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La Cieca welcomes “the boys” (and girls, too!) to a chat during this afternoon’s broadcast of La fanciulla del West from the Met. The first shot will be fired at 1:00 pm precisely!
“Decker’s vision of Traviata, like most great productions, combines emotional truth with intellectual rigor—or, rather, there is a synergy between these two qualities that illuminates the entire work.” Our Own JJ takes apart the giant watch to find out what makes it tick, over at Musical America.
Paint La Cieca astonished that Renée Fleming and Lorna Luft volley back and forth the compliment “You open your mouth and that noise comes out. How do you do that?” No, you! No, you! [In the Noh]
Separated at birth: “Tu che di gel” goddess Renata Scotto and “Too much hair gel” oddness Johnny Weir. This is also holiday-themed breaking news because Johnny has now officially donned his gay apparel. [After Elton]
Lovely Marina Poplavskaya, arriving at the Mercedes T. Bass Grand Tier for dinner following the opening night of La traviata, demonstrates that the previous Franco Zeffirelli production has not gone to waste. The latter-day Scarlett O’Hara‘s motto: “Reduce Reuse Recycle!”
“I must say choosing from among these finalists is almost impossible, as there are bits and pieces from each one I like and admire the thought process and the experience each one highlights for us. For me they are all intelligent and quite wonderful— skewed perhaps by their times and what is and is not…
“Mr. Decker joined Acts II, III and IV by creating a tableau at the end of each act that dissolved into the beginning of the next. It was theatrically effective, but made for a long sit for the audience.” This, and a whole lot of other hogwash, in The Wall Street Journal.
From the Met press office: “Elisabete Matos will sing the role of Minnie in La Fanciulla del West at this evening’s performance, replacing Deborah Voigt who is ill.”
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.
“Unveiling a new La Traviata Friday night to a starry audience including Natalie Portman and Vanessa Redgrave, the Met triumphed with the most moving and exciting Verdi production in years.” [New York Post] / Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
La Cieca is shocked, shocked to see that not a one of you clever cher public were able to work out the solution to last week’s Regie quiz. Admittedly it’s a work not very often revived, but it should at least be a familiar title: Rossini’s Semiramide, as done here in a staging by Nigel…
La Cieca (not pictured) reminds the cher public that the first chat of 2011 will begin at noon today at La Casa della Cieca. Details on Pelléas et Mélisande after the jump.
As La Cieca (pictured, alas) whoops it up somewhere in the vicinity of Lincoln Center tonight, she hopes that you, the cher public, will at least kick off your festivities with a chat during tonight’s Met prima of La traviata, beginning at 7:00 pm. Details after the jump.
So stop me if you’ve heard this one: a, shall we say, mature diva gets stranded in the snow, and in her place a substitute (carefully hidden, no doubt!) gives a performance! Out of nowhere – gives a performance! Well, according to Intermezzo, life imitated art (and what better art to imitate than All About Eve?)…
La Cieca’s spy wriggled into last night’s Met dress rehearsal of La traviata and reports: “One has to be careful about making too many judgments or drawing too many conclusions from a rehearsal, but last night’s final dress was indeed very promising.”
First-time novelist Matthew Gallaway’s ardent love for Tristan and Isolde gushes through every page of The Metropolis Case. According to Gallaway, Tristan is the highest expression of human art, and the book functions effectively as the ultimate initiator in the cult of Wagner. The novel opens with a lengthy discussion of the opera in the…
The bestowal of a bouquet of accolades upon James Levine is unsurprisingly the main thrust of the current Opera News (why, after all, should this month be different from any other in the rag’s 75 year history?) and given the plum of penning this poetical posy is the horticulturally apt writer Scott Rose, “author of…
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.
No programs for last night’s Fanciulla, just someone had worked overtime on the copier to give us a cast list and plot summary. If no delivery for the glossy, fully 3k people there, just slight slip and slide on the Plaza enough to keep me gripping the alpenstock. (A weapon of Individual Destruction, permitted by…
As we look forward to New Year’s Eve and to the gala opening of Willy Decker’s La Traviata at the Met, it seems fitting to look back—by way of the official, live, DVD recording of the production’s sensational world premiere at the Salzburg Festival in 2005—to get some sense of what’s behind all the hype.…
If you’re like La Cieca, you’re snowed in today, so how about let’s pass the time recalling great operatic snow moments?
The cher public are indeed making “progress” when it takes only a few hours for one of you (Orlando to be exact) to identify our most recent Regie quiz as The Rake’s Progress, as devised by Opera Cake fave Krzysztof Warlikowski for the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. There’s video of this production as well as…
So the gossip La Cieca has been picking up is that at some point there were plans at the Met to open the 2012-13 season with Eugene Onegin featuring Mariusz Kwiecien, Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani. The soprano and baritone were also booked to open the 2013-2014 season with new production of La bohème. Then…
As we all already know (those of us addicted to Brad Wilber‘s Met Futures, and who among us is not?) the Metropolitan Opera already has plans to produce two operas of Donizetti’s so-called “Tudor Trilogy.” Anna Bolena opens the 2011-2012 season featuring Anna Netrebko (left) and Maria Stuarda follows on the following season starring Joyce…
A loyal member of the cher public writes: “Very nice performance of Fanciulla last evening. Although I still love Debbie, and am quite willing to see her in anything she does, I think this was the best of the three Fanciullas I’ve seen so far.”
This just in from the Met’s press office: “Matthew Polenzani will sing the role of Alfredo in La Traviata for all performances this season. For the January 19, 22, 26 and 29 performances, Polenzani replaces Francesco Meli, who has withdrawn due to illness.”
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