Recent Stories
In 1804, E.T.A. Hoffmann became acquainted with Schlegel’s translations of Spanish plays in Spanisches Theater. During an illness in 1807, he returned to the Schlegel and discovered Calderon’s Die Scharpe und die Blume, finding it an ideal operatic subject. He composed the opera in Warsaw and Berlin, and began seeking a theatre that would present…
The opera composer and bon vivant was born December 22, 1858.
The title of this site says it all: Fotografie orribili di cantanti.
La Cieca wonders if the horrific accident during last night’s performance of the Spider-Man musical (which promises to re-open Wednesday night with “additional safety protocols“) reminds you of, well, anything familiar?
UPDATE: Thanks to the generosity of a member of the cher public who wishes to remain anonymous, a ticket has been obtained for the parterre reviewer!
La Cieca wishes a festive and safe (if such a combination is possible) holiday season to all the cher public, who in turn are invited to offer each other such greetings in the comments below.
Long ago, in a galaxy far away – I mean, the era before supertitles became common in opera houses around the world – you could always tell the text-mad opera fan. He was the one who arrived early to the theater and spent the remaining minutes to curtain hunched over his libretto booklet, trying to…
“Faye Dunaway‘s Master Class Movie: What The Hell Happened?” [Michael Musto]
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.
“The decades-overdue debut of Sir Simon Rattle at the Met Friday night demonstrated brilliantly just what we’ve been missing: His conducting of Pelléas et Mélisande is the musical pinnacle of the season.” [New York Post]
La Cieca is simply overjoyed to announce a handy and fascinating innovation at parterre.com: The Author Archive Page. Each of your doyenne’s stable of scribes will be assigned his and/or her own unique page where every story under that byline will be easily accessible—as, for example, the many and wondrous reviews of Ercole Farnese. Look…
It’s a sad story, really. Debussy and Maeterlinck had what the kids would call Major Drama over who was to sing Melisande (Mary Garden vs. the person you’ve never heard of) and so Maeterlinck didn’t see Pelleas until years after Debussy had died, so he never got to be like “word!” or, I suppose, “mot!”
If I had been handed Clari’s score without being told the name of the composer, I might have thought it was a lost Rossini opera, albeit a minor one. I would have probably assigned it to the early period of Rossini’s career, because it shows more similarities with works like La pietra del paragone and…
La Cieca has just heard that Ferruccio Furlanetto has canceled this afternoon’s performance of Don Carlo at the Met. Giorgio Giuseppini will sing Filippo.
Congratulations to Opera Chic, named “Essential Opera Blogger” in the current Opera News by a panel consisting of Brian Kellow and Tristan Kraft.
At long last, the Met Saturday afternoon broadcasts begin again today with Don Carlo at 12:30 PM. What better way to spend a lazy winter afternoon than with Margaret, Ira, and a chat in La Casa della Cieca?
Our Own JJ (pictured) reveals what makes him cry. [Musical America]
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.
The message of last times’s Regie quiz couldn’t be clearer: “La Cieca, schafft Neues!” Baritenor got the answer in less time than it takes to hum a Leitmotif: it was indeed Die Meistersinger, in a production by Andreas Homoki for the Komische Oper Berlin. This week’s quiz, therefore, is tougher, and La Cieca will also…
The updates on Brad Wilber‘s new Met Futures page are arriving almost daily now, with perhaps the most startling recent news the “removal” of Juan Diego Flórez from a projected new production of I puritani in April 2014. But there’s more to it, after the jump.
Adroit, awesome, autononomous Anne Midgette nominates her Top 10 Classical and Opera Releases of 2010 over at Soundcheck, and, La Cieca thinks to herself, why should Anne have all the fun? What are your favorite opera CDs and DVDs of the year, cher public? (Here are a few reviews to jog your memory.)
A faithful reader has just informed La Cieca that, two weeks ago at the Met, during an intermission of La bohème, he saw Henry Kissinger, “flanked by two bodyguards twice his height and twelve times his weight.” Which led this reader to pose to you, cher public, the following trivia question: “What makes Henry Kissinger…
Cosmologist Stephen Hawking may be the next “documentary” character to take operatic life on the stage of the Met. According to Le Devoir, director Robert Lepage, composer Osvaldo Golijov and librettist Alberto Manguel are rumored to be collaborating on an opera for the Met’s 2015-16 season based on Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.
The Bulgarian diva was born December 15, 1934.
The answers of millions of supplicants worldwide (and thousands of Met-goers citywide) have been answered. “[Peter Gelb] said there were no plans to replace Mr. Zeffirelli’s productions of La Bohème and Turandot. [New York Times]
“Le pene d’amore non uccisero la Callas” reads the rather sensational headline: “The pains of love did not kill Callas.” The actual story in La Stampa is more sober, telling of an investigative study into the causes of the diva’s vocal decline and eventual death.
×
Sign up for Parterre’s free newsletter.
Exclusive opera reviews, commentary, and top reads
delivered to your email weekly…ish.