Wunder Bär
A snippet of the Berlin Lohengrin directed by Stefan Herheim, who is rapidly becoming one of La Cieca’s favorite Regisseurs!
Recent Stories
To be sure, it’s been only nine years, but it certainly feels much longer
“In addition to her work on stage and in recordings, Renée Fleming has represented Rolex timepieces in print advertising since 2001. Master Chef Daniel Boulud has created the dessert ‘La Diva Renée’ (1999) in her honor, and she has inspired the ‘Renée Fleming Iris’ (2004), which has been replicated in porcelain by Boehm.
I’ll take the fall
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).
Manolo blah nixed
“Important warning: Covent Garden is marketing this as a family show for Christmas, but please don’t think of taking the children – they’ll be bored rigid and never want to go anywhere near an opera again.” With The Tsarina’s Slippers Francesca Zambello‘s nonstop string of successes just keeps on stringing along! [Telegraph]
Of dodos and dildos
After seeing a video excerpt from the Met’s Patrice Chéreau production of From the House of the Dead, I was struck by the cleanness of it all, the sets, the costumes, the tastefully muted colors, and the direction. No doubt it is moving, in its way, but is it relevant? It looks like generic suffering […]
Ether or
La Cieca is delighted to announce the 2009-2010 Saturday afternoon broadcast season brought to you by the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Radio Network, beginning December 12. For each of these broadcasts, La Cieca will host (or at least leave the doors open for) a chat amongst the cher public.
Postcard from Brabant
On the heels of this, may I direct everyone’s attention to a funny and fascinating article about Stefan Herheim‘s production of Lohengrin from last spring at Berliner Staatsoper? Now we know what to do with those old costumes and sets that gather dust! [via the wellsungs]
And I am telling you I am not belting
“Since the 1918 premiere of Puccini’s Il Trittico, only two divas at the Met dared to sing the leading roles in all three of its one-act operas: Renata Scotto, a supreme vocal stylist, and Teresa Stratas, a magnetic singing actress. On Friday, Patricia Racette, who is not quite either of these things, took the plunge.” […]
Regie, how I loves ya
Smartly done, Kashania, who guessed almost immediately that last week’s Regie quiz represented From the House of the Dead — in a production by Calixto Bieito, by the way. But even oil drums, truck tires and life-sized airplanes suspended over the stage might look a little prim in contrast to this week’s puzzler:
Don Giovanni drinks your milkshake
Squirrel was expecting boobs! People, there were no boobs, and for that, I was a little disappointed.
Cherry picking
“Voglio essere giudicato per la musica e nient’altro che per la musica.” “I want to be judged for my music and nothing but my music.” This phrase, which Mascagni himself wrote to his publisher Sonzogno, is the key to understanding the very essence and existence of L’amico Fritz (1891). Cavalleria rusticana, Mascagni’s first performed opera, […]
Just see how I show you my feelings
Had I been living at the time Walter Felsenstein’s film of Verdi’s Otello was released in 1969, such then-innovative elements as the use of color on television and a vernacular translation might have given me new insights into this great opera. Maybe.
Blue movie
For those of us newly accustomed to watching The Met: Live in HD cinecasts and similar events in our neighborhood theaters, it is easy to forget that opera as cinema was once a very different experience. Ritter Blaubart, one in a series of seven films by Walter Felsenstein recently released on DVD, shows us the […]
The view from Kareol
Poet of the podium Carlos Kleiber leads the final minutes of Tristan und Isolde from the mystic abyss of Bayreuth, circa 1975.
Trilogy of chatter
La Cieca invites all the cher public to a troika of talk during tonight’s Met season premiere of Il trittico. The performance begins at 8:00 pm.
Elisabeth Söderström 1927 – 2009
The great Swedish soprano died earlier today. She was 82. [AP]
By acclamation
The results of the Repertory Poll are in! Squirrel asked which three Old Operas you would most like to see staged at the New New Met, and the people have spoken! Results after the jump.
Staffing up
La Cieca welcomes to the editorial desk of parterre.com new correspondents squirrel and Ercole Farnese, who have already begun their blanket coverage of the New York City opera scene.
It’s Pat!
Tonight’s Met season premiere of Il trittico features Patricia Racette‘s first local whack at the three heroines, which means La Cieca expects the parterre posse to be out in force. Check back here at parterre.com beginning at 7:45 for a live chat coinciding with the Sirius/RealNetworks broadcast of the Puccini three-parter.
Bella
Colombetta, Colombetta, Apri l’uscio, non farmi penar Del balcon solleva il velo Apri amor se no qui gelo Colombetta, Colombetta, Arlecchino gelando si sta.
Tweet if you like opera
(No, not that again.) The San Diego Opera, boldly exploring cutting-edge trends in dramaturgy, is producing a Twitter version of the complete history of opera.
Edo it again
The Met’s January Rosenkavalier performances have been reassigned to maestro Edo de Waart as James Levine “takes it easy” preparing the new production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann.
Polly want a
So, which composer wants to jump on this peach of a libretto? “The Met’s fund-raising office had kept in touch with Ms. Webster since then. It sent her books about the birds of Central Park; a volume called Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park.”
You’re going to scoop just what you sow
You know how you have this old friend you’ve known for 20 years now, who’s always been a little nuts, or gets a little high, or just is, you know, eccentric, but in a way that is so clueless that it’s kind of endearing? Someone you can count on for a laugh, because you always […]