Nevica!
What better omen for the an opening night of La fanciulla del West than the first snow of the season here in New York City?
Recent Stories
Vergin territory
Incredible, but true, I Puritani had not been performed in Great Britain since 1887 when Glyndebourne decided to stage it in 1960 with the main intention to showcase Joan Sutherland, who had been catapulted to international superstardom one year earlier in the legendary Lucia di Lammermoor at Covent Garden. Furthermore, Vittorio Gui, who had already […]
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).
Chat, don’t tell
With Betsy Ann pulling a Gheorghiu, the lovely and talented M. Croche leaps once more into the b(r)each, saying, “Once again it’s time for the Saturday Opera-Bash. Hai-ku’ed up this week are…”
Happy Birthday Maria Callas
La Divina was born on (or about) December 3, 1923.
Team (Musical) America
Is Our Own JJ turning Neocon? He certainly has some very positive things to say about the “conservative” Don Carlo in his latest “Rough and Regie” offering! [Musical America] (Photograph: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.)
She aches just like a woman, but she breaks just like a little girl
“’Voice’ is a feminine noun is Spanish, and therefore, must be treated with love and attention, like a woman. This is where the secret lies.” [PanArmenian.net]
Canon ball
New York Festival of Song’s Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay Life is a delightfully lighthearted, deeply personal, and colorful recital made of equal parts sex, camp, melancholy, and tenderness. Steven Blier‘s wide-ranging program consists of five sets of songs, each meant to evoke, as per his program notes, “a quintessential moment of a gay […]
Chest desserts
The Platonic ideal of the barihunk has arrived, and his name is John Chest. The 25-year-old dreamboat is the winner of the 2010 Stella Maris International Vocal Competition, where he sang music by Rossini, Korngold, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Britten. According to a charmingly phrased press release, “Chest was put forward by the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, […]
Solid gold
“Sombre splendor there is frequently not.” Zachary Woolfe mulls Don Carlo. [New York Observer]
Pullquote
“A book about Mr. Lebrecht’s ‘search for Gustav Mahler,’ as he calls his obsession, this is also a book about Mr. Lebrecht, a far less compelling subject.” [NYT]
Peter Hofmann 1944-2010
German heldentenor and crossover performer Peter Hofmann died yesterday. He was 66.
Those whom the goddesses would destroy
Controversial diva Marina Poplavskaya is the subject of a profile in the current New Yorker that does not include any bloodhounds snappin’ at her rear end, but that’s about the only life experience omitted. Highlights include the soprano’s lugging a trolley full of luggage across 14 lanes of Buenos Aires traffic following a dispute with […]
Happy Birthday Gaetano Donizetti
The prolific “Swan of Bergamo” (as he is almost never called) was born November 29, 1797.
Pastia shrugged
The interpretation of Carmen by Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca has been much debated, many finding her cold and remote, others admiring her subtly smoldering quality. A new Deutsche Grammophon DVD documenting the Met’s January 16, 2010 performances offers us an opportunity to examine the gypsy in close-up. This is certainly not the lusty, passionate, mercurial Carmen […]
Regie on the roof
La Cieca hoped you would have a devil of time with last time’s Regie quiz, but she was wrong. And right, too, of course, since the work in question was Mefistofele. Congratulations to Cara Speme, first to guess, and correct on the first try. More puzzlement after the jump.
Iphigénie en arrière-fond
“This company premiere features an outstanding cast led by soprano Patricia Racette, ‘the consummate singing actress’ (Chicago Tribune).” [Washington National Opera]
Doorbuster chat
You’ve survived the crowds of Black Friday, but can you face the terrors of Decorator Beige Saturday? Huge savings in every department.
Des grandeurs de ce monde
Don Carlo is truly a grand opera, Verdi’s biggest, no matter if it’s the four or five act version. It is a bitch.
Vivremo insiem, e morremo insiem!
The truth, at last: “By Manuela Hoelterhoff and Zinta Lundborg” [Bloomberg]
Un wallow in maschera
Chicago’s opera community has been abuzz about this production of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera ever since the 2010-11 Lyric Opera season was announced. A sumptuous production owned by San Francisco opera, major female stars, a solid male cast of experienced Verdians, and stage direction by the legendary Renata Scotto—what more could one ask?
Nerve center
“Il più amato, il più osannato, il solo e unico varietà operistico radiofonico quotidiano,” or, as we call it, La Barcaccia, examined earlier this week “Donne sull’orlo di una crisi di nervi.” The divas on a verge of a nervous breakdown include Cecilia Bartoli and our own Renée Fleming in a (though not the) legendary […]
Fallen regie
Well, La Cieca thought surely by now someone would have come up with the title of last week’s Regie quiz, but, go figure. Prepare to slap your forehead and yell, “Of course,” because it’s Die Soldaten in a production that’s just opened at De Nederlandse Opera, directed by Willy Decker. Now, this week, La Cieca […]
Mud flung!
Eyes flash! Fans snap! Petticoats rustle omiously! It’s a full-scale diva catfight online as producer David McVicar lashes out at the “sheer, crass ignorance and spitefulness” of bloggress Intermezzo!