It used to be that us li’l online scribblers tried our best to imitate big-time print writers like James McCourt or Ethan Mordden. But now it seems, everyone wants to be bloggy. And since you asked, yes, La Cieca does have an example. Here’s Justin Davidson doing his best impression of Opera Chic!
Director of the Met and ENO Madama Butterfly (and librettist of the Met’s Osvaldo Golijovcommission) is dead at 54. Further details are not available at this time.
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).
Cher public, La Cieca hopes you will join her tonight for a live chat during the Sirius and RealNetworks transmission of the Metropolitan Opera’s Ernani. Since the opera begins at 8:00, the chat room will open at 7:45.
Though La Cieca must say she can’t quite figure out whether the critic liked Gary Lehman‘s performance or not… “. . . Lehman has navigated quite well to date through persistently volatile and challenging financial markets, the sharp market wide decline in valuations across numerous asset classes, tight global liquidity conditions, and the strong headwinds […]
 Controversial soprano Tiziana Fabbricini sings her first Adriana Lecouvreur earlier this month. For some reason, the “Bajazet” monologue is given in . . . the original French? A French translation of the Italian librettese? No matter, once the singing begins, we get a glimpse of that utterly vital but increasingly rare quality — the sacro […]
Edipo Re (Leoncavallo) Creon – Keith Lewis Oedipus – Alan Titus Jocasta – Yvonne Naef Messenger – Roland Bracht Shepherd – Johannes Chum Teiresias – Cheyne Davidson Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; Dennis Russell Davies. 1998.
As we know, the “Wall of LGBT Role Models” has been deleted from John Doyle‘s staging of Peter Grimes at the Met. In fact, there were a number of other explicit gay references in the production that were omitted or toned down after the dress rehearsal. For example, here’s a rejected costume for Anthony Dean […]
Okay, since when did Thomas Hampson turn into Sean Connery?
Our Own JJ was at the Met last night (and part of this morning) to review Tristan und Isolde for Gay City News. As such he witnessed the rather astonishing series of events that Atomic Wings told you about earlier. La Cieca cannot of course ask JJ to comment on the specifics of the performance […]
The previous Regie photo (depicting Toby Spence with wiggy hookers) was from a production of The Rake’s Progress. Okay, so which opera might this be? (If you recognize the photo, cher public, DON’T blurt it out!)
As your doyenne predicted yesterday, tenor Gary Lehman will sing tomorrow night’s Met performance of Tristan und Isolde, making his company and role debuts! La Cieca hears from an authoritative source that Lehman will also Robert Dean Smith will be released from concerts in Milan and Luxembourg so he can sing the role opposite Deborah […]
Cher public, you have striven valiantly but no one of you has managed to accomplish what was most likely an impossible task: the identification of 14 singers of Violetta in only a few notes. As a group mind, though, you came awfully close. And so, to put an end to this particular source of stress, […]
parterre mascot Izzy Anderson returns with yet another bash at “La donna e mobile.” Video impresario Wenarto obviously is working his connections like mad since he has managed to film this scene on the Act 2 set from the Met’s Tristan.
La Cieca has heard that New York City Opera General Manager (Designate) Gerard Mortier is planning a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte for the 2012 season, directed by Austrian film director Michael Haneke.
La Cieca hears that the Met is skedding tenor (erstwhile baritone) Gary Lehman for a Tristan staging rehearsal tomorrow. As La Cieca understands it, Lehman is a formal cover for the role (after John Mac Master) and so . . . well, just about anything may happen on Friday night. And thereafter, actually.
Well, actually, yes, now you do. The New York Times is no longer the only major metropolitan daily whose music critic drools all over opera singers of the masculine persuasion. La Cieca is delighted to introduce the verbal stylings of David Mermelstein, who apparently is that gay man who has heretofore been trapped inside the […]
The Met’s second season of “Live in HD†continues on Saturday, March 15 at 1:30 pm/est with the new production of Britten’s Peter Grimes. Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey sings the title role, Patricia Racette is the kindhearted Ellen Orford, and Anthony Michaels-Moore is Balstrode. Donald Runnicles conducts. Intermission features include live interviews hosted by star […]
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La Cieca did a bit of nosing around about the abrupt departure of Jeffrey Vanderveen from IMG, and this is how the story is shaping up. Vanderveen’s upcoming gig is the creation of a new division at Universal Music Group devoted to the production and promotion of Tibor Rudas style arena concerts for Universal Classics’ recording artists. […]
Musical America reports this morning that Jeffrey Vanderveen has resigned from his post as Senior Vice President/Director, Vocal Divison at IMG Artists. At IMG Vanderveen repped such superstars as Anna Netrebko, Thomas Hampson, Sam Ramey and Denyce Graves. [via wqxr.com]
A loyal reader writes: I wanted to let you know that the Tristan prima was a disaster. Only because of the Tristan (which, I guess we can’t relegate to a minor consideration), since it was otherwise mostly okay — if you can accept zero visual dramatic sense in the whole expedition. (As an extreme illustration of this […]
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: March 9, 3:30 PM: After only 30 hours and on only the third try (or perhaps fourth, depending on how often you refresh the page), the New York Times has managed to report accurately the personnel and repertoire of a single selection at a concert that took place three days ago:Â
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