You know, La Cieca heard there were some staging modifications to the Wilson Lohengrin since the last revivial, but who knew? As La Cieca announces in her current podcast, she will be liveblogging the WQXR broadcast of the Volpe Farewell Gala this Saturday evening. Comments will be enabled so you can be as interactive as […]
Standing room for the Volpethon goes on sale on the day of the performance (May 20), and it will only cost you . . . fifty bucks. Nice to see that Uncle Joe hasn’t lost the common touch. By the way, has anybody read the book yet? No, me neither.
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).
Well, it looks like yet another cliche turns out to be true: there really is no such thing as bad publicity. La Cieca hears that since his arrest two nights ago for DWI, Jerry Hadley has been fielding calls and emails from practically everyone he ever met in the business — most of them asking […]
La Cieca hears that Ben Heppner has canceled today’s dress rehearsal of Parsifal at the Met; Mark Baker will go on. (He’s Heppner’s cover for the run as well.) UPDATE: Baker went on, and as if things are not already exciting enough, the Met has rushed Gary Lehman into town to cover-cover.
Everyone’s favorite new tenor Stephen Costello (whom so many of you have seen and enjoyed on YouTube) may be heard in in the flesh at a free “preview” recital Tuesday, May 23 at 7:30 at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, 152 W. 71st Street. (He’ll take the program to London for his debut there […]
Fiorenza Cossotto, filmed from the wings of La Scala, belting out the Principessa’s aria from Adriana Lecouvreur.
Point/Counterpoint from the wellsung twins: Jonathan: “Renee Fleming is a disaster as Rodelinda. What the hell is going on? WHY does she sing this rep? It was like one big slur that lasted for four hours. I did not hear one consonant, and there was no sense whatsoever of where one note ended and another […]
This week’s podcasts feature a reprise performance (the 1977 Turandot starring Luciano Pavarotti, Montserrat Caballe and Leona Mitchell) with all new chatter from La Cieca. In the current episode, she yaks about the Volpe Farewell Gala and poses yet another of “The Enigmas of La Cieca.” It’s all at Unnatural Acts of Opera, of course.
Among the highlights of the English National Opera’s 2006-2007 season: Catherine Malfitano as the Kostelnicka in David Alden‘s Cold War era Jenufa, a new David McVicar production of Handel’s Agrippina starring Sarah Connolly and Rebecca Evans, plus the world premiere of the opera Gaddafi, based on the life and career of the “Guide of the […]
Posted, by some odd coincidence, to a David Daniels discussion board: “Remember, a Baroque opera has the same structure as a hard-core porn film: several minutes of boring dialogue/recitative, and then ten-minute sessions/arias where the stars show off their assets and climax in a spectacular ‘cadenza’.”
It’s rare to hear dementia and filth within the same minute of music, but, well, it does happen.
La Cieca has just learned the scheduled roster and repertoire for the Volpe Farewell Gala to be performed on Saturday, May 20 (and, if all this music stays in the show, part of May 21 as well.) Deborah Voigt will open the program with special material by Ben Moore, accompanied by Brian Zeger. The first […]
La Cieca, who only yesterday was perpendicular hanging from a cable car, has been annoying San Francisco natives this week by humming the immortal theme song of that city by the bay while strolling her streets. (That’s the Jeanette MacDonald song, not the Tony Bennett number, but that’s not the point here.) Providing a welcome […]
La Cieca’s on vacation this week, but here’s something to watch until she returns.
“Not since Delia Rigal,” comments one of La Cieca’s regular correspondents, referring to the ongoing (not to mention inscrutable) publicity juggernaut for soprano Erika SunnegÃ¥rdh. Now she’s headlining a revised concert program for the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on May 14. According to an “URGENT” press release sent out yesterday, La SunnegÃ¥rdh will be […]
La Cieca has just learned that the winner of the 2006 Richard Tucker Award is tenor Lawrence Brownlee. Career Grants will go to Kate Aldrich (mezzo-soprano), Jordan Bisch (bass), Quinn Kelsey (baritone), Dimitri Pittas (tenor) and Gerald Thompson (countertenor). Sarah Tucker Study Grant winners include Stephen Costello, Ann McMahon Quintero and Trever Scheunemann.
Yes, the opera is Aida, of course, but is La Cieca the only one who thinks these three should be singing “It’s Raining Men?”
Oh, it’s been a lot of years since La Cieca’s days in the campy cabal. How long, you ask? So long that she plumb forgot the moment where Lohengrin hands Elsa the Cockring of Remembrance. Dies Horn soll in Gefahr ihm Hilfe schenken,in wildem Kampf dies Schwert ihm Sieg verleiht;doch bei dem Ringe soll er […]
Which diva is more than a little miffed at Met management at the moment? It seems that a major cast change in her opera was a done deal — even posted on metopera.org — while she waited for a frank — or for any — word from those in charge.
Speaking of Montserrat Caballe and Anna Bolena — well, let’s speak of them in the same sentence. From February 21, 1982, a performance of Donizetti’s masterpiece, starring Montse opposite the loggionisti of La Scala. Blood was left on that stage, and it wasn’t all hers. That’s this time on Unnatural Acts of Opera.
Enrico Stinchelli and Michele Suozzo, the hosts of La barcaccia, are not amused by Edita Gruberova‘s improvements on Donizetti’s score for Anna Bolena. (They call her “Anna Mi Bemollena,” or “Anna E-flat-ena.”)
What was probably parterre.com’s first experiment in multimedia, now updated:Just Jessye!
To salute the American spinto soprano, an assortment of podcasts from Ed Rosen, Charles Handelman and yours truly. Just click on the “play” button and turn up your speakers!
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