La Cieca’s latest episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera features Aprile Millo. The occasion is her upcoming appearance at Alice Tully Hall here in New York on November 12 — a concert performance of Leoncavallo’s verismo gem Zaza with the Teatro Grattacielo. The podcast features selections from two previous concert opera performances by Miss Millo: […]
A reliable source informs La Cieca that Jossie Perez will now sing no performances of the Met’s Romeo et Juliette. At the moment, she’s still listed on the Met’s web site for seven of the season’s scheduled 11 performances, but that may be just until her sub has signed on the dotted line. As reported […]
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).
La Cieca hears that Patti Lupone will make her role debut as Mama Rose in Gypsy next summer at the Ravinia Festival. La Lupone has previously graced the festival’s Sondheim series with her performances of Desiree Armfelt, Fosca, Mrs. Lovett and Cora Hoover Hoople. In the future — perhaps Joanne in Company?UPDATE: La Lupone muses […]
La Cieca must be getting her librettos confused. She knows that Baby Doe promises she will wait for Horace Tabor near the entrance to the Mineshaft. And, of course, back in the late ’70s, any number of Gotham-based operatic evenings wound up at this venereal venue. But this is the first time La Cieca has […]
Another one of those talkative “Met insiders” has spilled a whole canful of beans regarding the upcoming Peter Gelb regime at the Met. The new GM, we are told, plans to import “alternative” productions of the warhorse operas (e.g., Boheme, Tosca, Traviata) to serve as a kind of artistic counterpoint to the ultra-traditional Zeffirelli & […]
Last week, as you’ll recall, our Unnatural Opera was Die Frau Ohne Schatten, one of the most grandiose and over-the-top works ever to grace the stage. La Cieca thought her public’s palate could stand a little cleansing, so this time around we will hear a more intimate work, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. This performance is from […]
La Cieca has just heard that Jossie Perez has been canned from the prima of the Met’s new production of Romeo et Juliette. A source at the company says that the mezzo was protested by maestro Bertrand de Billy. The plum of singing the trouser role of Stephano on the opening night goes to Joyce […]
“Newcomers to opera sometimes don’t get the appeal of a dramatic form with so few surprises. Audiences know how Tosca ends before the performance even begins. Earlier this month, though, two operas provided some measure of suspense.” JJ’s latest reviews in Gay City News.
So it seems Opera Ireland was shipping sets and costumes for a borrowed Traviata production from Germany to Dublin. A routine customs check of the hoopskirts and chaises longues turned up an interesting if non-traditional prop: a 6 kilo bag of cocaine worth about half a million Euros. Since this was not a Christopher Alden […]
The only thing better than knowing that a singer has had the greatest Sternstunde of her career is having that performance documented. Montserrat Caballe‘s Norma at Orange, for example, which is one of truly must-have DVDs for any true opera fanatic. Now, Dame Gwyneth Jones has had many great nights in her amazing career, but […]
Twice the terror as murderous twins! Joyce Castle is Edith Phillips! Lypsinka is Margaret DeLorca! DEAD RINGER“Loved? You’ve never loved anyone but yourself!”
UPDATE: Not only are Gli Alagni scheduled for Aida at La Scala in 2006 (as noted yesterday), La Cieca has just heard that Peter Gelb has promised them a new production of Carmen at the Met in 2009-10. And, yes, Gheorghiu is the Carmen, not the Micaela. This is all at least four years in […]
parterre box fave Aprile Millo is on WQXR tonight at 9:05 PM EDT in a broadcast of a concert given for the George London Foundation. Sharing the bill are tenor Garrett Sorenson and Ken Noda on the 88s. You can listen in to the excitement here.
The next time you roll your eyes at an operatic plot complication involving mistaken identity, just consider this: Mirella Freni‘s cancellation of her gala peformance of Fedora at the Washington National Opera last month was apparently due to a bungled phone message. According to a WNO insider, La Freni telephoned the company’s main office to […]
To mark the 70th birthday (and rumored retirement) of Luciano Pavarotti, “Unnatural Acts of Opera” presents a performance from the tenor’s pre-superstar period. It’s La boheme opposite Mirella Freni, with Thomas Schippers conducting, as broadcast on RAI (Rome) on July 17, 1969. After the acts, it’s even more of the Pav, singing scenes from I […]
Early reports from the Ann Arbor edition of the Renee Fleming Daphne Show (additional music by R. Strauss) might have been written by La Cieca herself: “”two hours of excruciating agony,” and “a snooze . . . . high register from back in throat, spread notes.” Well, at least La Fleming won’t the the only […]
Quiz question: who said this, and in what context? “If you’ve got the right image and the right picture in your head, it makes a huge difference. The more you work with words in songs, the more you will find your texture. These are light, light songs, but if you really infuse them with a […]
“It’s always a treat to start the season with a pleasant surprise, and an exciting new dramatic soprano is one of the nicest discoveries of all—particularly when she heads up one of the strongest ensemble casts the Metropolitan Opera has fielded in years.” That’s our editor James beginning his 2005-06 season as a reviewer in […]
Ever feel a pang of nostalgia for the good old days when people dressed for the opera? For a quick cure, here’s a link you should keep bookmarked. It’s the “Look Book” section of New York magazine, featuring photos of some of the attendees of the opening night at the Met. By the looks of […]
Beginning tonight on “Unnatural Acts of Opera,” La Cieca presents a potpourri of operatic scenes and arias sung by latter-day stimmdiva Aprile Millo, including selections by Rossini, Verdi, Beethoven , Dvorak and Cilea.
Cher public, those of you who have written to La Cieca wondering at the frequency Anthony Tommasini uses the word “strapping” to describe opera singers of the male persuasion — well, wonder no more. According to the New York Times archives, Tony has flogged his favorite modifer no fewer than 44 times in the past […]
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