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Let’s get conversational this afternoon, cher public, for the Met broadcast of Ariadne auf Naxos.
La Cieca would like to welcome back into the parterre fold some members of the cher public (in the 10023 zip code, to be specific) who went missing for the past couple of months. We rejoice that those who were lost are now found!
Since Attila is in the forefront of our thoughts right now, and since the prima of the Met’s production won’t be broadcast, La Cieca thought it would be handy to have a Riccardo Muti performance of the Verdi work as a common point of reference.
La Cieca has the first top-secret highly classified eyes-only report from inside the hermetically sealed Attila dress rehearsal at the Met. Our spy (possibly pictured above) speaks out — after the jump, naturally.
La Cieca is delighted to hear that the Opéra de Paris and soprano Natalie Dessay just last night performed an hommage to Maria Callas by recreating one of the most famous nights of La Divina’s career. Unfortunately, that “night” was January 2, 1958, and in the intervening half century, opera management still hasn’t learned its…
Rome, June 16, 1800. Emilia sits in the lodge of Palazzo Farnese, of which she is the doorkeeper. She is a resilient, strong-willed and somewhat hardened woman. After all, she has long been in the employ of the Palazzo’s formidable occupant, Baron Scarpia, and witness to so much of his wickedness.
Soprano star of MGM’s golden age Kathryn Grayson died yesterday. The leading lady of Anchors Aweigh, Show Boat and Kiss Me Kate was 88.
“If it appears the Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care is attempting to commandeer Birmingham opera, there is a reason. ‘It’s because we are,’ says Andrew Duxbury, M.D., professor in the division. ‘We are taking over the opera’.” [UAB Reporter Online]
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.
You know, La Cieca lived through the 1980s, just barely, and then imagine her surprise when, midway through the 2000s, there was a revival of all that 80s stuff — shoulder pads, leggings, big hair, glitter. All of it. Well, no, not quite all of it. There was one trend of the 1980s whose revival…
La Cieca hears whispers from rehearsals of the Met’s eagerly-awaited new production of Attila that maestro Riccardo Muti is somewhat more, shall we say, engaged in the process than your average stick-waver.
Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice marked an epic first, a turning point in the history of opera. In this, the first of the composer’s “reform” operas, his intention was to take the opera seria style popular at the time and to boil it down to its purest dramatic elements, creating an opera of “noble…
UPDATE! UPDATE! The press release just went out, and Lawrence Brownlee will sing Tonio tonight! La Cieca has just heard that both Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flórez will cancel tonight’s performance of La Fille du Régiment at the Met. Subbing will be Leah Partridge and Lawrence Brownlee.
Sometime in the late 1950s, the management at Glyndebourne had the good idea to make archival recordings of the performances there, and these recordings, duly remastered and transferred to digital form, are gradually coming before the public through Glyndebourne’s house label. Thus it is that we find ourselves with this early release, a recording of…
When La Cieca’s wrong, she’s wrong. She really had no idea until today that Leontyne Price and Luciano Pavarotti shared the operatic stage any time besides that one-off Aida in San Francisco. But when confronted with proof in the form of an mp3, well, she’s going to be the first to admit her error.
It took the Metropolitan Opera decades to catch up with the rest of the world and finally stage La Cenerentola. Gioachino Rossini’s opera buffa, one of his most beloved and accomplished works, received its belated Met debut in 1997, amidst legitimate suspicions that the new production was less a genuine desire to add a belcanto…
Our Own JJ discusses Maria Callas and her Voice Of Perfect Imperfection with NPR’s Lynn Neary.
Talk of the Town
The Talk of the Town
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a great opera conductor
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a great opera conductor
Historically, conductors were often viewed as rigid, authoritarian figures. Yannick Nézet-Séguin completely subverts this stereotype.
Historically, conductors were often viewed as rigid, authoritarian figures. Yannick Nézet-Séguin completely subverts this stereotype.
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.
Will was the first cher pube to firmly commit to Don Pasquale, and as such he will be counted the winner of our most recent Regie quiz. Special thanks to eckermann, who earned “Le Mot du Jour” for his meticulously detailed (if totally off-base) analysis.
La Cieca and her panel of experts were overwhelmed at the level of sheer lexicological cleverness exhibited by so many of the cher public in our More than words can say competition. Of the many brilliant responses, the judges have managed to choose an overall winner (who will receive the promised gift pack) plus several…
She Who Has More Sobriquets Than Changes of Facial Expression continues her second half-century.
A brace of profiles in the March issue of Opera News engage the reader in a fascinating game of “the same, but different.” Simon Keenlyside and Paulo Szot are both baritones; both handsome, sexy men; and they’re both adept in classical and more modern musical theater forms. Both gentlemen are starring in new productions at…
It’s that time of week once again, cher public, the Saturday afternoon chat accompanying the Met’s matinee broadcast. The topic of today’s colloquy? Why, it’s La Fille du Régiment beginning at 1:00 PM!
The Mexican soprano is 70 years old today.
I checked back in on the Met’s revival of Ariadne auf Naxos yesterday, after a messy first night one week ago that left much to the imagination. Tenor Lance Ryan had been sick that night, and the cover who took his place was not much healthier, throwing the whole cast into a panic mode that…
UPDATE: A press release has just gone out announcing “The Metropolitan Opera and the English National Opera (ENO) will co-produce a world premiere production of composer Nico Muhly’s first opera.
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