Even among a galaxy of stars, Miss Leontyne Price sheds (how shall I put it?) a special radiance. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/-PDa4y4YxVM” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Miss Price was born on February 10, 1927 and the awards ceremony took place on January 26, 2008. La Cieca leaves the math as an exercise for the reader.
Okay, the score is tied and nobody has all 11 correct … so far. There are two Normas in the group that seem to defy identification. And so La Cieca has decided to give you a hint, or, in fact, three hints. Listen carefully, cher public. Both the mystery singers were born during the 1960s. […]
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).
It’s that Maury D’Annato again! Â As La Cieca believes Katharine Hepburn once complimented Mae West, “Oh, you, you’re just so goddamned epigrammatic!” Whatever the reason, tonight’s date with Lorin Maazel was like five hours with a pretty girl sitting ON MY TRACHEA.
As part of the “new look” of parterre.com, La Cieca is going to try inserting a player for each new episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera. And this Act is perhaps a little more Unnatural than most, since it’s the beginning of a multipart tribute to parterre box icon Diana Soviero. Faust (Gounod) Acts 1 […]
La Cieca’s spy L’Inconnu in the City of Brotherly Love (which, given the circumstances, she supposes she should specify is Philadelphia) whispers: La Cieca favorite Stephen Costello is one of the only worthwhile reasons to catch David DiChiera‘s new opera Cyrano premiering tomorrow night at the Opera Company of Philadelphia. The men truly led the […]
Officially, Anna Netrebko is expecting her baby “this autumn,” and La Cieca of course extends her and Erwin Schrott all the best wishes. However, let’s take a peek at a few recent photos of Netrebko… [Traviata at Covent Garden, early January] [Arriving at the Opernball in Vienna, February 1] [On set of Boheme film, around […]
That sizzling septuagenarian Dame Gwyneth Jones, now in the fifth decade of her career, celebrates a “first” this weekend when she makes “her long awaited Scandinavian debut” singing Herodias in a new production of Salome with the Malmö Opera. Now, that is what La Cieca calls a lovely all-purpose costume! Should Dame Gwyneth add to her repertoire […]
La Cieca was just recalling that soon after she arrived in New York back in 19-mumble-mumble, she screwed up her courage to audition for that most august of impresarios, Ira Siff of La Gran Scena Opera. Back in those days your doyenne thought she had what it took to be a great prima donna (including […]
La Cieca is indebted to those Wellsungs for this idea:Â what’s your birth opera? Or, in other words, which opera (and cast, if applicable) was the Met performing on the day you were born? (You get this information, of course, from the Met Archives Database.) Unfortunately, La Cieca, being a Leo, was born outside the regular […]
One of the cher public sent in this tidbit from the recently-published edition of The Letters of Noël Coward: Went to hear Albanese as Manon Lescaut and it was a grave grave mistake on account of she didn’t ought to have attempted it for several reasons. Time’s Wingèd Chariot being the principal one. She sang most […]
Our previous Regie quiz didn’t stump many of you: the opera was Der Fliegende Holländer in productions by Calixto Bieito (doghouse), Peter Konwitschny (spinning class) and Christopher Alden (corpse bride). And now, what might this opera be?
Unfortunately, on this occasion, the text is all too apt. Fiorenza Cossotto in 2007 (!) demonstrates why it is better to quit while you are ahead.
Your doyenne didn’t even make it through the first paragraph of this opera-related article: “I’m not a patient person,” Anna Chatterton confesses over a quinoa brownie at a Toronto coffee shop… A female version of Don Giovanni by a veganess composer? It just doesn’t sound, well, promising, now does it?
…am dunklen Hage. Oh, and by the way, it’s always a delight to hear news about dear Lucine Amara!
In the second act of Carmen, the eponymous gypsy says “Holà !.. Lillas Pastia, holà !.. nous mangerons tout… tu me régales… holà ! holà …. Tiens, attrape… et apporte-nous des fruits confits; apporte-nous des bonbons, apporte-nous des oranges, apporte-nous du Manzanilla… apporte-nous de tout ce que tu as, de tout, de tout…” Well, that line is cut […]
Your doyenne has added a contact page so you may email her with all your tastiest soupcons!
Amazing Anja Silja in one of her bazillion roles: Lady Macbeth. [youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=BI4eYsxtZ8Q]
So the code for the new design is buggy. In the meantime La Cieca has a generic design in place and everything still works. Enjoy the newly unfettered discussion function!
It looks as if those whispers about a romance between two of opera’s most charismatic stars have been correct all along. La Cieca has just heard from a generally reliable source that Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott are now “officially engaged” and will set a wedding date “within the year.”
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More years ago than La Cieca would care to say, dear Gertie Dammerung wrote an hilarious parody of the song “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” which La Cieca published in the dimly-remembered print version of parterre box. Time passes. Then, only yesterday, La Cieca received an email from equally dear Hans Lick enclosing an updated version […]
Which star of a recent new Met production showed up at an industry party on Thursday night with her new girlfriend in tow? It seems the diva is extending her sojourn in Manhattan to spend more time with this new (and very young) flame she met in the restroom of a downtown lesbian bar.
La Cieca’s observant spy Joe Conda infiltrated the January 29 interview of Anja Silja and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, reporting that sadly the event was something of a non-starter. He blamed interlocutrix Nimet Habachy, who mostly lobbed “generic” softball questions. La Silja did have a few well-reasoned observations about role preparation and her distaste for the concept […]
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