaume Tell in today’s New York Post.
Here it is, cher public (pictured, right to left), your general conversation and off-topic thread for the week of July 10.
Michael Fabiano and Renée Fleming (pictured, left to right) make up the somewhat dysfunctional family whose drama is recounted in the San Francisco Opera premiere of Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia, to be heard September 23 – October 11. More highlights (and a lowlight or two) follow the jump.
A glance at Opera Orchestra of New York’s 2011-12 season listing reveals a conspicuous and troubling lacuna.
The ENO was filled with ghosts last week. Spectral, possibly illusory figures fleetingly materialized in the Internet chatrooms that provide the setting for much of Nico Muhly’s new opera Two Boys, and brutal boarding school memories came back to troubled life in director Christopher Alden’s dark take on Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
A reminder to the Regie-fanciers among the cher public: this afternoon at 19:45 (1:45 PM EDT), the Munich Festival will present a live webcast of Fidelio featuring Anja Kampe (Leonore) and Jonas Kaufmann (Florestan) with Adam Fischer conducting the Bayerische Staatsorchester. The production is directed by Calixto Bieito! UPDATE: The webcast player is now on…
Soprano, stage director and now, apparently, activist Catherine Malfitano has collected more than 120 signatures on a letter “denouncing New York City Opera’s planned move from Lincoln Center and calling into question the company’s stewardship.” Among those signing on: June Anderson, Jane Bunnell, Tito Capobianco, José Carreras, Frank Corsaro, Phyllis Curtin, Justino Díaz, Joyce DiDonato,…
Bass-barihunk Keith Miller has just canceled the remainder of his performances of his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen at the Glimmerglass Festival, citing “health reasons.” His first performance was last Saturday. No replacement casting has yet been announced for the remaining 14 performances through August 23.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Poetic license
Poetic license
Parterre Box shines a light on Liparit Avetisyan, who made his Met debut as Alfredo earlier this spring.
Parterre Box shines a light on Liparit Avetisyan, who made his Met debut as Alfredo earlier this spring.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Frau Miina-Liisa will es werde Nacht
Frau Miina-Liisa will es werde Nacht
Parterre Box features soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä, making her title role debut in Die Walküre in Munich next week, in a performance of Tristan und Isolde from 2021.
Parterre Box features soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä, making her title role debut in Die Walküre in Munich next week, in a performance of Tristan und Isolde from 2021.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Lux aeterna luceat eis
Lux aeterna luceat eis
Grand Tier Grab Bag this week honors the late Limmie Pulliam with a bit of his Verdi Requiem.
Grand Tier Grab Bag this week honors the late Limmie Pulliam with a bit of his Verdi Requiem.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Kathryn the great
Kathryn the great
Parterre Box previews Kathryn Lewek‘s upcoming Salome with clips of her as another unhinged lady of antiquity.
Parterre Box previews Kathryn Lewek‘s upcoming Salome with clips of her as another unhinged lady of antiquity.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Count your blessings
Count your blessings
Fast-rising Verdi baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbataar is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Fast-rising Verdi baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbataar is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
One man’s Junker
One man’s Junker
Handel’s Deidamia — and one of its current champions, soprano Sophie Junker — are the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Handel’s Deidamia — and one of its current champions, soprano Sophie Junker — are the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
I had every reason to think I’d love the New York Phil’s production of The Cunning Little Vixen as much as I did their staging of Le Grand Macabre with the same creative team.
“Subtract the magic and the flute from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and you’d think there’d be nothing. But an adaptation of this opera at the Lincoln Center Festival on Wednesday conjured a quiet enchantment.” [New York Post]
The snafu over “homophobia row opera” Beached by Billy Elliot creator Lee Hall has been resolved thanks to a small lyric change.
Avid scoopster Dan Wakin just couldn’t wait until next Tuesday like the rest of us, and so he’s spilled enough details about NYCO’s “next” season to make it bleeding obvious 2011-12 will also be the last. A “new” “production” of La traviata by the undead Dr. Jonathan Miller and the U.S. premiere of the dreck Prima…
BREAKING! New York City Opera has just announced that they are going to announce their 2011-2012 season. The by-invitation-only press conference is set for Tuesday, July 12 at 1:00 PM at New York’s trendy Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Thanks to her eerie ability to see into the future, La Cieca already has film of this…
Reactions to the Zambello Ring may have been mixed, but the response to the Parterrian meet-ups was roaringly positive, as shown by the massive turnout for the last pre-Götterdämmerung brunch. So here (well, actually, not here, but rather after the jump) are the faces behind some of the monikers.
It was, after all, only a matter of time.
“What I find bizarre is the insistence that no one—not the school, not Opera North, not the local education authority—is being homophobic. Instead, we have the strange position that, because the children are of primary-school age, these lines are too difficult and confusing for them.” The lines in question are “Of course I’m queer/That’s why…
Talk of the Town
The Talk of the Town
Andrée Esposito and Alain Vanzo should have made it to the Met
Andrée Esposito and Alain Vanzo should have made it to the Met
This Mireille duet unites Andrée Esposito and Alain Vanzo and shows the timbral and stylistic qualities that made them exemplary.
This Mireille duet unites Andrée Esposito and Alain Vanzo and shows the timbral and stylistic qualities that made them exemplary.
The Talk of the Town
Ebe Stignani and Anita Cerquetti should have made it to the Met
Ebe Stignani and Anita Cerquetti should have made it to the Met
Subtlety is for cowards, say the blazing Anita Cerquetti and the blaring Ebe Stignani.
Subtlety is for cowards, say the blazing Anita Cerquetti and the blaring Ebe Stignani.
The Talk of the Town
Sena Jurinac should have made it to the Met
Sena Jurinac should have made it to the Met
Sena Jurinac, a celebrated Mozart and Strauss singer here as the Composer, a signature role.
Sena Jurinac, a celebrated Mozart and Strauss singer here as the Composer, a signature role.
The Talk of the Town
Janet Baker should have made it to the Met
Janet Baker should have made it to the Met
The divine Dame Janet Baker never sang at the Metropolitan, sadly for American audiences.
The divine Dame Janet Baker never sang at the Metropolitan, sadly for American audiences.
The Talk of the Town
Dorothy Maynor should have made it to the Met
Dorothy Maynor should have made it to the Met
We had to wait for Marian Anderson to break the color barrier at the Met and many great Black opera singers never had a chance there.
We had to wait for Marian Anderson to break the color barrier at the Met and many great Black opera singers never had a chance there.
The Talk of the Town
Leyla Gencer should have made it to the Met
Leyla Gencer should have made it to the Met
Leyla Gencer had a long European career but never sang at the Met.
Leyla Gencer had a long European career but never sang at the Met.
It was E-news, as quick and accurate as the name would imply, who first zoomed in on last week’s Regie quiz. The piece depicted was indeed I due Figaro, one of those “other” Figaro operas, this one by Saverio Mercadante, as performed at the Salzburg Pfingstfestspiele in a production by Emilio Sagi.
Here it is, cher public (pictured): your off-topic and general discussion thread for the week of July 3.
An internet leak, quickly plugged but too late, reveals Opera Orchestra of New York’s 2011-12 projected season. On Tuesday, November 8, Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann will grace Carnegie Hall with Adriana Lecouvreur. Then, on Sunday, January 29, Ian Storey and Elisabete Matos headline Rienzi, presumably maestro Queler’s sole appearance of the season. The final…
Here goes with the End of the Gods and the End of these Ring reviews: Götterdämmerung was more of a mixed bag than the other operas, but still left a powerful impression. This was where Zambello’s choice to steer clear of heavy spectacle was most evident to me. The cost in grandeur was offset by…
The way I see it, there are bad ideas, like the revival of 1980s style for men or the U.S. defaulting on its debt ceiling. Then there are geniunely horrific delusions that should not even be mentioned in public, the kind of stuff you read in the comments section of breitbart.com. Today in Bloomberg’s coverage…
“Here, finally, is not merely the music on the Internet, but the music of the Internet…” Zachary Woolfe reacts to Nico Muhly‘s Two Boys in the New York Times.
La Cieca is always delighted but never, never surprised when a parterrian makes good, so permit her to congratulate Miguel Esteban, who has just been named Managing Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Cher Miguel is one of your fellow commenters here, but La Cieca will not offer any clues to his secret…
You only thought the “Brokeback” Eugene Onegin was the gayest possible take on the Tchaikovsky “lyric scenes.” Now, along comes La Cieca’s fave director Stefan Herheim‘s extravagant, transgressive, high-camp symbolist (and about a dozen other adjectives) approach to the work, “gay” in the very best sense of gay sensibility. Video after the jump!
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