“Verismo,” Renée Fleming informs us, “means truth.” What better demonstration of this artist’s dedication to the real-life (not to say the mundane) than her apparent decision to fire her stylist and hairdresser in hopes of achieving a greater naturalism of appearance. Indeed, La Cieca would say that Fleming has succeeded: at least as documented in […]
UPDATE, 10:55 pm: The Associated Press confirms that Hildegard Behrens died early Tuesday, according to an email sent to opera officials by Jonathan Friend, artistic administrator of the Metropolitan Opera. La Cieca has just received an as yet unconfirmed report that Hildegard Behrens died earlier today in Japan, where she was preparing for a Lieder […]
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).
“…dramatic personalities are drawn to opera, not influenced by it.” [Psychology Today]
From that rarest and most coveted of all camp crossover efforts, the Sylvia Sass disco album:
Or, “Tosca è un buon funbag!”
Notorious cumblogger JJ has finally cleaned up his mess. [New York Post]
La Cieca is delighted to note that two of the best-remembered and most-coveted “Live from the Met” telecasts have at last been made available on DVD. Otello (25 September 1978) and Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci (5 April 1978) are now available at the Met Opera Shop and online at www.metoperashop.org, “as well as through other outlets.” La […]
La Cieca would like to introduce a new feature to parterre.com in which questions on opera-related etiquette (and probably “life issues” and stuff) sent in by the puzzled, the concerned and, perhaps on occasion, the merely inept. Our first question come to us from “Baffled By the Bay” — I have an opera friend who […]
So, cher public, those of you who are buying tickets for the Met today. What’s the experience like?
George Steel recently gave Anthony Tommasini a sneak peak at his bulging Koch Theater. The Times scribe, “dodging sparks from welders and ducking under hanging cables” soon realized that the “boyish” intendant is just like President Obama, sort of. [NYT]
Naughty Feldmarschallin spoiled the most recent Regie quiz by blurting out the answer, so La Cieca will repeat her usual entreaty in advance this time. The point of this quiz is not to see if you can recognize a production you have seen (or have seen reviewed) but rather, working from the images, to try […]
Our Own JJ reviews A Flowering Tree in today’s New York Post.
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/goFTDbMyRUs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] The Gran Teatre del Liceu has posted 70 clips from a variety of their opera productions over the last decade or so. Great singing and improbable regie: who could ask for anything more?
La Cieca hears that after two days of negotiations a “tentative agreement” has been reached between AGMA and the New York City Opera. Members of AGMA will vote on August 20 whether they choose to ratify the agreement as the negotiating committee has recommended. According to our source, AGMA has made “some concessions,” though apparently […]
According to Variety, Kate Winslet will star in a remake of Mildred Pierce, to be directed by Todd Haynes. Is this, like, the Hurricane Katrina of gay sensibility, or what? Let’s hope HBO goes for a fuller treatment of the story than the classic 1945 Joan Crawford vehicle, including Veda’s budding career as an opera […]
Which recent cancellation really has nothing to do with the music, and everything to do with the fact that the stars don’t want to play a couple onstage when offstage they will soon be an ex-pair (in the legal sense)?
Classical Beatnik Anne Midgette, obviously still reeling from the experience of The Letter in Santa Fe, addresses a problem we’ve been seeing more and more of in opera: even those who supposedly love the art form, and who are involved in putting it on, are increasingly laboring under the delusion that it is inherently over-the-top, […]
Here’s a glimpse of Marina Poplavskaya in the Willy Decker production of La traviata, coming to the Met in 2010. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/cJSjDBSnnUw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
“Les Huguenots… fell from my schedule due to concerns of distance and tedium.” La Cieca only wishes she had the blasé wit so consistently displayed at My Favorite Intermissions.
Hot hot hot Erwin Schrott is obviously not not not allowing fatherhood and impending marriage to distract him from quality gym time. More photos of the Schrott gun show (as seen recently in the Vienna Volksoper Theater an der Wien production of Don Giovanni) after the jump.
Angela Gheorghiu, not to be outdone by Anna Netrebko‘s cancellation of Violetta in 2010, has just announced that she will not sing Carmen in 2009. According to the Romanian diva’s website, “With deep regret Angela Gheorghiu has to announce that she has to withdraw just from the new production of CARMEN at the MET later […]
La Cieca is proud to “hostess” a classic performance of Semiramide as performed at La Scala on 17 December 1962. Heading the starry cast are Joan Sutherland (Semiramide), Giulietta Simionato (Arsace), Wladimiro Ganzarolli (Assur) and Gianni Raimondi (Idreno). You can listen to the first act on the Unnatural Acts of Opera page.
After the jump is the cover of Cecilia Bartoli‘s new CD, which apparently is all castrato music, all the time. Oh, it hurts!
Exclusive opera reviews, commentary, and top reads
delivered to your email weekly…ish.
