Recent Stories
Congratulations and best wishes to newly wed couple Ira Siff and Hans Pieter Heijnis, who were married Saturday in a politically-charged ceremony in Amsterdam. [via Reuters]
Well observed, grrg! For a guy with no vowels in his name, you picked up pretty quickly that our most recent Regie quiz depicted Il mondo della luna. So now, vowelled and unvowelled alike, you are challenged to identify this week’s mystery opera! (Remember: if you recognize the production, keep still while others guess!)
Some songs just steadfastly repel the crossover treatment. Some years ago Karita Mattila came to grief on “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” and now Anne Sofie von Otter doesn’t do much better. (Why does it always sound like they coached this number with The Opera Milf?)
The atmosphere around Gotham may become rather more bizarre sometime in the next couple of years when Rufus Wainwright brings his opera Prima Donna into New York.
A birthday salute from Finnish firecracker Karita Mattila.
La Cieca has to admit that what she thought would be a bang-up notion turned out to be a total damp squib: the “Letter” competition failed to rouse much interest. The sole (albeit very fine) entry follows the jump.
Candid snapshots of La Cieca’s arrival this morning at the parterre box editorial offices.
Yesterday, a performance of Lucrezia Borgia was telecast in Europe (previously recorded during a July 6 performance). This Christof Loy production from the Bayerische Staatsoper features Edita Gruberova in her first staged Lucrezia, in the company of Pavol Breslik (Gennaro) and Alice Coote (Maffio Orsini). A selection of clips follows the jump.
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Don’t cry because it’s over
Don’t cry because it’s over
Grand Tier Grab Bag hearkens back to the days when Sondra Radvanovsky — who is singing no Verdi at all next season — seemed like the Verdi soprano of reference.
Grand Tier Grab Bag hearkens back to the days when Sondra Radvanovsky — who is singing no Verdi at all next season — seemed like the Verdi soprano of reference.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Rizzin’ to the occasion
Rizzin’ to the occasion
Parterre Box features the Met’s current Eugene Onegin, Iurii Samoilov, in a performance of Rossini ahead of a return to Pesaro this summer.
Parterre Box features the Met’s current Eugene Onegin, Iurii Samoilov, in a performance of Rossini ahead of a return to Pesaro this summer.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
When they go low
When they go low
Nostalgic for bass month, Parterre Box offers excerpts from two young basses to watch: Giorgi Manoshvili and Patrick Guetti.
Nostalgic for bass month, Parterre Box offers excerpts from two young basses to watch: Giorgi Manoshvili and Patrick Guetti.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Nailin’ the coughin’
Nailin’ the coughin’
Rosa Feola, still scheduled for a run of performances as Violetta in New York this spring, is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Rosa Feola, still scheduled for a run of performances as Violetta in New York this spring, is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Landing the plane
Landing the plane
With Nixon, Klinghoffer, and Andris Nelsons on the mind, Parterre Box offers a recording of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s recent John Adams outing.
With Nixon, Klinghoffer, and Andris Nelsons on the mind, Parterre Box offers a recording of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s recent John Adams outing.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Le galant tireur
Le galant tireur
American tenor Charles Castronovo performs a bit of Weber’s Der Freischütz ahead of the opportunity to hear Berlioz‘s take on the score at Carnegie Hall next week.
American tenor Charles Castronovo performs a bit of Weber’s Der Freischütz ahead of the opportunity to hear Berlioz‘s take on the score at Carnegie Hall next week.
In a startling and sudden transition from high to pop culture, the Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH has announced they are producing a television film about their recent changeover in leadership to a partnership between half-sisters Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner. Casting for the film is just what you might have expected.
La Cieca may have pointed this out before, but it’s worth pointing out again. Is this film clip the ultimate Renée Fleming experience, or what?
La Cieca is dubious about the effectiveness of City Opera’s new advertising campaign.
La Cieca finally finished listening to her review copy of the Beverly Sills reissue Norma last night, a recording she hasn’t heard since, oh, sometime during the disco era. This is first time this recording has appeared on CD, at least in wide release, and naturally going to be of interest to Sills (or Shirley…
“The Met now presents works by directors like Luc Bondy or Patrice Chereau – the people who worked in Europe 20 years ago and whose work was derided from afar.” Once she gets past the librettese (“derided from afar?”) La Cieca thinks she will like this Nikolaus Bachler. [Deutsche Welle]
Opera Orchestra of New York will stage a cautious comeback next season with a program of solo recitals and “intimate and informal dinner-hour recitals and talks” featuring the irreplaceable Ira Siff. Full recitals are programmed by “Golden Voiced Diva” Aprile Millo (celebrating the 25th anniversary of her OONY debut) and Eglise Gutiérrez, most recently heard…
Our Own JJ braved the wilds of the Lincoln Center Festival, where he saw and reviewed The Peasant Opera, though for reasons best known to himself he omitted any mention of the giant jeweled dildo. [NYP]
Talk of the Town
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Ivy Lin
A favorite Verdi performance from Ivy Lin
This is one of those rare performances that makes you believe that everything Verdi was greater Way Back When.
This is one of those rare performances that makes you believe that everything Verdi was greater Way Back When.
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Mister Snow
A favorite Verdi performance from Mister Snow
Nothing prepared me for the Soviero experience
Nothing prepared me for the Soviero experience
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Tildy Diva
A favorite Verdi performance from Tildy Diva
A well-known Met Aïda with a starry cast from 1967 is TildyDiva’s Favorite Verdi Performance
A well-known Met Aïda with a starry cast from 1967 is TildyDiva’s Favorite Verdi Performance
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Arrigo
A favorite Verdi performance from Arrigo
My favorite Verdi performance is Claudio Abbado Don Carlo opening of the Scala.
My favorite Verdi performance is Claudio Abbado Don Carlo opening of the Scala.
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Peter Russell
A favorite Verdi performance from Peter Russell
The purely musical performance preserved here is thrilling, ratcheted to a higher intensity than the Deutsche Grammophon studio recording
The purely musical performance preserved here is thrilling, ratcheted to a higher intensity than the Deutsche Grammophon studio recording
The Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from TC
A favorite Verdi performance from TC
Victoria de los Ángeles has always been my Violetta of choice, a portrayal that never ceases to move me.
Victoria de los Ángeles has always been my Violetta of choice, a portrayal that never ceases to move me.
La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Kelly Rinne (who, not so incidentally, masterminded the rescue of parterre.com during the late server unpleasantness) is launching a new show on ClassicalMusicBroadcast.com. The show features new releases of instrumental, vocal, opera and modern classical music, and Kelly is looking for a great name for the show. If you’ve…
The beloved soprano is at least 96 years old today. (Photo by Gjon Mili.)
Your dithery doyenne sometimes gets so bogged down in local drama such as the continuing story that is NYCO that she overlooks the occasional outlying scandale. Such is the case with what she will henceforth call The Mishegas in Milwaukee. This brouhaha over the direction of the Skylight Opera has (per La Cieca’s informant) escalated…
Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala are seen (briefly) in this clip from Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, as produced at Baden-Baden.
So says Our Own JJ, who had a lovely time at Caramoor’s L’elisir d’amore, and lived to tell the tale at musicalamerica.com.
La Cieca has just heard the very interesting news that Gotham Chamber Opera, in partnership with the American Museum of Natural History and in association with American Repertory Theater, willl present Il mondo della luna by Joseph Haydn, in a new production staged by Diane Paulus, director of Hair, which received the 2009 Tony Award…
A preview of sorts of next season’s Met production of Armida. This is Herself, as heard last week in Prague.
No wonder so many of you had “trouble” with last week’s Regie quiz, since the opera represented was — no, not Madama Butterfly — but Trouble in Tahiti, a production at the Munich Opera Festival directed by Schorsch Kamerun. (The leading roles were luxuriously cast with Rod Gilfry and Beth Clayton.) The casting for this…
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