Wheels within wheels
This is why drag was invented. The artistes are James Bondage and Bella ToDyeFor.
Recent Stories
Or was it… MURDER?
The death of Ludwig II of Bavaria has been considered a suicide for over a century, ever since the meshugeneh monarch’s body was found in Lake Starnberg near Munich on June 13, 1886. But did the kooky king really take his own life — or was it TAKEN FROM HIM? [sfx: music sting] An article […]
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).
Least appealing headline of the week (so far)
“Opera’s ‘fat lady’ is a Madison cash cow“ In other news: has anyone ever heard Natalie Bancroft sing opera? Ms. Bancroft is the scioness of the family who recently sold their controlling share in Dow Jones (and thus the Wall Street Journal) to Newscorp for a thousand million gazillion pounds or whatever it was. Anyway, […]
Sweet November
La Cieca’s DVR hard drive will be overflowing by the end of this November since the indispensable Turner Classic Movies has scheduled a whole month of “guest programmers.” Among the celebrities gracing the tube to introduce their favorite flicks will be some of particular interest to the parterre crowd. For example, this Thursday, November 8, […]
Perché non ho del talento?
This performance of the “alternative” entrance aria from Lucia di Lammermoor illustrates why the road not taken probably wasn’t such a good idea in the first place. Note, too, how the technical quality of the video production so aptly complements the efforts of the artiste.
Geheimnisregie
So, what’s this opera? (Guesses only, please – if you recognize the photo, sit this one out!) UPDATE: Well done, Atomic Wings! Indeed, this is a production of Norma, starring Olga Makarina, as produced at the National Theatre, Prague.
Lookism? Again?
Yet another rehash of the great voice vs. waistline debate, this time in the Chicago Daily Herald. Nicole Cabell laments the scarcity of European gyms, while “hunken-tenor” Joseph Kaiser plants his feet firmly on both sides of the fence by declaring, “Essentially if you can be healthy about being healthy, that’s the balance to find […]
Macbetty
“When the Met last offered Verdi’s Macbeth a quarter century ago, the New York Times slammed Sir Peter Hall‘s staging as ‘the worst new production to struggle onto the Metropolitan Opera’s stage in modern history’ and the opening night audience greeted the curtain calls with some of the loudest boos in the theater’s history. On […]
The work wasn’t the only thing that was hard
“Samuel Barber . . . for decades remained Menotti‘s closest friend and most trusted colleague. Having first met when they were teenagers studying at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the two men established an enduring friendship and shared homes . . . where they lived as hard-working artists and professional composers.” Oh brother! […]
No, but thanks for axing
Playbill Arts reports more intrigue out of San Francisco: Natalie Dessay will not do the Mary Zimmerman production of Lucia di Lammermoor there next summer as originally announced. Oh, don’t worry, la Dessay will indeed sing the role, but the SFO is substituting a Graham Vick staging, citing “the physical dimensions of the [Metropolitan Opera] […]
Hereinspaziert!
Was seht ihr in den Lust- und Trauerspielen?!Haustiere, die so wohlgesittet fühlen,An blasser Pflanzenkost ihr Mütchen kühlenUnd schwelgen in behaglichem Geplärr,Wie jene andern – unten im Parterre… La Cieca salutes the successful launch of Alex Ross‘s The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century with a podcast of one of her very favorite operas […]
Enter Madame
One of La Cieca’s intricate network of spies has been keeping his ear to the ground in San Francisco where a supernumerary friend whispered to him that “there was concern amongst the SFO backstage ranks that since La Gheorghiu had yet to show up for any La rondine rehearsals, that she may go the route […]
Remember, La Cieca is just the messenger
Writes a spy: Today at the final dress, it was pretty obvious why Reneeeeee would cancel her Normas – the “Sempre libera” was SCARY bad – completely off the voice for the mewing and really sloppy coloratura, and then she had to go back on-voice to try and get to the Bb/B/C/Db area. The repeated […]
"Brokeback" it is!
An interview with director Krzysztof Warlikowski in the current issue of Takt, the house magazine for the Bayerisches Staatsoper, confirms that you, cher public, were exactly right about the “slant” of his new production of Yevgeny Onegin opening tonight in Munich. In the interview (available online, as is the rest of the magazine, in pdf […]
Robert Goulet, 1933-2007
The Broadway baritone, star of Camelot, died yesterday at the age of 73. Goulet won a Tony Award for for the 1968 Kander and Ebb musical The Happy Time, and most recently appeared on Broadway as Georges in the 2004 revival of La Cage aux Folles. An obituary and appreciation of the performer can be […]
Jessye is dressy, but Curtis is pertest
Curtis Rayam as Arnalta in L’incoronazione di Poppea, directed by René Jacobs.
Tales of the Pearl Necklace
“1,000 faces and ten years of Kumm at the National Opera” is the intriguing headline of what disappointingly turns out to be a review of a rock concert. And La Cieca was so sure this was in some way connected with the impending prima of the Krzysztof Warlikowski production of Yevgeny Onegin.
Un chien mord un homme
Opera performances in Paris are canceled due to strikes.
Nibble, nibble, mousie, who’s nibbling at my gallery?
The Gallery Met — you know, that space off to the opposite side of the box office, over near the State Theater? Oh, didn’t you know there was a gallery there? Well, in fact, neither did much of anyone else, judging by the sparse attendance there ever since they removed the lesbian erotica (that is, […]
Filth in a supporting role
La Cieca hopes you aren’t under the misapprehension that only stars (or would-be stars) are capable of filth-level performances. A true “sporcizianista” can fuck up even such apparently foolproof music as the few lines of Ines in the first act of Trovatore:
Name that Regie!
Well, no, Charles Wuorinen has not finished his Brokeback Mountain opera quite yet. In fact, this photo is from a new staging of a standard repertory work. Can you identify it? (Guesses only, please — if you know this production, please recuse yourself!) Click to enlarge.
I know a Malibran, she drives a moving van…
What can take a sunrise / Sprinkle it in dew / Cover it in chocolate / and a miracle or two? The Malibran Van!
Does a big voice need defending?
Our Own Little Stevie reflects on the Met’s new Macbeth. I’d like to admit a guilty pleasure of mine: I’ve secretly been waiting with a lot of anticipation for Maria Guleghina to sing in Macbeth and Norma this year. I have not told this to many people because it seems that the common expectation has […]