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La Cieca invites the cher public to supply their own captions to this photo of “Dresser strapping corset on Heldentenor Lauritz Melchior backstage at the Metropolitan Opera House as he prepares to sing his 200th Tristan.” (1944/Alfred Eisenstaedt)
A casual mot by your doyenne clocks in at #6 on Gawker’s list of top ten comments of 2008.
Two people who probably should be discouraged from owning firearms, Thomas Hampson and Kathleen Battle, belt out a number from Irving Berlin‘s Annie Get Your Gun. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/HUSpNlhq6cQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Okay, La Cieca’s going to commit and say that based on what hearsay she’s heard said thus far, George Steel is going to say, “Thanks but no thanks” to the NYCO. Why? Two reasons, La Cieca would say. 1. Whoever takes on the NYCO job, no matter how adventurous and no matter how well-connected, is…
He’s interested. He’s not interested. And yet, he’s still in the running. According to former NYCO honcho Mark Weinstein, “…the embattled company will appoint George Steel, the former director of Columbia University’s Miller Theater, to the [director] position in early January.” Need I add that Susan Baker hasn’t answered the phone in days? Now, La Cieca loves…
A garden of Diva Blingees is right after the jump.
Fun for the holiday season: La Cieca invites her cher public to blingee your favorite diva and then email your doyenne the image or link to include on parterre.com. Update: Our Own Harold submits the first of what La Cieca is sure will be the first of many blinged-out opera stars:Â
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Frau Miina-Liisa will es werde Nacht
Frau Miina-Liisa will es werde Nacht
Parterre Box features soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä, making her title role debut in Die Walküre in Munich next week, in a performance of Tristan und Isolde from 2021.
Parterre Box features soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä, making her title role debut in Die Walküre in Munich next week, in a performance of Tristan und Isolde from 2021.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Lux aeterna luceat eis
Lux aeterna luceat eis
Grand Tier Grab Bag this week honors the late Limmie Pulliam with a bit of his Verdi Requiem.
Grand Tier Grab Bag this week honors the late Limmie Pulliam with a bit of his Verdi Requiem.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Kathryn the great
Kathryn the great
Parterre Box previews Kathryn Lewek‘s upcoming Salome with clips of her as another unhinged lady of antiquity.
Parterre Box previews Kathryn Lewek‘s upcoming Salome with clips of her as another unhinged lady of antiquity.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Count your blessings
Count your blessings
Fast-rising Verdi baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbataar is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Fast-rising Verdi baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbataar is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
One man’s Junker
One man’s Junker
Handel’s Deidamia — and one of its current champions, soprano Sophie Junker — are the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Handel’s Deidamia — and one of its current champions, soprano Sophie Junker — are the subject of this week’s 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.
Followers of the cultural scene on the Left Coast will be interested to see that Michael Capasso (of Dicapo gala notoriety) is apparently involved in the production of A Christmas Carol at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. Although the graphic promises “John Goodman, Jane Leeves, Jane Seymour, with Christopher Lloyd . . . and…
According to Bloomberg News, George Steel is interested in running the New York City Opera. However, the situation is complicated by the fact that George Steel is not interested in running the New York City Opera. What is clear, though, is that La Cieca had the story first.
La Cieca just saw what must be the Platonic ideal of a Regie Quiz photo, but since the piece is supposed to be a sendup, it’s really not eligible for competition. And yet… pugs in iguana costumes! Brilliant! If you want to know more about this work, click here.
Diva Angela Gheorghiu, due onstage at the Met next week for a new production of La rondine, is seen heard here as a remarkably complete package at the age of only 20. The video is dated 1986, four years before the soprano’s professional opera debut. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/8aBVrSgwp9o” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Here’s a gala a little further into the future but more firmly grounded in reality than tomorrow’s event for Dicapo: To purchase tickets for this concert benefiting Blue Gargoyle and its literacy programs, you can click here.
As commenter paddypig points out, something fishy seems to be going on with the Puccini 150th Anniversary Gala presented by Dicapo Opera Theatre, scheduled for this Monday night. As of this evening, the company’s website still advertises “Daniela Dessi, Fabio Armiliato, Francisco Casanova, Aprile Millo, Francesca Patané and others” even though certainly Millo is not…
Can it be a whole month since the Regie Quiz last graced the laptops of the cher public? Indeed it has, and perhaps now it is a bit anticlimactic to reveal that the operatic rarity depicted in that long-ago puzzler was Marco Polo. This one’s not a bread and butter work either, and La Cieca…
A different look at Thaïs, this time from the Teatro Regio di Torino. Thaïs: Barbara Frittoli; Athanaël: Lado Ataneli; Nicias: Alessandro Liberatore. Teatro Regio di Torino. Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda. Stage direction, design and choreography by Stefano Poda.
Talk of the Town
The Talk of the Town
Hina Spani should have made it to the Met
Hina Spani should have made it to the Met
A full century after her heyday, Argentine soprano Hina Spani still moves us thanks to her vivid recordings and the savants who have cherished and shared them.
A full century after her heyday, Argentine soprano Hina Spani still moves us thanks to her vivid recordings and the savants who have cherished and shared them.
The Talk of the Town
Anna Caterina Antonacci should have made it to the Met
Anna Caterina Antonacci should have made it to the Met
The one who got away was Anna Caterina Antonacci, a thrilling performer.
The one who got away was Anna Caterina Antonacci, a thrilling performer.
The Talk of the Town
Lina Bruna Rasa should have made it to the Met
Lina Bruna Rasa should have made it to the Met
In the case of Lina Bruna Rasa, the reasons why she never sang at the Met are painfully clear.
In the case of Lina Bruna Rasa, the reasons why she never sang at the Met are painfully clear.
The Talk of the Town
Conchita Supervia should have made it to the Met
Conchita Supervia should have made it to the Met
For vibrato fanciers, of course, discovering Supervia is like hitting the mother lode.
For vibrato fanciers, of course, discovering Supervia is like hitting the mother lode.
The Talk of the Town
Gertrud Grob-Prandl should have made it to the Met
Gertrud Grob-Prandl should have made it to the Met
Yes, the Met had Birgit Nilsson – so they let the volcano that was Gertrude Grob-Prandl‘s voice slip through their fingers.
Yes, the Met had Birgit Nilsson – so they let the volcano that was Gertrude Grob-Prandl‘s voice slip through their fingers.
The Talk of the Town
Eglise Gutierrez should have made it to the Met
Eglise Gutierrez should have made it to the Met
So much color in this beautifully agile voice.
So much color in this beautifully agile voice.
La Cieca hears whispers that Will Crutchfield‘s “Bel Canto at Caramoor” may be the next victim of the economic crisis. No reflection on Will (he can’t be expected to predict the future, after all), but the year the nation enters a recession is hardly the best time to try to put on Semiramide. Update: La Cieca just…
A judge ordered “felonthropist” Alberto Vilar imprisoned Thursday to await sentencing after his conviction on conspiracy fraud charges. [via Business Week]
Okay, cher public, you’ve heard the theories. Now it’s time for you to predict who’s getting the nod as new NYCO honcho/honchess.
La Cieca just received the official notice from the Metropolitan Opera that Linda Watson will sing Saturday night’s Isolde. Your doyenne has received further inside information that the Met has secretly hired an Irish white witch to break the curse on the company’s current staging of the Wagner music drama by setting ablaze the sets and costumes…
There’s a rumor that’s been sort of meandering around for the past few weeks in vague will o’ the wisp format concerning the New York City Opera. (As if anything about that company right now is anything but vague, but still…) So here goes. One of the restructuring models that La Cieca keeps hearing about…
Waltraud Meier‘s one (and probably only) Met Isolde is immortalized visually on the Met Archives site in photos by Marty Sohl.
CORRECTION: It seems that nasty curse has landed on La Cieca, too. Can you believe that your doyenne misheard the bit of gossip she relayed you a couple of hours ago? Yes, it does indeed appear Katarina Dalayman and Susan Foster are both too ill to sing the last Tristan of the season at the…
“The campy diva lover in me should exult at the credit in the program ‘Renée Fleming‘s Costumes by Christian Lacroix,’ but in fact the couturier’s frocks were something of a mishmash. Best was a shimmering gold sheath that set off Fleming’s first entrance and trim waistline to perfection; worst was a rumpled ivory silk ballgown…
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