Recent Stories
“In New York… opera directors don’t matter so much. In Europe, it’s another story: There, the director’s curtain call provokes the wildest excitement of the night.” The long-awaited “Regie” piece by Our Own JJ appears in the New York Post.
An exciting album of photos from Stefan Herheim‘s new production of Salome that opened tonight at the Salzburg Easter Festival. (All images by Monika & Karl Forster).
La Cieca has just learned that Bryn Terfel will sing the role of Scarpia for this evening’s performance of Tosca,replacing James Morris, who is ill and withdrew early this afternoon. Terfel, who is of course in the city rehearsing the Met’s new production of Die Walküre, was in the audience for this afternoon’s performance of Wozzeck, where…
Only a few scant guesses at the most recent Regie quiz, and, alas, no one got even close, though perhaps that’s because some of our strongest players disqualified themselves, having seeing this production of Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, as directed for the English National Opera by Benedict Andrews. Our next puzzler will be perhaps…
Where better to be on a lovely spring afternoon that chatting about Wozzeck? Well, admittedly the subject matter doesn’t quite scream “April,” but the superb musical values of the Met’s current revival are worth yet another hearing. For the 1:00 pm chat, details may be found after the jump.
Since a number of parterre’s better reviewers have recently left the fold (for the happiest of reasons, to be sure!) La Cieca is looking for a new crop of writers to critique the latest DVD and CD releases. If you’d like to audition for a spot, drop an email to your doyenne including a shipping…
Last minute chat tonight during Le Comte Ory, starting in about five minutes!
Now, don’t get La Cieca wrong, she’s very team Tyne Daly, and it’s not like your doyenne hasn’t been known to hit the airbrush herself from time to time. But who could think it was a good idea to present La Divina, even post-retouch, as a finalist on RuPaul’s Drag Race? [New York Times]
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.
The iconic American soprano was born April 14, 1958.
La Scala will announce its 2011-2012 season perhaps as early as tomorrow, but in the meantime La Cieca has discovered that the Milan season will open with a gala new production of Don Giovanni, conducted by Daniel Barenboim and directed by Robert Carsen. The delectable cast is scheduled to include Anna Netrebko (Donna Anna), Elina…
“You’re so resourceful, darling! I ought to go to you for plots.” “You ought to go to someone.” La Cieca knows that when plots are in question, she need go no farther than the cher public, which is why she’s reminding you (late in the game, admittedly) of the annual Omniscient Mussel #Operaplot Competition. No,…
“In an April 9 story about tenor Juan Diego Florez helping deliver his baby minutes before singing in the Metropolitan Opera production of Le Comte Ory, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the soprano starring in the broadcast was Renee Fleming. The singer was Diana Damrau. Fleming was the host.” [AP]
“The world premiere of a new opera production directed by directed by controversial Britrish playwright Mark Ravenhill (who wrote Shopping and F**king) proved too much for one front row audience member who collapsed as one of the actors slashed his wrists last night.” [Broadway World]
La Cieca usually leaves the barihunks to, well, Barihunks, but thanks to a tip from a very loyal parterriano indeed, meet Edwin Crossley-Mercer, a lyric baritone who really does seem to have it all. (Is it fair, La Cieca asks, that besides everything else, he looks like a young(er) Anderson Cooper?)
“What prevents Company from being the greatest musical ever written (which, given the talents going into it, it certainly could have been) is that there is something central to the work that is false, a cheat.” Our Own JJ (not pictured) reveals his theater queen side in Capital New York.
AGMA has warned the agents representing Lauren Flanigan and other singers appearing in New York City Opera’s Séance on a Wet Afternoon that a work stoppage on April 30 was a virtual certainty absent the successful resolution of a new collective bargaining agreement.
Talk of the Town
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Tildy Diva
A favorite Verdi performance from Tildy Diva
A well-known Met Aïda with a starry cast from 1967 is TildyDiva’s Favorite Verdi Performance
A well-known Met Aïda with a starry cast from 1967 is TildyDiva’s Favorite Verdi Performance
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.
La Cieca asks the cher public (pictured) if commenting is working properly for them on parterre.com since this weekend’s server migration. Anyone having problems posting comments is asked to email La Cieca directly at [email protected].
A faithful reader points La Cieca to a New York Times article noting that “…the triple disaster has jolted the Japanese into a new reality, sapping the materialist, feel-good spirit and replacing it with a focus on helping others and a mood of back to basics.”
Our own JJ (not pictured) has finally begun to unburden himself on the subject of the recent, much-discussed “Regietournee.” For reviews of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Rusalka and Cosi fan tutte in Berlin, please go to Musical America‘s Rough and Regie. (Photo: Monkia Rittershaus)
La Cieca (center) would like to inform the cher public (also pictured) that this weekend parterre.com is moving to a new server in order to provide a faster and smoother user experience (and who of us isn’t in favor of that?) Do be aware, though, that during the transition process, some comments posted today and…
You have spoken, parterrriani, and your message is loud and clear: Calixto Bieito should be tapped to direct the 2013 Bayreuth production of Der Ring des Nibelungen (seen here in artist’s conception.)
Everyone’s dream tenor was born April 8, 1921.
Three weeks before its orchestra contract expires, and more than a month overdue to announce its 2011-2012 season, the New York City Opera’s honchos have decides this is a good time to “ponder” the future of the company, give the whole organization a “top-to-bottom review” and maybe change venues, or, then again, maybe not. None…
“Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, about a bullied soldier’s descent into madness, is one of the grimmer operas around. Yet it was cause for jubilation Wednesday night when Met music director James Levine finally returned to the podium.” [New York Post]
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