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 […]
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
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.
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.
La Cieca hears that the planned Decca recording of Giulio Cesare, to be based upon live concert performances this week in Paris, has been canceled.
“People approach me now and say things like, ‘We loved your hair last week, but the jacket the week before was even better’.” [Wicked Local Norwell]
This one’s not a quiz, because the concept is so elegantly obvious: Das Rheingold as an episode of Baywatch, with the Nibelung’s anvils replaced by a handier set of percussion instruments.
The legendary Russian mezzo-soprano has died after a brief illness. She was 85.
Rumor has it the NYT will do at least five full-time hires and bring in another half-dozen or so dedicated freelancers to provide in-depth coverage of the artistic event of of the decade: next summer, Leon Botstein conducts Franz Schreker. [Bard Summerscape]
“To Kettles Yard in Cambridge for the premiere of a new song cycle by Richard Baker, performed by baritone Christopher Purves and pianist Andrew West. Having started off in Harvey and the Wallbangers, Purves is now a rising British operatic star: he will sing Beckmesser at Welsh National Opera alongside Bryn Terfel in Die Meistersinger […]
The arts journalist La Cieca would like be when she grows up, Zachary Woolfe, continues his analysis of Peter Gelb‘s Met tenure — now all the more interesting since Joe Volpe has returned to the fold. [Observer]
Are you ready for a competition, cher public? Well, get ready to don your lexicographer’s caps, because this one is all about the words.
La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Dorothy Bishop has revived and revised her hilarious Sarah Palin show, now entitled “A Sarah Palin Presidents’ Day Spectacular,” Thursdays in February beginning the 11th at NYC’s Cafe Iguana.
UPDATE: A spokesman for Anna Netrebko just has informed La Cieca “Anna is not pregnant.” An Austrian website thie morning reported the rumor that Anna Netrebko is expecting again. [OE24.at]
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