Jerry Hadley 1952 – 2007
Jerry Hadley died at 11:20 this morning.
Recent Stories
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).
Zum Raum wird hier die Zeitgeist
As a warmup for this evening’s Unnatural Acts of Opera podcast of Parsifal (Act 1), a short film by Kopernikus1618 demonstrating what happens when “Andy Warhol meets Richard Wagner.” Speaking of Unnatural Acts, La Cieca is once more setting a precedent by offering an alternative to the current program of Wagner’s Rienzi, a live performance […]
Et nous aussi, honey!
“Je voudrais que le public oublie que je chante” — Entretien avec Renée Fleming, Opéra Magazine No. 20 Juilliet – Aout.
NYT reports on Hadley
Story now on the Times website reports that last night Jerry Hadley shot himself in the head; the case is being investigated as an attempted suicide. According to a spokesperson for the State Police, Hadley is not expected to survive.
Rhine Gold
The Chuck Jones classic What’s Opera, Doc? premiered exactly 50 years ago this week. And did you know that the “Bugs Bunny meet Wagner” motif was first essayed two years earlier, in the wartime short Herr Meets Hare?
Régine Crespin, 1927-2007
Régine Crespin in Recital Wolf: Blumengruß – Der Schäfer – Die Spröde – Anakreons Grab -Epiphanias – Mignon I, II and III – Philine – Kennst du das Land Debussy: Le Promenoir des deux amants: Auprès de cette grotte sombre -Crois mon conseil, chère Climène – Je tremble en voyant ton visage Milhaud: Poèmes Juifs […]
"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try."
Beverly Sills, 1929-2007
Video vixen
Natalie Dessay and Rolando Villazon in the St. Sulpice scene from Manon, as telecast from Barcelona Saturday night.
Does anyone still wear only one hat?
Iconic Ira Siff temporarily puts aside performing and his busy teaching schedule this summer to direct Cosi fan tutte with the Tanglewood Music Center young artists, in collaboration with Maestro James Levine. The Mozart comedy runs August 11-14. La Cieca further hears whispers that due to the overwhelmingly positive response to Ira’s guest appearances on […]
Curiouser and curiouser
Sempiternal soprano Gwyneth Jones creates a role in a world premiere later today! The veteran singing actress performs the role of the Queen of Hearts in Unsuk Chin‘s opera Alice in Wonderland, to an English-language libretto by David Henry Hwang after the novel by Lewis Carroll. The production, conducted by Kent Nagano, will be broadcast […]
Roman holiday
Unnatural Acts of Opera returns with yet another rarity, Wagner’s Rienzi in a performance from Vienna in 1997. Featured are Siegfried Jerusalem and Violeta Urmana, with Zubin Mehta wielding the baton. Unnatural Acts of Opera.
This is very bad news indeed
AP reports that Beverly Sills is “gravely ill with cancer.” Sills has always been very hands-on with her PR, so if she’s allowing this story to get out, I’m afraid she’s basically announcing that the end is very near. (If she’s not in control of the story, that’s not good news either: she’d have to […]
Tu che le vanita project
La Cieca must first of all express how startled she is that this particular item didn’t appear first on NYC Opera Fanatic — after all, Lana Turner as Elisabetta in Don Carlo? Well, in fact, Miss Turner never did sing any Verdi, on- or off-stage (unlike her precursor Joan Crawford), but my goodness, doesn’t she […]
N’est-ce plus Manon?
La Cieca hears that Natalie Dessay has walked out of the current Liceu production of Manon, leaving Inva Mula to sing the company’s new production of the Massenet opera. (Given the tight stagione scheduling, though, surely they will need another soprano to alternate.) Our insider whispers that la Dessay found Rolando Villazon (Des Grieux) something […]
Bridge
La Cieca hears that Justin Davidson, classical music critic at Newsday for the past decade, is moving over to New York magazine, where he will take over reviewing duties from the departing Peter G. Davis. Davidson’s gig will also include writing about architecture.
Druidesses three times three
La Cieca is startled and delighted to note that there are already some very competitive entries in the “Nine Normas” quiz, including a likely prize winner. So that all you cher public may have the chance to put your vocal identification skills to the test, here’s the clip of The Nine Normas. Feel free to […]
Money Schrott
“Riveting!”“Seductively handsome!”“Chiseled physique!”“Exuding charisma!”“Unabashedly narcissistic!”“A stage animal!”“Opera houses everywhere will soon be clamoring for him!”“Exposing his muscled chest!”“Shirtless, dripping with perspiration and looking crazed!”“An image I’ll take home with me from London!”
How tief is your love
Surrounding the second act of D’Albert’s opera Tiefland on the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera is a veritable plethora of special features. First, La Cieca takes a telephone call from an icon of stage, screen and recordings (hint: she was the surprise star of Broadway’s Hit the Sky). Then our old, old, old […]
camp, Critics and Their Criticism, Diva, festoonery, gay gay gay gay gay, this diva looks like that diva
I laughed for art, I laughed for love
“This writer approached the new off-Broadway play The Second Tosca with more than a bit of trepidation, worried that it might amount to no more than second-rate Terrance McNally or, even worse, unfunny inanity like Lend Me a Tenor. What a relief, then, it is to report that The Second Tosca is a delightful, campy, […]
Trittichat
La Cieca is delighted to announce the return of the online opera chat, this Thursday June 14 on the subject of Il trittico, as telecast on Channel 13 here in New York. The chat room will open at 7:45 for the 8:00 beginning of the telecast.