Erlösung dem Erlöser!
La Cieca has just heard that the acclaimed production of Parsifal by Stefan Herheim will be telecast and filmed for DVD release next summer in Bayreuth.
Recent Stories
“Pity that it’s not a hurricane”
Since this lyric will not be sung in the Broadway revival of Follies this weekend (the performances are canceled), La Cieca has decided to invite the cher public to share their own favorite operatic hurricanes, storms and tempests. Your doyenne will start you off, after the jump.
I’ll take the fall
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).
Happy birthday Nico Muhly
Congratulations to the composer (Two Boys, Dark Sisters) and blogger on this day of transition from Wunderkind to Wundererwachsener. (Photo by Sam West)
Eyes wide open
It appears that tenor Stephen Costello, whom some of you guessed was a subject of a recent blind item, is not so centrally involved in the controversy as was imagined.
Horne aplenty
La Cieca has learned that The Metropolitan Opera Guild will pay tribute to legendary American mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne (right) on Monday, October 31, when stars, fans of opera, and the cream of New York’s society, business, and civic leaders assemble in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria for the Guild’s 77th Annual Luncheon.
Optional blindness
Which Met production in the coming season has just had an entire scene axed? Was the aria in question too long, too vivid, too difficult to execute?
Satyr is what closes on Saturday night
An aged Giacomo Casanova, forgotten and bored with life’s prospects, has decided to kill himself. This man, who has always lived according to the liberties of his chemical attractions, allowed himself to be ruled by Nature, now at the end attempts to assert control. But Nature, too crafty to be denied, holds him back from […]
Veil of tears
Twentieth century opera just can’t get a break in Dallas, it seems. La Cieca has just heard that the company, which 86ed Katya Kabanova from their 2011 schedule, has just canceled Salome (slated to star Deborah Voigt) from fall 2013 plans.
Surgery for Kaufmann
Jonas Kaufmann has canceled a tour to Japan with the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in September in order to schedule surgery to remove a “node” from his chest. [Intermezzo]
Ariadne auf budget
Since it’s put on in lavish productions at the biggest houses, sung by the biggest stars, since it wrings such a rich sound out of such a small band, and since the musical, formal and literary ambitions of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s great meta-opera are so very grand, it might be easy to […]
Intermission feature
La Cieca (absent, trying to find out what the hell is taking so long with those marrons glacés) invites the cher public (pictured) to while away the week of August 22 talking of this, that, and nothing at all.
She Dodon him wrong
Our Doyenne demonstrated her omniscience once again by sending me a DVD of Rimsky Korsakov’s Le Coq d’Or (Zolotoy Petushok) to review. I’m with musicologist Richard Taruskin who stated that Rimsky Korsakov was “perhaps the most underrated composer of all time” (and I’m sure his editor insisted on including the “perhaps”).
Soap opera
A live webcast of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw from Glyndebourne may divert the parterrians this afternoon. The event commences at 12:45, with a place to discuss the proceedings at La Casa della Cieca.
I hear American singing
Since an early appearance as Schaunard in Baz Luhrmann’s Broadway La bohème, barihunk Daniel Okulitch has been steadily building a substantial career. Along with noteworthy performances as Don Giovanni in New York and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro in Los Angeles, much of his career has been centered on contemporary work. He has leading […]
Not too distant
Though Brad Wilber‘s lamented site is no more, opera gossip refuses to die. For example, La Cieca has just heard that for an upcoming opening night at the Metropolitan Opera a beloved and (that word again!) charismatic tenor will return to the house after a six season absence. So now you know more or less […]
Charismatic movement
Friend of the Box Zachary Woolfe follows up his provocative NYT article on charisma with an invitation to discuss this elusive quality with his cher public, a group of which La Cieca is sure you parterriani represent a significant subset. Let yourselves be heard!
“Die Lage” darf ich nicht heissen
“Der Tenor Jonas Kaufmann… Im FOCUS-Online-Interview spricht er über Politik, Yoga und die Gründe, warum Sänger kein Sixpack haben.”
Miss Mannered
Joyce DiDonato enjoys the rare cachet of having three studio-recorded operas released in the past three years while other famous divas must be content with “just” DVDs. Although two of Renée Fleming’s Violettas have found their way onto video in less than five years (why??), “the people’s diva” has only recorded one studio opera in […]
Love, love and love!
Jummy Jonas Kaufmann and awe-inspiring Anna Netrebko team for the great duet from Manon, as heard last night at the Waldbühne Berlin.
Del primer pianto
Classical music writer and opera critic Robert Levine has written a very pleasant new book, Weep, Shudder, Die, A Guide to Loving Opera, published by HarperCollins Books. Levine sets up the book’s premise early in his introduction: “Could singing… make one, as the composer Vincenzo Bellini said, ‘weep, shudder, die’ and at the same time […]
LOC to toddle as planned
This just in: Lyric Opera of Chicago and the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) have reached a tentative contract agreement for the coming season. All performances will proceed as planned.
Metropolitan Opera Offers to Pay “The Situation” To Stop Attending Its Performances
With their quick rise to fame, the cast of MTV reality show “Jersey Shore” has cashed in on a number of endorsement deals, including weight loss supplements, alcohol and bronzer. But here’s a first. Manhattan culture retailer The Metropolitan Opera is offering to pay Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino not to attend its performances.
You other brothers can’t deny
Revealed: James Levine has had two back surgeries since the spring, but is described (by Tom Levine) as “very, very positive and very, very optimistic.” [NYT]