Recent Stories
La Cieca hears that Opera Orchestra of New York’s 2010-2011 season will represent a step up from last two years of stopgap recitals as well as a step back from the three-opera seasons of yore.
No luck with last week’s Regie quiz, cher public? In fact, nobody guessed the answer, perhaps because La Cieca didn’t include a photo of the title character of the opera. Check after the jump for said photo.
UPDATE: La Cieca is going to call this one for L’elisir d’amore from LOC, though depending on the enthusiasm and whim of the cher public, we may dart over to La donna del lago in midafternoon. Details after the jump.
The tutelary goddess of parterre.com performs a few phrases of La bohème — in 2010.
Take a Wild Ride with a Valkyrie!! Yes, that’s what all the signs say around Old Baghdad-by-the-Bay…. So, fasten your seatbelts, y’all, it’s going to be a bumpy night! As it turned out, Die Walküre was an unexpectedly wonderful ride, marking the debut of someone who could be a very important new Brünnhilde, Nina Stemme.…
The wealthy suburban community of Greenwich, CT is a place where diamonds are in no short supply. Yet there are still some diamonds of artistic excellence hidden in this seaside town, including the shockingly well-done production of Hans Werner Henze’s The Runaway Slave (El Cimarrón) by the Greenwich Music Festival. This most likely will be…
“If [Francesca] Zambello were a composer, she would surely be Meyerbeer.” [MusicWeb International]
A young opera fan is looking for advice.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Goodnight, Irene
Goodnight, Irene
Grand Tier Grab Bag features the American Zwischenfach mezzo Irene Roberts ahead of an eclectic season of Wagner.
Grand Tier Grab Bag features the American Zwischenfach mezzo Irene Roberts ahead of an eclectic season of Wagner.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Poetic license
Poetic license
Parterre Box shines a light on Liparit Avetisyan, who made his Met debut as Alfredo earlier this spring.
Parterre Box shines a light on Liparit Avetisyan, who made his Met debut as Alfredo earlier this spring.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Frau Miina-Liisa will es werde Nacht
Frau Miina-Liisa will es werde Nacht
Parterre Box features soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä, making her title role debut in Die Walküre in Munich next week, in a performance of Tristan und Isolde from 2021.
Parterre Box features soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä, making her title role debut in Die Walküre in Munich next week, in a performance of Tristan und Isolde from 2021.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Lux aeterna luceat eis
Lux aeterna luceat eis
Grand Tier Grab Bag this week honors the late Limmie Pulliam with a bit of his Verdi Requiem.
Grand Tier Grab Bag this week honors the late Limmie Pulliam with a bit of his Verdi Requiem.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Kathryn the great
Kathryn the great
Parterre Box previews Kathryn Lewek‘s upcoming Salome with clips of her as another unhinged lady of antiquity.
Parterre Box previews Kathryn Lewek‘s upcoming Salome with clips of her as another unhinged lady of antiquity.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Count your blessings
Count your blessings
Fast-rising Verdi baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbataar is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Fast-rising Verdi baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbataar is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
[La Cieca welcomes the newest and most lissome member of the parterre espionage force, Mlle. La Taupe, who just last night invaded the first performance of San Francisco Opera’s La fanciulla del West.] UPDATE: The last act!
Congratulations to La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Wenarto on the occasion of his 1,000th video on YouTube!
The tuneful Peruvian was born June 9, 1891.
After the jump, a preview glimpse of Deborah Voigt and company in San Francisco Opera’s production of La fanciulla del West.
La Cieca has heard that, not to be outdone by Peter Gelb‘s discovery of hot young directors like Luc Bondy and Patrice Chéreau, NYCO’s George Steel is boldly leaping forward into the 20th century by signing up Peter Sellars for a series of productions. In other music news, everyone down at Danceteria is just wild…
A long-awaited DVD from the Met documents one of the great “42nd Street” episodes in operatic history: on December 20, 1980, a largely unknown Julia Migenes (or Migenes-Johnson, as she was called in those days) stepped in on a few hours’ notice for an ailing Teresa Stratas as the anti-heroine of Berg’s Lulu. A prodigiously…
It’s true, it’s true! Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch are going into A Little Night Music! The iconic pair will open in the show on Broadway on July 13. Note: autoplaying video and after the jump!
La Cieca’s faithful spies once again have done their jobs well! What you learned here a week and a half ago about refitting to the Met stage to accommodate the ginormous weight of the Lepage Ring set has finally made its way into the New York Times. Also (love him or hate him) you have…
Talk of the Town
The Talk of the Town
Patrizia Ciofi should have made it to the Met
Patrizia Ciofi should have made it to the Met
The artist who I feel should have made it to the Met is Patrizia Ciofi.
The artist who I feel should have made it to the Met is Patrizia Ciofi.
The Talk of the Town
Giannina Arangi-Lombardi never made it to the Met
Giannina Arangi-Lombardi never made it to the Met
Giannina Arangi-Lombardi never sang at the Met.
Giannina Arangi-Lombardi never sang at the Met.
The Talk of the Town
Andrée Esposito and Alain Vanzo should have made it to the Met
Andrée Esposito and Alain Vanzo should have made it to the Met
This Mireille duet unites Andrée Esposito and Alain Vanzo and shows the timbral and stylistic qualities that made them exemplary.
This Mireille duet unites Andrée Esposito and Alain Vanzo and shows the timbral and stylistic qualities that made them exemplary.
The Talk of the Town
Ebe Stignani and Anita Cerquetti should have made it to the Met
Ebe Stignani and Anita Cerquetti should have made it to the Met
Subtlety is for cowards, say the blazing Anita Cerquetti and the blaring Ebe Stignani.
Subtlety is for cowards, say the blazing Anita Cerquetti and the blaring Ebe Stignani.
The Talk of the Town
Sena Jurinac should have made it to the Met
Sena Jurinac should have made it to the Met
Sena Jurinac, a celebrated Mozart and Strauss singer here as the Composer, a signature role.
Sena Jurinac, a celebrated Mozart and Strauss singer here as the Composer, a signature role.
The Talk of the Town
Janet Baker should have made it to the Met
Janet Baker should have made it to the Met
The divine Dame Janet Baker never sang at the Metropolitan, sadly for American audiences.
The divine Dame Janet Baker never sang at the Metropolitan, sadly for American audiences.
The greatest week in the history of show business begins today in preparation for the Drop of That Album here in the USA, at this writing barely 15 hours away. In support of this release, Renée Fleming is making a whirlwind tour of personal appearances, including a command performance last night before President and Mrs.…
Which Hochdramatische will lay down her spear and shield during the summer of 2011 to take up firearms for a Berlin debut? (PS: Not the city, the composer.)
Market forces at work in a London music shop.
Leonard Slatkin explains to the Detroit Free Press that everything was going great guns with the Met Traviata rehearsals until he played stage director, telling Alfredo (James Valenti) to take visual focus in the final seconds of the opera.
Who could be more qualified than Loge to declare, “It just seems to be screaming Walküre to me.” The production doing all that screaming was by Barrie Kosky for the Staatsoper Hannover. La Cieca trusts you too, cher public, will scream — this time with delight — when you divine which opera is represented after…
This cheerful mug is an image from the trailer for La Scoopenda‘s laff-riot CD I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell or whatever it’s called. Video (which incidentally serves as an elegant proof of Dr. Repertoire’s Seventh Rule for Stage Directors) after the jump.
So, speaking of Jonas Kaufmann, who’s up for a chat during this afternoon’s webcast of Don Carlo at 1:00 pm? (Yes, I realize it’s not quite live, but it’s the most interesting offering La Cieca can see, and she received rapturous reports on the performance from a trusted colleague.) Details after the jump.
Maybe it’s just me, but every time I listen to well done French baroque music, my imagination flies to the opulent halls of Versailles. I fantasize about being amongst Louis XIV and his cohorts drunk on wine, good food, and better music, enjoying the life of a bon vivant. Few recordings have created this vivid…
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