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La forza del destino from the New Orleans Opera (1953) continues on Unnatural Acts of Opera. Meanwhile, La Cieca comments about all that publicity JJ has been receiving lately.
La Cieca is simply beside herself to announce what she is confident will be both the biggest and most exciting parterre box competition of all time. This competition is called “Reading the Letter,” and it will test that most basic of opera queen skills, i.e., pretending to be a soprano. After the jump, La Cieca…
“A music review on Monday about the opera ‘Prima Donna’ by Rufus Wainwright, in which the character Régine at one points asks ‘Who is this woman?’ and thus recalls a similar question in ‘Madama Butterfly,’ misidentified the character in that opera who asks about a woman’s identity. She is Suzuki, Butterfly’s servant — not Butterfly.’…
“Il Devo a global phenomenon” [Fresno Bee]
Casting is announced for the New York City Opera’s 2009-10 season. It’s all on their website, but here are a few highlights: The “American Voices” concert features “a roster of stars including Joyce Castle, Anna Christy, Joyce DiDonato, Lauren Flanigan, Anthony Dean Griffey, and Samuel Ramey, all of whom appeared [note the past tense] at…
The Divine Miss Millo sings “Pace, pace” in a concert from August, 1988. (Hey, don’t laugh: we all had hair like that then.)
La Cieca’s friend and icon Dorothy Bishop showed up last night on America’s Got Talent!
“We live in an age in which everyone is encouraged to express themselves, from inane blogging, Twittering and voting in mediocre talent shows. Please, let’s keep this out of the concert hall.” Jonathan Lennie admonishes over-enthusiastic applauders. (PS: the quotation sounds particularly funny if you do the voice.) [Time Out London]
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.
Simply everyone chimes in today about Monday night’s Met in the Parks recital at Central Park SummerStage. JJ has one take, Anthony Tommasini quite another, and for depth of detail, you need look no further than Our Own Sanford:
Peter Gelb, who recently has been asking the Met’s rank and file for salary concessions, had his own compensation bumped up 36% for the 2007-08 season. According to Bloomberg News, Gelb earned about $1.5 million during his second year as the Met’s general manager. Since then he and the Met’s senior staff have taken 10%…
La Cieca is going to bid farewell to Prima Donna and Rufus Wainwright, for the moment anyway. But before you doyenne actually, you know, goes (i.e., “ma tu ben mio, meco ritorna in pace”) she’s just going to say this: A piece like Prima Donna is exactly the sort of thing (or at least one…
Aggregated for your aggravation, here’s the critical response to Prima Donna, the new opéra by that little gay wolverine fellow. [Clef Notes]
Was our last Regie quiz too easy? Quite a few of you (led by operacat) correctly recognized in the wartorn landscape a glimmer of I puritani. This week, La Cieca sends in the clowns (among others). Remember, cher public, honest guesses only: no blurting out the answer if you recognize the production!
“Ein Film, das Sie nie vergessen werden,” says the announcer, and this claim may very well be true. Presenting Das Lied der Balalaika, a 1971 attempt by “opera singer” Ivan Rebroff to cross over into… well, it’s difficult to define exactly the genre here. L’homme qui vient de la nuit (as the picture is entitled,…
You know, La Cieca and her alter ego JJ are just like the pair in that lovely song by Mr. Sondheim, “The Story of Lucy and Jessie.” Well, not just like, perhaps. La Cieca can hardly be accused of having “maturity and plenty of security” and dear JJ does not exactly boast “the purity along…
An opera quiz with the composer who’s been on everyone’s lips lately, Rufus Wainwright. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/svjlK74xZRw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
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.
In honor of our current series of Unnatural Acts of Opera featuring La forza del destino, La Cieca presents yet another vocal identification quiz. The aria is “Son giunta… Madre, pietosa Vergine” and your task is to identify the baker’s dozen of divas singing it. Just to shake things up, La Cieca has decided we…
The first rule in writing an artist’s program bio is to find some interesting and unique detail that will catch the reader’s interest. This tidbit need not be directly relevant to the production at hand or even to the artist’s ostensible talent, so long as it’s, as the journalists like to say, “hooky.” Which is…
Belated best wishes to the legendary Russian diva, who turned 70 on July 7. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Ddg2OypBVng” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
“It suddenly occurred to me that there’s no opera about an opera singer,” [Rufus Wainwright] says. “It doesn’t exist in the repertoire.” [The Globe and Mail]
Not so many guesses for our most recent Regie quiz, so perhaps it’s not surprising that nobody identified the show as La finta giardiniera. This week’s puzzler is a more familiar title, though that might be hard to guess at first glance.
“Is there anything Rufus Wainwright can’t do?” Though, to be fair, une doyenne d’un certain age like La Cieca should be much nicer to any whippersnapper who has the grace to say things like, “she’s in her 50s. If you consider that aging or not, I don’t know. Some people told me that 50 is…
Dear departed Shelley Winters knew a thing or two about the diva experience, and one of her most apt mediations on the topic may be found in her memoirThe Middle of My Century. She was starring in the Broadway production of A Hatful of Rain, and during rehearsals she stumbled on the heavily raked stage,…
Dishy scribe Zachary Woolfe muses on “The Bewitching Art of La Cieca” in The New York Observer. Our Own JJ is profiled, covered, revealed, reported, what he eats and what he wears and whom he knows and where he was, and when and where he’s going.
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