Recent Stories
Simpler can be better, as Pocket Opera of New York demonstrated in the back of the Bechstein Showroom on Wednesday evening for their double bill of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and Debussy’s La chute de la maison Usher. When I heard these operas would be presented in English with piano accompaniment, I was initially…
“I saw the dress rehearsal of the Covent Garden Manon, and Vittorio had that metaphysical connection with the audience. I’m convinced of his potential.” [New York Times]
One of the buildings at Lincoln Center has become infested by a disgusting, blood-sucking parasite. And besides that, the David H. Koch Theater now has bedbugs. [AP] UPDATE: And now, like Beverly Sills and Sam Ramey, the bedbugs have “graduated” to the theater across the plaza. [Wall Street Journal]
You know La Cieca adores her some Gheorghiu, but the “scheduled” (not to mention the Soprano Math) just cries out for mockery.
“At the close of Boris Godunov, a leaderless Russia churns in chaos. Happily, the Met’s new production of Mussorgsky’s masterpiece — despite a last-minute turnover on the production team — ended triumphantly.” [New York Post]
At the risk of “pulling a Kathy Lee,” here’s a preliminary to tonight’s Met performance of Les Contes d’Hoffmann dedicated to Dame Joan Sutherland.
One of La Cieca’s favoritest bloggers in the whole wide world, Opera Cake, takes on the task of reviewing and explicating the “tough” Calixto Bieito production of Aïda, now running in Basel. And another scribe rapidly moving up in the ranks, Likely Impossibilities, takes a different but equally valid approach.
Performance Lab 115‘s adaptation of the first two parts of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, simply titled The Ring Cycle: [Parts 1+2], is a clever, well thought-out, if not entirely successful attempt to mythologize Wagner’s epic within the framework of 1980’s professional wrestling.
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.
Our Own JJ remembers Dame Joan Sutherland in the New York Post and for WQXR. We can also report that tonight’s Met performance of Les Contes d’Hoffmann will be dedicated to Dame Joan, and on Sunday, the company’s Sirius channel will feature a playlist of historical Sutherland performances, including Lucia di Lammermoor, La sonnambula, Norma,…
“Playthings of the Gods: Essential Myths,” the Vertical Player Repertory’s evening of Monteverdi, Britten and Milhaud, heard October 8, was a satisfying treat. The soloists were excellent, although the venue, Christ Church Cobble Hill, had overwhelmingly boomy acoustics and robbed the audience of any nuance in the voices.
The Australian soprano, called “The Voice of the Century,” died yesterday. She was 83. [Sydney Morning Herald]
Ever-vigilant Quanto Painy Fakor needed hardly more than a glance at last time’s Regie quiz to deduce the identity of the work: L’incoronazione di Poppea. Others of you quickly followed suit with the details of the company (Ópera de Oviedo) and director (Emilio Sagi). And now, Anna Bolena, right?
La Cieca is delighted to inform the cher public (pictured) that Betsy has managed in the very nick of time to aggregate a list of listening (and chatting) possibilities for this afternoon.
Even as La Cieca tippy-taps these words, the 30-hour Boston–New York–Boston marathon has begun for the maestro about whom the following was written less than two weeks ago: Still, the state of Mr. Levine’s health and music making were major concerns going into this evening. When he took his bow during the curtain calls he…
“The director of Anna Bolena is looking for two (2) well-defined muscular men of impressive size to be two stags with antlers wrestling onstage shirtless and barefoot.” [Art&Seek]
Congratulations to Nicola Lischi, of the younger generation of critics the one with the best developed… knowledge of Italian opera, for his first review on Opera Brittania.
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.
Says the Met press office: “Alfred Kim will make his Met debut as Manrico in three fall performances of Il Trovatore, replacing Marcelo Álvarez, who has withdrawn from the November 11, 15, and 19 performances for personal reasons.”
Kirill Petrenko will be the new General Music Director of the Bayerische Staatsoper, succeeding Kent Nagano on September 1, 2013 for a five-year contract. [Bayerische Staatsoper]
“Das neue Traumpaar” offer a duet from a their recent joint role debuts.
Which American opera company is about to break apart and make a brand new start in the form of a last-minute substitution in a prima donna title role?
There have been about 2,000 reviews of the Met’s new Rheingold so far, but for now, anyway, this one is my favorite—and not only for “Sid and Marty“.
La Cieca (third from right) has always prided herself on offering opportunities to the young, even if they aren’t always quick to pick up on her hints, and today is no exception. Your doyenne has several unusual (one might even say offbeat) opera events on the calendar, and she’d be interested in sending novice parterre…
“In the Met’s Tales of Hoffmann, Giuseppe Filianoti plays a poet defeated by life. In reality, the 36-year-old singer’s brush with tragedy had a far happier ending.” The tenor talks to Our Own JJ in the New York Post.
Opera Music Broadcast is pleased to announce our first-ever LIVE VIDEO webcast featuring the Toledo Opera and their production of Ariadne auf Naxos. And La Cieca is pleased—nay, delighted—to invite the cher public to enjoy the webcast and to chat back here at La Casa della Cieca on Wednesday evening, October 6 at 7:00 PM…
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