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“There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications — to put it plainly! The four-letter word deprived us of our plantation, till finally all that was left — and…
“And the news of this revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s opulent production continues to be the exciting work of the young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons, who searches out the modernist touches in Puccini’s final work.” [NYT]
La Cieca has just been entrusted with a veritable cornucopia of future lore about our beloved Metropolitan Opera. You must remember, my friends, future events such as these will affect you in the future. And what happens in the future stays in the future. Anyway, shall we? La Cieca thought you’d never ask.
Separated at a center part: castanet-clicker Elina Garanca and cast-in-XXX-flicker Traci Lords.
“Carmen, opera’s favorite bad girl, is sexy, unpredictable and fascinating — everything the Met’s new production of Bizet’s Carmen is not.” [NYP]
Can you really believe it’s been only five years since YouTube was launched? And can you believe that it’s taken all five of those years for the definitive “this is why YouTube was invented” video to show up on the site?
Last week’s Regie quiz can be summed up in three little words: “far too easy!” Practically everybody got it right on the first guess: Die Frau Ohne Schatten, as seen at the Opernhaus Zürich in a production by the hopelessly conventional David Pountney. A somewhat less conventional production of a far less conventional opera follows…
This afternoon’s Met broadcast is Hansel and Gretel, and you know the drill about the rest. The performance starts at 1:00 pm.
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.
Since I had already gotten my Hanukah gift this year (my Nikon D3000 DSLR), I was surprised to receive a box from my sister this past week. One of the gifts inside was Les Urnes de l’Opera, a collection of arias and scenes recorded shortly after the turn of the last century and buried in…
The last parterre chat of 2009, Carmen from the Met, begins at 6:00 pm for a 6:30 curtain.
Well, La Cieca certainly hopes not, and she looks forward to seeing all of you in 2010. In the meantime, do drop by parterre.com beginning around 6ish this PM for a live chat about tonight’s Carmen prima from the Met. After the jump, La Cieca and an unidentified member of the cher public (possibly Camille?)…
David Pomeroy makes his Met debut tonight as the eponymous boozehound in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, replacing the ill Joseph Calleja. Meanwhile, La Cieca hears, Brandon Jovanovich is on a rehearsal stage getting brought up to speed on the Carmen production in case he has to go on for Roberto Alagna tomorrow night.
Your doyenne guiltily just realized that she has not yet taken a moment to pen a “thank you” note to that member of the cher public who sent her the George Steel watch as a holiday gift. In the spirit of that timepiece, La Cieca would like to update yesterday afternoon’s open-and-shut, 100% certain, no questions asked posting…
A tribute to Kennedy Center honoree Grace Bumbry from fellow laureate Aretha Franklin.
Okay, La Cieca has sifted all the evidence thus far, and she has done Pravda-style scrutiny of what was said and what was left unsaid (particularly by Peter Gelb) in the most recent New York Times analysis of the issue, and ignoring the most recent Jeremiads from Rome on account of the fact that pretty…
That invited audience for last night’s dress rehearsal of Carmen at the Met must still be under house arrest, for nary a peep has reached the ear of your doyenne. On the bright side, there was a snippet of video smuggled out of a rehearsal of the upcoming Attila, and La Cieca is happy to…
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.
La Cieca’s first resolution for the New Year: to get herself a high C like the one Amarilli Nizza throws around with such aplomb and insouciance and such.
La Cieca would be fascinated to find out how you did it, Hoffmann. However did you guess that last week’s Regie quiz in fact portrayed Rusalka — as envisioned by that new parterre darling Stefan Herheim for Oper Graz!
Don’t say that! No one is alone for the weekly chat during the Saturday Met broadcast! Today the performance is Elektra, starting at 1:00 pm.
“I will have more to say on this question later.” So, three weeks ago, Anthony Tommasini left open the subject of how “[n]one of the versions of [Les Contes d’Hoffmann] that have appeared over the years, some of them corrupted, can be said to be authentic.” The Times scribe has at last broken his silence, though…
“A Zeffirelli, dopo le polemiche della vigilia che lo hanno opposto al soprano Daniela Dessì, da lui ritenuta non giusta per il ruolo di Violetta in questa Traviata, qualche dissenso misto agli applausi al momento di comparire in proscenio assieme a Gelmetti.” [Il Messaggero]
So La Cieca was thinking back, what with the end of the oughts and all, and she found herself wondering how parterre.com has changed in the past ten years. Here’s a screenshot of the site (not yet a blog) circa December 1999, and what nostalgia to think of the days when we still used “frames!”…
Tonight’s Hoffmann at the Met is conducted by John Keenan, but it’s not a(nother) James Levine cancellation. Of the nine performances of the Offenbach opera this season, Maestro Jimmy was always scheduled to do only six; the other were “TBA” until the season began. With his cancellation of of the December 16 performance, of course,…
La Cieca reminds the cher public: you still have one week to come up with a top ten list about the decade from the beginning of 2000 to the end of 2009, with the winner taking home a $100 Amazon gift card.
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