A press release just received from the Met ends with what feels like a SAT question that didn’t quite make it out of the gate. The background on the company’s impending HD of Faust includes the following tantalizing paragraph: “The traditional setting for Faust is 16th-century Germany, a time when alchemists and philosophers were familiar […]
Local 802 and AGMA have rejected New York City Opera’s “final offer,” placing the company at an “impasse,” according to an email from George Steel to members of the company’s board.
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).
Composer Philip Glass will appear this evening in support of Occupy Museums in Lincoln Center plaza during the Met’s final performance this season of his Satyagraha. The demonstration is described by Occupy Museums as “an open conversation at 10:30 pm about the effects of increased privatization and corporatization of all aspects of society, and the […]
Which summer festival, barely an hour north of Manhattan, will offer as its opera performances in the summer of 2012 Rossini’s Ciro in Babilonia (with Ewa Podles, Jessica Pratt and Michael Spyres) and Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi (with Kate Aldrich, Eglise Gutierrez and Leonardo Capalbo)?
“An atomic explosion kicked off the last act of Gounod’s Faust Tuesday at the Met, but the production as a whole was more dud than bomb.” [New York Post]
La Cieca (illustration courtesy of the Wall Street Journal) invites you, the cher public, to enjoy a chat tonight during the prima of Gounod’s Faust from the Met.
At one time, the idea of a performance of La Gioconda conjured up images of over-the-top, competitive, passionate vocalism, and big personalities. As a vehicle for great singers (and especially a great protagonist), it was thrilling.
Nicely readable profile of Jonas Kaufmann in the Wall Street Journal today, but how come it’s illustrated with a drawing of Neil Diamond?
It’s kind of shocking, when you really think about it, that the kind of international operatic model that the Royal Opera now operates on barely existed only 50 years ago. Until around 1960 most of the performances at the Covent Garden were given in English and the casting choices were enough to make the Vicar […]
Leave it to those Torontonians to blow the lid off an opera story happening in New York! (Goodness knows the local journalists don’t bother.)
La Cieca’s looking for a few good commenters to join the exalted ranks of parterre reviewers of new CD and DVD releases. Care to apply? Read on after the jump.
Soprano Mirella Freni is under investigation by the Bologna District Attorney’s office of Bologna for money laundering and exportation of money abroad in connection with the BER bank. The artist from Modena, 76, will be heard by the magistrates in the next few days to clarify her position, now that the DA Antonella Scandellari has […]
La Cieca insists you, the cher public, observe the “no whispering” rule during the performance, but, come intermission time, you are encouraged to chatter on and on about anything and nothing this week of November 27.
Indeed those were Cretan windmills seen in the most recent Regie quiz, and once that fact was established, manou and MontyNostry quickly closed the case: the opera is indeed Idomeneo, as performed at the Tiroler Landestheater in a production by Peer Boysen. You’ll find more to puzzle over after the jump.
Our Own Betsy (seen at left in an “unretouched” photo) declares, “Good evening, horror-lovers, and welcome to Tales from the Box. This is your Olde Box-Keeper with a gruesome fewsome to feed your screamin’ Mimìs. Tonight we pay tribute to the upcoming prima at the Met of Fausit, in which an old man pays for […]
All La Cieca can say is that so very many of you here shine in diamond splendor, and she only hopes she can stream even a single ray of light into the night of your heart. The results of the “Ian Bostridge” competition are after the jump.
La Cieca is sure that you, the cher public, will have the mostess’ of fun this week with the vast selection of operatic activities available in New York, which is why she’s offering you a few brief recommendations after the jump.
Is Peter Gelb wearing too many hats? Anthony Tommasini seems to think so, adding that one of those headpieces in particular is ill-fitting and might perhaps more flatteringly perch upon some other head. Call La Cieca suspicious, but she thinks the timing of this piece is hardly an accident.
Even as sinister gossip hinted to the contrary, the Met successfully completed negotiations with the stagehands’ union last night, averting the possibility of a job action next week. According to a source close to the Met, Peter Gelb sent out an email confirming the contract sometime after 1:00 this morning:
Legendary soprano Sena Jurinac, one of the most beloved artists at the Vienna State Opera, died yesterday. She was 90. [via AP]
La Cieca hears that the premiere of a new production may be marred. The reason? The company might have to perform the Paris version of this opera.
Only because I am a member of the You Can Never Have Too Much Callas School of Opera Listening can I recommend EMI’s new release The Callas Effect. The beautifully packaged production is the size of a small paperback book and consists of two CDs with 29 arias sung by Callas plus a new 70-minute […]
Giovanni Simone Mayr was one of the most important musical figures of his day, a man Rossini referred to as the “father of Italian opera” whom Napoleon personally lobbied to come work in Paris. Though he wrote nearly 70 operas and taught Donizetti and Bellini, the Bavarian-born composer had the misfortune of hitting his peak […]
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