Recent Stories
La Cieca realized suddenly yesterday she had two contests to get up to date, so she organized her crack panel of experts (or is that “her panel of crack experts?”) to adjudicate, decide, confer, converse and otherwise hobnob with our brother wizards. The upshot of which is: we have two winners!
The team that made the Met’s 2009 production of From the House of the Dead one of the undisputed highlights of the Peter Gelb era will return five years from now to create a Richard Strauss tragedy. According to Helsingin Sanomat, director Patrice Chéreau and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen will collaborate on a new production of…
[UPDATE: Now with photos!] Before Opera Boston’s performance of Cardillac at the Majestic Theater on Sunday afternoon, a woman warned the people in her row that she might have to leave early. A man insisted to her that “the last seven minutes” were not to be missed.
Which diva is poised on the brink of omitting a whole aria after already transposing another? Or are we living in a dream to think she’ll show up at all?
I’ve had this DVD sitting in my apartment for literally months – mea culpa, La – and I finally got around to watching Mark Adamo’s opera Little Women last weekend. Commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, the piece received almost unanimous critical and popular acclaim when it premiered in 1998. This DVD was recorded for…
Our own JJ “sits down” (figuratively speaking) with Robert Lepage to “talk” (also figuratively speaking) about his production of The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, opening tomorrow night at BAM. [New York Post]
This week it was operalover9001 (so many of you!) who managed to narrow down the repertoire to a handful of titles, of which The Rape of Lucretia turned out to be accurate. After all, how many operas are there that feature Nathan Gunn taking a massage in leather pants? (I said how many are there,…
The cher public’s final chat for the month of February concerns Iphigénie en Tauride, as heard beginning at 1:00 pm.
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.
Maestro James Levine continued his (unfortunate, and surely painful) recent pattern of canceling an average of one performance a week last night when he dropped out of the Boston’s Symphony’s performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.
La Cieca thought she could omit birthday greetings for la Scotto this year since there was a big mention of the diva earlier this week, but the emails, IMs and, for all La Cieca knows, telegrams have been pouring in all day demanding a salute. And far be it from La Cieca to refuse the…
Since you so adroitly identified the voice of the mystery Leonora as Anja Harteros, La Cieca thought you might like to hear the soprano in the complete Act 4, Scene 1 of Il trovatore.
As if wowing a capacity crowd at his Met debut recital were not enough, protean performer Andrea Bocelli has branched out into an entirely new field as a wardrobe stylist. He’s pictured here with satisfied clients Angela Gheorghiu and Renée Fleming.
“With a career spanning half a century, Placido Domingo continues to be firmly against leaving the stage, where presently he is triumphing in his role as Oreste in the production of Iphigenie en Tauride that is being performed at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.” [Fox News]
The first opera film to be presented in 3D, Carmen , shows up on screens worldwide (and in New York City, too) on March 3. And some lucky member of the cher public will have the opportunity to view this milestone in cinematic opera, as the guest of La Cieca! Details after the jump.
A mysterious lady in the shadows of Castellor! Who might she be?
The premiere of Mary Zimmerman’s production of Giacomo Gioachino Rossini’s Armida was arguably the most controversial event of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2009-2010 season. The performances represented Armida’s first run at the Metropolitan Opera and had been commissioned at the behest of mega-diva Renée Fleming. The soprano had scored a triumph in concert presentations of the…
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.
Parterre’s tutelary diva shares espresso and cookies with parterre’s fave scribe Zachary Woolfe in preparation for the gala Met Legends event honoring her next Sunday.
In an angst-ridden conversation many years ago about new music, a friend of mine asserted that he didn’t care whether something was new as long as it was good. That conversation came to mind after seeing Christof Bergman’s opera buffa Piazza Navona on Sunday afternoon, in a production by Opera Manhattan Repertory Theatre.
“A dash of pizazz would have been welcome in announcing next year’s schedule, which looks respectable but safe.” Our Own JJ previews the Met’s 2011-2012 season. [New York Post]
The several of you who guessed Iolanthe for last week’s Regie quiz were, well, not quite as wrong as everyone else. The work in question was Birtwhistle’s The Io Passion as performed at the Wiener Kammeroper in a staging by Nicola Raab. (But of course!) Moving on: so, what are these folks up to?
Thanks to the valiant (not so) few of you, cher public, parterre.com garnered its highest-ever single day of pageviews in history this week. On Wednesday (the day of the Met press conference) the site registered 30, 729 views, most of them on the liveblog, which now ranks as the sixth most popular page in parterre…
So, any guesses who’s funding the Tea Party Astroturfing campaign backing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker‘s proposal to strip state workers of collective bargaining rights? La Cieca urges all you opera fans to keep in mind the image of the National Guard called on striking teachers when you are enjoying the ambiance of the Auditorium Formerly…
“When I left the opera house, I stumbled to the next train out of town and fell immediately asleep; when I left the afternoon broadcast, I stepped out onto the sidewalk and discovered that the sun had set while I’d been in the dark, watching. The sky’d gone all orange and blue and was seemingly…
If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard from La Cieca (pictured, right) today, it’s because JJ (pictured, left) has been busy writing and stuff. By “and stuff,” he means primarily seeing an amazing production of Tennessee Williams‘ Vieux Carré by the Wooster Group and reacting to it at Musical America. See you all tomorrow at…
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