Now that we all know what’s what for the Met’s 2007-2008 season, surely it’s time to start speculating about what comes after, right? Well, La Cieca has been in touch with her stable of reliable sources, and what she has heard is more than a little intriguing. N.B. All this is as heard, of course, […]
Iridiscent Ira Siff will give (though not too much) a master class under the auspices of the Metropolitan Opera Guild on Wednesday, March 7 at 4:15 – 5:30 P.M at DiCapo Opera, Lexington Avenue at 76th Street. He will coach three young singers on Mozart, Puccini and the bel canto. Some tickets will be available […]
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).
Part of Anna Netrebko‘s star turn at the Vienna Opera Ball last month. Note at the end of the clip the lovely and talented Paris Hilton sulking in Richard Lugner‘s loge.
It’s still two years before the dreaded Mortier monster is due to descend upon the city, but right-wing thinktankstress and Giuliani enabler Heather Mac Donaldisn’t wasting any time getting the hyperbole rolling. From The City Journal (“the best magazine in America” — Peggy Noonan), a sample of Mac Donald’s heady prose: While Belgian-born Mortier’s fellow […]
That Richard Wagner sure had star quality! Even now, 124 years after his death, the composer exerts a fascination that extends even to lively speculation about minutiae about his personal life. In a previously unpublished letter unearthed for the premiere issue of The Wagner Journal, Wagner discusses — well, what do you think? The Grundthemae […]
La Cieca hears that incoming NYCO intendant Gérard Mortier is wasting no time in putting his stamp on the company, even though his tenure is not due to begin until 2009. La Cieca’s source whispers that Mortier is sending Kevin Murphy (currently head of the music staff at Paris) to New York to replace the […]
La Cieca has managed yet once more to scoop the everloving world. Here, for your enjoyment, prior to its unveiling in the Met’s Schwartz gallery: an exclusive sneak preview of the just-completed video portrait of Renee Fleming, directed by Robert Wilson.
Until the Met gets around to installing their Robert Wilson video portrait of Renee Fleming, we can bide our time with the artist’s take on Brad Pitt. (Warning: audio contains wild ranting and screaming, but at least it’s not “I could have danced all night.”)
First Opera Professional: Mortier will be a disaster at NYCO! He has the worst taste in singers of anyone in the business! Second Opera Professional: Oh, then he must have done the casting for for their 2007-08 season.
The New York Times reports that Gérard Mortier will become general manager and artistic director of the New York City Opera in 2009. Of course, you already knew that, didn’t you?
The delectable details of the 2007-2008 season at the Metropolitan (discussed this morning in a press conference with Peter Gelb, James Levine and representatives of the new season’s production teams) may be found on the Met’s web site. Our publisher JJ was there in the flesh, and he forwards his impressions: The biggest news this […]
The most startling news from tomorrow’s press conference at the Met (as released early to the New York Times) — in 2011, a new production of Bellini’s Norma, starring Renee Fleming and directed by Robert Wilson. The casting of Cecilia Bartoli as Adaligisa is La Cieca’s own whimsy, but, hey, stranger things have happened. (For […]
Ah, dear Alberto Vilar — remember when he was going to swoop down from the skies and rescue the Metropolitan Opera and The Royal Opera at Covent Garden and, well, just opera, in general? And, more to the point, remember how he never tired of bragging about his munificence, and demanding lavish expressions of gratitude? […]
Angela Gheorghiu sings “La vie en rose” at the Paris Garnier Gala conducted by Ion Marin, New Year’s Eve 2006.
The final act of Loreley is hardly the only attraction on the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera. La Cieca also salutes the birthdays of three of the greatest sopranos of all time, and, can you believe it, presides over the return of one of your all-time favorite features, “The Enigmas of La Cieca.” […]
YouTube starlet William Zauscher has returned, this time in a more divacentric mood.
A quick perusal of the website of Giuseppe Filianoti suggests that the honey-toned tenor might well be dubbed “the Nathan Gunn of Italy.” Well, that’s not completely accurate, because Filianoti doesn’t take off his shirt in every operatic role. But even without singing, he does make something utterly poetic of the dying Werther:
The legendary French soprano celebrates her 80th birthday today.
Currently on Unnatural Acts of Opera, the ravishing Loreley by Alfredo Catalani in a performance from La Scala in 1968. Heading the cast is perhaps the definitive “meteoric” diva, Elena Suliotis. La Cieca remembers as a tiny child seeing this late ’60s photo of La Suliotis and thinking that she had to be the most […]
On Tuesday, in the criminal courthouse in lower Manhattan, Jerry Hadley was cleared of the DUI charge for which he was arraigned on May 10 of last year. After months of procedural appearances in court, the tenor was exonerated when the District Attorney’s office moved for dismissal.
Now who, of all people, do you think spent all day today in a hush-hush meeting with George Manahan over at the New York City Opera? (Do you remember the New York City Opera? It’s that other company in Lincoln Center, the one people used to pay a lot of attention to before Peter Gelb […]
The Metropolitan Opera has just announced that Lorin Maazel will return to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time in 45 years to conduct six performances of Wagner’s Die Walküre beginning January 7, 2008. These performances will be Maazel’s first with the company since the 1962-63 season. (To give you some concept of how long […]
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