Deutsche Grammophon has just released Anna Netrebko: Live at the Metropolitan Opera, a CD with 11 excerpts recorded live from her Met performances from 2002 through 2010. Released to feature the soprano just prior to her opening in the Met’s Anna Bolena, the CD features Netrebko singing solo arias as well as duets with such […]
Here, on what appears to have been a rather chilly evening, are Michael Fabiano and his “mom” Renée Fleming in Die Walküre Lucrezia Borgia at the San Francisco Opera.
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).
Today is the dress rehearsal/preview of Anna Bolena at the Met, and naturally La Cieca has infiltrated the event with a veritable phalanx of spies. After the jump: all your latest Anna Netrebko related news.
“Sony Classical is proud to announce the signing of an exclusive recording contract with Plácido Domingo. This new agreement brings the legendary singer back to the company where his unparalleled recording career started in the late 1960s. Sony Classical’s catalog boasts many of his milestone recordings, and the renewed collaboration between Mr. Domingo and the […]
I have been tossing and turning over La Cieca’s most recent assignment for me: a CD of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer based on a performance live in concert from November 13, 2010. The anxiety mainly stems from the fact that, horror to say, I am no Wagnerite. I know that sect of opera buffs has […]
For those of you not fortunate or not conscientious enough to attend Atys at BAM this week, there’s a video document of the production (taped earlier this year) following the jump.
Versatile diva Violeta Urmana takes on the demanding verismo role of Giordano’s Fedora for the first time at… Oh, sorry, that’s René Pape as Méphistophélès in Faust at Covent Garden! (Photo by Catherine Ashmore)
Every year New York City opera-lovers eagerly anticipate the autumn because it means that summer is finally over and we can get back to serious opera-going, and this September promises “The Battle of the A’s.”
The prognosis from Jonas Kaufmann‘s surgery seems to be very positive indeed: the tenor and his family were spotted Saturday enjoying the Oktoberfest in Munich. Details after the jump.
Even though that other soprano, whatever her name is, has garnered a lot of ink for opening the Met season with Anna Bolena, the real news here is the “dream team” Gheorghiu/Callas collaboration, a highlight of which has been the “Divina Draculette” photo retouching competition. La Cieca has sifted the many fine entries and has […]
A 1989 production of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera should have been another jewel in Herbert von Karajan’s already quite impressive crown. A stellar cast, an impeccable orchestra, an enormous period set –the grand opera of Salzburg under his regime. He had recently finished a studio recording with the cast, and was preparing them for […]
La Cieca invites the dear companions of her loge (i.e., the cher public) to chatter away about any and all unrelated topics, on this, your Intermission Feature thread for the week of September 18.
“With the news this month that James Levine had slipped and injured a vertebra while vacationing in Vermont… Fabio Luisi became the company’s music director in all but name.” [New York Times]
The diva, soon to open the Met season in Anna Bolena, marks the Four Oh milestone today.
“Zeffirelli, who has been directing plays, films, and operas for more than 60 years, laments that the Met recently started phasing out some of his classic productions, including Traviata, Tosca, and Carmen, for ‘financial reasons,’ he says. And substituting them with ‘hippie crap’.” [Variety]
The place to be this afternoon is where the chat concerns Il trittico from the Royal Opera House. The triple play broadcast begins at 1:20 EDT and may be heard on the BBC iPlayer. (For other listening options, consult Operashare.) The chat, of course, will flow freely in La Casa della Cieca.
La Cieca would like to nudge gently the cher public with a reminder that there is only one day left in the great “Divina Draculette” photo retouching competition, noting the slight change in rules calling for you to email La Cieca with your photos. Prizes for the best in show include Sony’s live Met CD […]
In a post Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and Jerry Falwell era and with politicians spouting that natural disasters are God’s way of telling us to reduce the national debt, Sinclair Lewis’ Elmer Gantry seems more prescient than even he probably intended. A satirical novel about the excesses of the evangelical movement in the early part […]
On this day 34 years ago, Maria Callas died in her apartment in Paris. Since then the iconic diva has been recollected, documented, analyzed, digitized and portrayed by Tyne Daly. La Cieca invites you, the cher public, to keep her mind today by sharing your favorite Callas performances in the comments section.
Wednesday afternoon, Pocket Orchestra New York’s new PONYmobile presented a guerrilla performance of sorts in a most unlikely space, the XES Lounge in Manhattan, where designer Joel Yapching‘s BOOK homme debuted its Spring/Summer 2012 collection to the strains of Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria.
It will come to no surprise to the parterriani (though perhaps something of a relief to Peter Gelb) that the most coveted ticket of the fall season in New York is Anna Bolena, the Donizetti premiere at the Met featuring Anna Netrebko‘s lovely head. Complete results of the more than 1,100 votes cast in the […]
La Cieca assumes that it was while changing frocks from citron to sage that America’s Multitasker Renée Fleming approved the above-pictured outdoor advertising for LOC’s impending season. Because, after all, what celebrity screams “Lyric Opera of Chicago” more obviously than Vanessa Williams? (Thanks to AC for the photo!)
Our Own JJ returns to the pages of Capital New York to reflect on the current Broadway revival of the Sondheim-Goldman musical Follies: “one gorgeous zombie.” (Photo: Joan Marcus)
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