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: 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.
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
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.
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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