Recent Stories
Chandos has issued an excellent new CD of Serge Rachmaninoff‘s one-act opera Aleko, written when the composer was only nineteen as a graduation exercise for the Moscow Conservatory.
One of parterre box’s oldest friends and earliest admirers, Der Schmuck der Madonna, emerges from his regal exile momentarily to plug what sounds like a memorable way to spend part of Memorial Day weekend:
… and the hope gets darker and darker as La Scoopenda performs Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah.”
“Featured Doer” Peter Gelb is one of 15 candidates for a video interview in the HuffPost Spotlight Series. Go to the Peter Gelb page at Huffington Post and leave a question (or three) for him. The five “doers” with the most questions asked will submit to a video interview!
Belle Miriam “Bubbles” Silverman was born in Brooklyn on May 25, 1929.
The delightful German soprano, who enjoyed a 40 year stage career, died yesterday in Switzerland. She was 83.
The U.S. Supreme Court will let stand a Colorado law that bans actors and actresses from smoking while performing their roles on stage. The Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act applies to all theatrical performances, including that smokiest of all operas, Carmen. [allvoices.com]
Someone or something in Cincinnati doesn’t want Die Meistersinger to happen. Today, three more cancellations were announced, including Thomas Allen (Beckmesser) and Evgeny Nikitin (Pogner). [Cincinnati.com]
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.
Finally, finally La Cieca devised a Regie quiz that really put the cher public on their mettle, and in fact, the only one of you even to narrow in on the right answer was 79CXR, whose wild guesses included a direct hit. The opera was Handel’s Hercules, as directed for the Luzerner Theater by Dominique…
In a tidbit sure to warm the cockles of Our Own Vicar of John Wakefield, beloved artist Dame Josephine Barstow will return to the ‘boards’ of the Gran Teatre de Liceu in April 2011. The legendary septuagenarian singing actress will be heard in the pivotal rôle of “Mummy Lucy” in Richard Jones‘s inscenation of Rustic Chivalry.
The Wizard of Bayrueth was born in Leipzig on May 22, 1813. La Cieca invites the cher public to celebrate Wagner’s mastery of the music drama with selections from his Werk.
When attending a production by one of the myriad small, independent opera Companies in New York, it’s always a bit of a crapshoot. When I go to one of these things, I try and play by an old Irish saying: “If you’re expecting a kick in the balls, a slap in the face is a…
“The New York City Opera, which just reported a $19.9 million deficit in 2008-09, paid Gerard Mortier $400,000 for his stint as part-time general-manager in-waiting.” [Bloomberg News]
The results are in for the first annual Pubie Awards, nominated and voted upon by you, the Cher Public. Turnout this year was spectacular, with some categories racking up as many as 2,647 votes. A few of the races were close, and La Cieca thinks you’ll see an upset or two among the winners, after…
When invited to participate in a discourse on artistic standards (hello, internet!), it’s easy — pleasurable, even — for an aesthete to bray about “the fall.” Where are the true heldentenors? Your kingdom for a Callas! (Or a Stratas, or a Rysanek!) And might the public, at long last, deserve a stable of directors who…
The subtitle for Il crociato in Egitto, the last of Meyerbeer’s great Italian operas, is “Historic Melodrama in Two Acts,” and boy is it! A melodrama, I mean. I’m not sure about the historic part.
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.
In honor of the impending revival of Porgy and Bess at New Jersey State Opera (marking the 75th anniversary of the premiere of the work), La Cieca invites the public to share their favorite YouTube clips of the Gershwin masterpiece. After the jump, La Cieca nominates a highlight and a lowlight of Porgiana.
As if her elegant carriage, pristine soprano and knockabout comedy skills (as enjoyed in La Fille du Régiment) were not sufficient claims to fame, Dame Kiri te Kanawa has branched out into the composition of surrealist poetry.
Andrea Bocelli is a pop singer, and a wildly successful one at that. So why does he feel compelled to pretend to be a dramatic tenor?
La Cieca is nothing if not infinitely suggestible, particularly when the suggestion in question is clever and elegantly expressed. So, on the prompting of commenter M (pictured above) La Cieca would like to remind the cher public about a few contemporary opera projects on the immediate horizon.
The definitive postwar dramatic soprano was born May 17, 1918.
His Regie recognition is as fleet as his singing: it took iltenoredigrazia only six minutes to guess correctly that Elektra was the opera depicted in our most recent quiz. La Cieca invites him (and the rest of you, of course) to lock horns with a more knotty puzzler, after the jump.
Why you chose it I can’t say: I guess you like it better this way. At any rate, this afternoon’s chat (by popular demand) will revolve around a broadcast of Il turco in Italia from the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Here’s the BBC 3 Player, and the live chat is in the usual location.
“Maestro Placido Domingo took to the stage in Qatar for the second time on Thursday night, when he was joined by the ‘Antologia de la Zarzuela’, with whom he gave an amazing performance of traditional Spanish music at the Pearl-Qatar.” [Gulf Times]
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