Someone in Heaven is frowning
From today’s obit of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in the New York Times. Why, yes, you’re right. That is Anneliese Rothenberger, who not only is not Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, but is also not dead.
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Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf died this morning at her home in Switzerland. She was 90. The first report of the soprano’s passing was on Deutchlandradio Kultur: “Elisabeth Schwarzkopf ist tot. Wie der Deutschlandfunk erfuhr, starb die Sopranistin im Alter von 90 Jahren in ihrem Wohnort Zumikon in der Schweiz. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf besaß eine der schönsten Sopranstimmen ihrer […]
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).
Träumerisch!
Sigh . . . it does seem a pity to conceal in a covered orchestra pit a conductor who looks like this!
Too darn hot
How hot was it yesterday? So hot that New York Grand Opera canceled their Central Park performance of Tosca, that’s how hot it was. Rather ironic, too, because Tosca is specifically set in midsummer in metropolitan Rome, where the climate is comparable to yesterday’s Gotham scorcher. Remember that the next time you see a Tosca […]
Mystère-en-scène
Nothing more fun on a scorching summer day that a friendly game of “Name that Opera.” Below you’ll find two photographs from a recent production of a familiar opera. Can you name the opera? (Bonus: who’s the director?) (P.S. — no fair “guessing” if you know the answer from having seen the production or reviews […]
Weekend roundup
Our publisher JJ (so recently browned out in Queens) expresses his thoughts on the Lincoln Center Festival’s Grendel in his Gay City News review. La Cieca herself picks up the slack on the podcast desk with her presentation of the second act of Maria Stuarda on Unnatural Acts of Opera. Meanwhile, the endlessly inventive Billyboy […]
Queens Power Struggle — Update
La Cieca rushes back into blackout-torn Queens, New York to podcast Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, starring Barbara Frittoli and Anna Caterina Antonacci. Unnatural Acts of Opera.
Blind leading the blind item
The place: the Metropolitan Opera. The time: October 2008. The event: a cult diva’s return to the Met after a 24-season absence. The hint: what’s my name again?
Breaking: David Daniels is the Met’s Orfeo
The mystery is solved, and, as usual, La Cieca predicted it well ahead of the official announcement. Per the Met’s website, David Daniels will sing the four performances of the new Orfeo ed Euridice production in May 2007. David joins a distinguished group of artists who have interpreted the role of Orfeo at the Met, […]
The people have spoken!
Here are the results of La Cieca’s informal and utterly unscientific poll of her readers, asking “Who should replace Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in the Met’s production of Orfeo?” As you can see, a large plurality favored Ewa Podles, with David Daniels and Susan Graham also receiving numerous votes.
A glimpse of Grendel
Through her usual impeccable and top-secret sources, La Cieca has managed to obtain some obviously bootlegged but fascinating video of the opera Grendel, as performed at the Lincoln Center Festival earlier this week. The video quality is only fair, but clip does depict some of the masterful puppet design by Julie Taymor.
Nagasaki trainwreck
This is what makes conductors wake up screaming. From a performance of Madama Butterfly, Philadelphia, February 1967, with Montserrat Caballe in the title role, and Richard Karp doing what he can to keep things together in the pit. The trainwreck. (La Cieca likes to think of this excerpt as the “Berio Completion” of Butterfly.)
Skating on the Nile?
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” Actually, no, Mark Twain didn’t say it. That means this public-domain quotation is available for use by Donald Runnicles, who, according to the August Opera News, is about to find out what it means: “Runnicles, of course, was not my appointment,” [David Gockley] […]
Gong show
La Cieca hears that tenor Dongwon Shin saved the day at Opera Australia last night (or would that be tomorrow night?) when he jumped in on barely a day’s notice as Calaf in Turandot. And most of that “day” was spent on a plane from Chicago to Sydney! First reports are that the Sydney audience […]
"No, not B-flat, you fools! B-natural!"
Margaret Hamilton stars in the title role of The Licia Albanese Story. (Actually, that is Margaret Hamilton, but the role is that of an eccentric Texas millionairess who hires a high school band to accompany her performance of the national anthem in the Astrodome. It’s the opening scene of Robert Altman‘s 1970 film Brewster McCloud. […]
"No, not B-flat, you fools! B-natural!"
Margaret Hamilton stars in the title role of The Licia Albanese Story. (Actually, that is Margaret Hamilton, but the role is that of an eccentric Texas millionairess who hires a high school band to accompany her performance of the national anthem in the Astrodome. It’s the opening scene of Robert Altman‘s 1970 film Brewster McCloud. […]
La publicite!
Well, who says that the summer is a slow news season for opera? The top story this week is that the Royal Opera Covent Garden is living up to it name (the royal part I mean) by casting Deborah Voigt as Ariadne for their 2007-08 season. And bravi to La Voigt herself and her publicity […]
Che faremo?
Due to server snafu, La Cieca has had to repost the “Che Faremo” poll. Please feel free to vote again (or for the first time!) Who should replace Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in the Met’s production of Orfeo? Alice Coote David Daniels Susan Graham Bejun Mehta Ewa Podles Dolora Zajick Nessuno — cancel the production!
Waft her, angels
The fascinating and unconventional artist Lorraine Hunt Lieberson died yesterday at her home in Santa Fe. We in New York heard her only infrequently in opera, most recently in Serse and La clemenza di Tito at the NYCO and Les Troyens at the Met. She was scheduled to sing Orfeo in a new production of […]
Song of India
A reader sends La Cieca this YouTube video of the lovely Danielle De Niese in Handel’s Giulio Cesare. The intriguing Bollywood-themed production is by David McVicar.
Fleming: I’m no flapper!
Those of you cher public who frequent the left coast have probably seen the new Los Angeles Opera production of La traviata, the one that bumps the period of the action forward from the epoch of Alexandre Dumas fils to that of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Well, of course the svelte and lovely Elizabeth Futral looks […]
Trilling in thirds
UPDATE: this story really does need an “evil twin” graphic. Oh, my! Will Crutchfield is talking to himself!