Women, children and directors of artistic planning first
NYCO’s director of artistic planning Ed Yim is leaving the company to to serve as a consultant at the New York Philharmonic. [NYT]
Recent Stories
Every little thing, every little thing…
An “unbelievably honest narrative of a woman caught in a dangerous cycle of addiction and illness who overcame her demons in an utterly triumphant way” — that’s what publisher Harper Collins is calling the forthcoming memoir by Deborah Voigt, tentatively titled “True Confessions of a Down to Earth Diva.” The tome is scheduled for publication […]
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).
Le déjeuner sans l’herb
Five decades before the Met turned to computer-assisted planks to help tell the story of Wagner’s Ring cycle, the company stirred controversy and comment with another staging of the tetralogy. General Manager Rudolf Bing imported a stark, abstract production from the Salzburg Festival in order to secure the services of Herbert von Karajan, who not […]
À l’opéra ce soir
When I was a kid growing up in Paris, there was a weekly TV broadcast of a theater play called Au Théatre Ce Soir that I loved. But that my father would rarely let me watch this show, because the plays were all were silly comedies, usually badly acted and filmed without any creativity or […]
Bloomberg onions
The multi-slashed Manuela Hoelterhoff (Bloomberg editrix/spouse to disgruntled New York City Opera intendant manquée Francesca Zambello/grouch emeritus) dipped her goose quill in venom this morning once again to take on her favorite subject, i.e., how NYCO has gone to hell in a handbasket ever since they didn’t hire her girlfriend to run the place.
Tour de farce
UPDATE, Tuesday, 7:45 AM: The Met sent out a press release at 1:27 AM New York time today announcing major changes to its roster for the tour of Japan this month. La Cieca has revised the following gossip item (which appeared at 11 PM last night) to reflect the Met’s confirmations.
Plain and fancy
This mostly wonderful performance of Handel’s Theodora opened the 2009 Salzburg Festival in honor of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death. Written at the beginning of the last decade of the composer’s life, it was a work that he held in very high regard even though he knew its subject matter would not excite. Only […]
Seen but not heard
Very soon, the Met will once again admit that the casting for their Japan tour was only the, “uh, stuff that dreams are made of.”
Song on the sand
La Cieca expects that many of the cher public (pictured) will take the afternoon off for fun in the sun, but for those of you who prefer to stay in air-conditioned interior comfort, there’s chat. And this pm there’s a true embarrassment, and I’m not just talking about the Capri pants pictured above; also of […]
Beast seller
Other than binging on seven or eight Agatha Christie novels in seventh grade, I can’t recall ever again reading another mystery novel, or what they now call “crime fiction.” Perhaps it’s a coincidence but around that same age I attended my first opera and began subscribing to Opera News. Hence, Commissario Guido Brunetti, hero of […]
And the Pubies go to…
At long last, the most closely guarded secret of 2011 (besides, you know, everything about what’s going to happen to City Opera) is about to be revealed. Ladies and public, the Second Annual Parterre Cher Public Choice Awards!
Picket a little, talk a little
AGMA today filed unfair labor practice charges against the New York City Opera, alleging a pattern of illegal bad faith bargaining. According to a press release from the union, they will soon also seek an injunction in an effort to prevent City Opera from effectuating its announced intention to move out of Lincoln Center.
When I grow too old to scheme
The full-figured, frizzy-haired guardian of the status quo once more mounted the chariot to lay down the law earlier this afternoon. No, it wasn’t Stephanie Blythe as Fricka, but rather that other divinity, James Levine, who—La Cieca hears—postponed his well-deserved five-month rest and relaxation regime long enough to call the Met’s musical staff on the […]
Compi l’oprah a svenar corri il padre
In honor of the final Oprah episode, La Cieca invites the cher public to Oprahfy themselves or favorite divas, then email the resulting images to [email protected] from whence your doyenne will post them for everyone’s enjoyment. (If you can figure out how to download and then upload the photo, you can just insert it into […]
But do they listen?
The cher public’s opinion to the contrary, the Met has cast Ekaterina Gubanova as Giovanna Seymour.
A woman running City Opera? Unheard of!
“Zambello, a busy stage director, should have become director of New York City Opera a few years back but was rejected by a sexist board.” [Lebrecht] On a completely unrelated note, happy birthday Beverly Sills!
Gate-erdämmerung
The Bay Area Chapter of Parterre (pictured) would like to invite all out-of-town Parterrians for a social schedule of sniping, snarking, and general conviviality (hair-pulling strongly discouraged) during the three cycles of the San Francisco Ring.
The trappings and the suits of NYCO
At a time when New York’s opera companies are supposed to be going into estivation (I mean, Peter Gelb is in Vietnam, for heaven’s sake!) there’s certainly no lack of breaking news about New York City Opera. Today’s heart-rending roundup, after the jump.
La Dappertutta
Providing continuing proof that at any given time there are only about a dozen opera administrators in the entire universe, the currently restructuring Washingon National Opera has selected as its artistic advisor the otherwise criminally underemployed Francesca Zambello.
“We need more green markers”
“Opera star Renee Fleming came to Manhattan’s Grand Ballroom to record her vocals for Steven Spielberg’s new animated feature Tintin. Singing live with a 69 piece orchestra, Ms. Fleming was also filmed for motion caption. To ensure her animated character reflected all of her natural facial expressions they place green markers on Ms. Fleming’s face.” […]
Teen spirit
Not everything a genius creates is … a work of genius. Y’know? Mozart, for example: Sure, he was a prodigy at four, and at ten, and even at fourteen, but did he actually compose anything spectacular before he turned, say, seventeen? I’m thinking of “Exultate, Jubilate,” if you want to know.
Look for the Steel Lining
Now Anthony Tommasini has gone rummaging for the good news (“a place that could set the cultural tone for its neighborhood, much the way the Public Theater defines the life of its East Village environs”) so completely obscured by the dark clouds of recent reports from NYCO. But even a cockeyed optimist like Tommasini has […]
Gabler? What sort of name is that, Norwegian?
“Eva, Anna Gabler, is pretty as a picture; all the more disappointing, then, that she has neither Amanda Roocroft‘s naturalness of movement in the WNO production… nor Felicity Lott‘s former long-breathed radiance.” [The Arts Desk]