Jail bird
A quick clip from today’s telecast of Anna Bolena; unfortunately the sound is slightly out of synch and the stage director is more than slightly “Kulturbanause.” But, still: Anna!
Recent Stories
The invisible maestro
Which opera house’s management is rightly climbing the walls with anger? Give them a break, because only five days before a major opening night the conductor—whose name is very well known—has not yet yet arrived in town, let alone attended a rehearsal!
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).
Hojotoho-kay
BelAir Classiques has released a DVD of a 2007 production of Die Walküre, filmed in HD at the Festival D’Aix en Provence, a co-production with Osterfestspiele Salzburg. While not an unwelcome addition to the numerous DVDs available of this work, it is certainly not an essential one. This production is just not bad enough to […]
Golf clap
A faithful spy reports from the Met: “Today’s final dress of Wozzeck went very well, to say the least…. The small ‘closed’ audience cheered at the end. Waltraud Meier turned toward the wings when it was time for the maestro to take his curtain calll, but returned to her place without him. Suddenly, there [James […]
Money dramas
Those of you who have been wondering why the announcement of the New York City Opera’s 2011-2012 seems to be almost a month overdue may not take much consolation in the rumor La Cieca has just heard. According to a reliable source, the company will “probably” not offer a fall season (“due to no money, […]
Outdoor voice
We see the excited crowd at the Arena di Verona, the ancient structure lit by enormous stadium lights, the passing of candlelight through the audience, and tourists snapping pictures. The flash bulbs keep popping, right through the performance. And as the opera unfolds, there is that feeling of watching a tired Broadway cast walk through […]
Regie wide shut
La Cieca was a little disappointed that so few of you guessed at last week’s Regie quiz, since the opera (though not the production) has been the subject of so much discussion the past few days. That’s right, it’s Anna Bolena, as directed for the Luzerner Theater by Tobias Kratzer. A trailer for this show, […]
Irony defined, or something
“Suddenly this quaint Depression-era protest song… delivered in a tone of controlled anger became like a devastating critique of today’s winner-take-all economic climate. Mr. Gunn made you feel the outrage of veterans who fought not only in World War I but in Iraq and Afghanistan, returning from overseas to cold shoulders and empty food pantries.” […]
Where the neon signs are pretty
In what La Cieca chooses to regard fondly as a flashback to her gritty early days in Manhattan in the 1980s, a Met honcho has been busted on 14th Street with schnauzer in full view. [New York Post]
Golden, girl
Given the multiple A-list events transpiring Saturday afternoon, La Cieca has come up with what she hopes is a workable solution to the over-abundance of choices.
Give me some names, darling!
So, let’s start guessing. Who are the three “names” who supplied the back cover blurbs for the new coffee-table ecomium James Levine: 40 Years at the Metropolitan Opera? La Cieca will provide you with hints after the jump.
Steel me, sweet thief
La Cieca’s spies tell her that the New York City Opera plans an extremely ambitious season for 2011-2012, with vast expansions of repertory and number of performances.
Yet another reason I’m glad I’m not Peter Gelb
You know, there’s the day-to-day stuff, like is Salvatore Licitra going to sing tonight. And then there’s the “coming soon” stuff, like getting the new Walküre up and running. And the “closely watched” stuff, like the Japan tour, with additional concerns outlined in today’s New York Times. And speaking of that article, there’s bullshit like […]
Le Comte: ORLY?
“Take a sexy comedy, add Rossini’s scrumptious melodies, then fold in world-class singers and a Tony-winning director. Now pray it doesn’t turn out like the sodden soufflé that is the Met’s new Le Comte Ory.” Our own JJ is in a severe mood in today’s New York Post.
Motherhood march
La Cieca has heard from a reliable source that two Met divas have already privately announced they “are not taking their young children to Japan and are not going themselves.”
By La Cieca
The recursion of kitsch
Like the double or triple negative (where theoretically pairs of “nots” cancel each other out, but in practice you can’t be so sure) this tidbit of news La Cieca just read has her confused and uncertain. It seems that at a recital in Tulsa last night, Dame Kiri te Kanawa sang as an encore a […]
We open in menace?
A source close to the Met tells La Cieca that “all the house’s union representatives” will meet with Peter Gelb today to discuss rank and file “anxieties” about exposure to radiation and other safety concerns during the company’s planned tour to Japan scheduled for June. The bulk of Met personnel are scheduled to depart on […]
Oh, Madeleine!
Renée Fleming (who will not be wearing the dress depicted, probably) leads the cast in tonight’s performance of Capriccio at the Met, and La Cieca is counting on you, the cher public, to lead the chat beginning at 8:00 pm.
Le duc d’Orleans, le duc d’Ayen…
Former Editor of Opera News and Director of Opera-Music Theater at the National Endowment for the Arts Patrick J. Smith (pictured) yearns for the ancien régime: “We used to go to the opera for the voices. Zinka Milanov…” And so, anyone who has serious informed criticism of how Peter Gelb runs the Met now can […]
Children of the Zorn
“Esoteric music staged by an operatic outsider paid off for the New York City Opera on Friday night with Monodramas, a program of three single-character operas.” [New York Post]
One blind item
Which divo, as is his habit, refused to wear the costume assigned him for the climactic scene of a recent production, favoring instead “more sexy” garb?
Peter Gelb ci guarda — Peter Gelb ci vede!
The Met’s general manager indulges in the sincerest form of flattery by opening today’s New York Times response to his critics with a blind item in the style of a certain low-rent gossipmonger. After you figure out the identity of the “star soprano, [who,] thinking she might have been poisoned, withdrew from the cast,” you […]