A Met insider whispers that new chorus director Donald Palumbo, recently praised to the skies for his “tireless” efforts on Orfeo, may not want to stay tired for long. According to our source, “warning of vocal deterioration” letters have already been drafted to be sent to several members of the Met regular chorus, especially in […]
La Cieca has finally found a way to harness the massive intellectual prowess of her commenters for what she hopes is a good and peaceful purpose. From time to time she is asked for recommendations on, well, this and that, and she’s realized that you, cher public represent an paralleled resource for advising, counselling and […]
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).
The Met’s press office just sent this out: New York, NY (May 8, 2007) – Bizet’s Carmen with Russian mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina in the title role will be revived during the Met’s 2007-08 season, replacing the previously announced performances of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann. The change in repertory is due to the decision by Argentine […]
La Cieca hears that the Met will scrap next season’s revival of Les Contes d’Hoffman (scheduled for February-March 2008) in favor of Carmen. A well-informed source suggests that the switch will be done at the behest of tenor Marcelo Álvarez, who would have sung the title role in the Offenbach but will now perform his […]
A Happy Shade whispers to La Cieca about the Met’s Orfeo (opening tonight): “This show is awesome. The dancing is really interesting and fits the music very well. Donald Palumbo has really worked tirelessly to make the chorus sound as good as possible, giving notes and comments all through rehearsals. I’m told from long-time members […]
A rare chance to hear Evangelia Callas (mother of Maria) tell her side of the story. This audio clip from a 1962 television interview is in rather dim sound, but we do get a sample of Evangelia’s singing voice! Evangelia
Gender-bending diseuse Zarah Leander crosses over into opera to sing “Che farò senza Euridice” in this scene the 1938 film Heimat. It may be noted that the sub-contralto Leander chooses a lower key for this aria than the written C major David Daniels will sing tomorrow night! For more about the iconic Zarah, see Ben […]
Our very own editor takes to the airwaves this afternoon when he is interviewed by John Schaefer on WNYC’s Soundcheck. As part of “Tristan Mysteries” week here in New York, JJ will play selections from a few of his favorite recordings of Tristan und Isolde, and probably will find time to mouth off a bit […]
Before he was famous, tenor Juan Diego Flórez was already puppylicious. Here at at age 16 he sings a pop song on a 1989 televised music festival. (La Cieca can’t quite make up her mind if he reminds her more of Duckie in Pretty in Pink or Slater from Saved by the Bell.)
“The Met’s lavish new production of Giacomo Puccini’s operatic trilogy Il trittico (heard April 20) was almost as enjoyable as it was long.” Our editor JJ’s somewhat contrarian position may be read in Gay City News.
La Cieca is totally in awe of the insightful (and totally enjoyable) reporting her baby sister OperaChic is doing on the most recent Angela Gheorghiu scandale. In what La Cieca chooses to regard as an early 50th anniversary hommage to one of the most infamous moments in the career of Maria Callas, la Gheorghiu has, […]
The doyen of operatic stage direction has done it again! (Or, to be strictly accurate, he has done it for about the twentieth time, but who’s counting?) Thrill to the brilliantly innovative new production of La traviata Franco Zeffirelli just unveiled at the Rome Opera! Oh, if only we could have a production of Traviata […]
Our editor JJ chats with the lovely and talented Mona de Crinis in an interview for the Palm Springs Bottom Line, a publication whose title contains so many double entendres La Cieca lost count. Thrill yet once again to the saga of parterre box, the little zine that could, and JJ, the editor who would. […]
La Cieca hears that the Met’s new production of Il trittico will return in 2010, starring Patricia Racette as the three heroines.
Of course you’ve all heard of the Afro, the Jewfro and the Gayfro. So allow La Cieca to introduce you to the latest variant of this curly coiffure: the Castratfro, as modeled by countertenor Philippe Jaroussky in the opera Agrippina. In the interest of fairness, La Cieca should point out that the big hair was […]
Actress, singer, arts advocate, socialite, TV personality (and New Orleans native) Kitty Carlisle Hart has died at the age of 96. La Carlisle made her Broadway debut in 1933 in the musical Champagne Sec (a version of Die Fledermaus), then went to Hollywood for a brief stay highlighted by her turn as “Rosa Castaldi” in […]
La Cieca has heard from two independent sources who attended today’s dress rehearsal of Il trittico at the Met, and the word they both use to describe the show is “wonderful.” Production values are lavish yet true to the works, the singing is never less than “very fine” and the orchestra under Maestro Levine sounds […]
La Cieca is no big believer in omens, but she must say that within a hour of Aprile Millo‘s final curtain call on the Met stage Saturday night, all hell broke loose over New York. Not exactly “stars with trains of fire and dews of blood/Disasters in the sun” but certainly a messy and unseasonable […]
Comeback queen Montserrat Caballe shared a birthday celebration in Vienna yesterday with legendary confection the “Original Sacher-Torte.” The diva was born 74 years ago, the cake first devised just over a century earlier in 1832. The soprano sang a brief serenade to the dessert before sampling the chocolately goodness, quipping, “Calories don’t exist!” Scene of […]
In further celebration of our 200th podcast, La Cieca presents a second program of superstars and their superstardom. Featured in the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera are Karita Mattila, Rolando Villazon, Renee Fleming, Dorothy Kirsten, Renata Scotto, Elena Obratszova, David Daniels, Ruth Ann Swenson, Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe diStefano, Marilyn Horne, Montserrat Caballe, Kostas […]
La Cieca has just heard that the 2007 Richard Tucker Award winner is tenor Brandon Jovanovich, pictured here at a concert given recently in honor of long-time Tucker colleague Eleanor Steber. Career Grant winners for 2007 are Meredith Arwady, contralto; Jason Collins, tenor; and Stephen Costello, tenor. La Cieca regrets to inform you that she […]
Which Metropolitan Opera diva has eased her transition into the visual-intensive Gelb era with the assistance of a plastic surgeon recently featured in W magazine and the New York Post? This Park Avenue doctor’s “short scar” facelifts promise a dramatically rejuvenated jawline with shorter recovery time and minimal scarring — just the thing for those […]
Is it just me, or is Lucia Popp‘s left nipple peeking out at us?
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