Dead Ringers
Gold, Silver and Bronze Medalistsin the Helen Traubel lookalike contest Goetterdaemmullet!
Recent Stories
Leave it to Jane
La Cieca has to think of a new term that means “information I didn’t previously know, but at the same time is not at all surprising.” For example, Jane Eaglen belches backstage and wears peculiar shoes — per Trrill.
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).
Motezuma sings again!
Vivaldi’s Motezuma, the opera that refuses to die, will grace the boards after all, says an article by Paul Moor at Musicalamerica.com. A court in Duesseldorf has held that the Altstadtherbst Festival in that city may stage the piece, regardless of a previous injunction against performances filed by the “copyright owner,” the Berliner Sing-Akademie. (The […]
Ariane abbandonata
La Cieca has just heard that Carol Vaness has canceled her performances of Ariane et Barbe-Bleu at the New York City Opera this fall due to “injury.” The opening night of this Dukas production is scheduled for October 6, less than six weeks from now, and the word is that NYCO is scrambling rather intensely […]
Snort!
“While humor and story telling can warm any occasion, a good scoop spreads through a room like an illicit and irresistible drug, passed along in nods and crooked smiles, in discreet walks out to the balcony, the corridor, the powder room.” La Cieca is delighted to learn that gossip is the new meth, at least […]
Tu la mia Stella sei
La Cieca is no longer alone in the podosphere. She has just been informed of the debut a podcast “designed for rabid opera fans everywhere” by a new girl on the block, Mme. Stella Maria Krazelberg von und zu Brabant. Details on the first episode (“As the Fur Flies – Bitchin’, Brawlin’ Biker Chicks”) may […]
Monday, Bloody Monday
This week on “Unnatural Acts of Opera,” a 1998 live performance of Gomes’ opera Maria Tudor conducted by Luis Fernando Malheiro. The heroine of this opera (based on a rather improbable play by dear Victor Hugo) is the Queen of England known to history as “Bloody Mary.” As depicted by Gomes, Maria is regal, highly […]
You’ve got to climb Mount Everest
Anna Netrebko is Anne Welles! Rolando Villazon is Lyon Burke! On the silver screen, every thrill, every shock of the best-selling novel by Jacqueline Susann! Uh, make that “the best-selling opera by Giuseppe Verdi…
One from the provinces
This week on “Unnatural Acts of Opera,” the kind of performance you just don’t hear any more: a “provincial” production of Manon from the New Orleans Opera, starring Montserrat Caballe. Like I said, this kind of thing just doesn’t happen these days. And did you hear about the 16 year old who sang Carmen last […]
Purché porti la gonnella…
“When his career began, he was singing opposite women old enough to be his grandmother, he said – but female leads are now young enough to be his granddaughter.” Thanks, Leporello, make a note of that in your book, will you? Placido Domingo is close to retirement.
Remember filth?
La Cieca has been listening to so much good singing lately that she almost forgot there was such a thing as filth. Don’t worry, it’s still around, and filthier than ever. Mara Zampieri, anyone?
One more insane queen
It occurred to La Cieca that she might be well advised to listen (with her mind and with her ears?) listen to the music files she’s posting into her podcast “Unnatural Acts of Opera.” Not that there are technical problems with the source materials, oh, no, never that, but rather she thought she could start […]
Cieca alla Casablanca
Due to the sensitive yet detailed nature of the following item, La Cieca thought it would be amusing (not to mention safer) to present it in the enigmatic manner of “One Blind Vice,” Ted Casablanca‘s gold-standard column: Leggy Artiste commandeers a whole range of roles, French and otherwise, but lately she’s been panting for a […]
Sternstunde alert
La Cieca’s fingers are trembling as she types these words because she has only just learned that amazing, awesome, authentic Aprile Millo will take on the title role of Leoncavallo’s Zaza for New York’s Teatro Grattacielo this fall. This latest installment in La Millo’s matriculation at the School of Verismo transpires November 12, 2005 at […]
There are none so blind…
Which intendant was hoping to steal away from the city of his current post, either to that American A-house, that chic summer festival, or even that international theater so beloved of Alberto Vilar — but, alas, lost out on all three deals owing to a bad case of loose lips?
Digital Dementia
La Cieca notices that those lovely people over at Berkshire Record Outlet are offering what might fairly be called a plethora of opera performances on DVD, for just $8.99 a pop. Particularly drool-inducing selections include La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein (Regine Crespin), Lakme (Joan Sutherland), Carmen (Denyce Graves, Roberto Alagna), Un ballo in maschera (Carlo Bergonzi, […]
Tales of the Bizarro World
Imagine a world where alarm clocks dictate when to go to sleep…. where ugliness is beautiful… where it is a crime to make anything perfect… and where the cheap seats at New York City Opera cost $45.00. Welcome to the Bizarro World, arriving this fall at the New York State Theater. NYCO has jacked up […]
Nipped in the Budd
At first glance, the photo from San Francisco Opera’s Billy Budd looks like any other opera featuring Nathan Gunn, i.e., pug nose in profile, chin a-jut, freshly waxed chest front and center. But on closer inspection, it turns out that Billy is getting a tweak from Mr. Squeak: “Warm as a sailor’s pants, gay as […]
The revolution will be podcast
This week on La Cieca’s podcast Unnatural Acts of Opera, we hear Virginia Zeani and Giuseppe Gismondo scale the verismo heights of Mascagni’s Il piccolo Marat. This 1962 performance also stars Nicola Rossi-Lemeni and Afro Poli; Ottavio Ziino conducts.
Darling, je vous aime beaucoup, aber…
La Cieca has sneered quite a bit at Anthony Tommasini lately for his slipshod coverage of the Met’s archives and a really repellent obituary of Piero Cappuccilli. But it’s not like Tony is alone in his bumbling. This morning’s Newsday included a wire-service obit of legendary cabaret diseuse The Incomparable Hildegarde, who departed this world […]
Strapping, brawny corrections
This week it seems Tony Tommasini can’t do anything right. First he cooed over Renee Fleming‘s impossibly arch performance at a Mostly Mozart concert. Well, subjectivity and all that; still, you have to wonder where bad taste ends and starfucking begins. Then, in this morning’s paper, ironically in a piece about the Met’s archives, Tony […]
Into the lion’s mouth!
The ineffable Leyla Gencer gives a master class in grandezza in the latest episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera. The diva stars as La Gioconda in a live 1971 performance of Ponchielli’s opera.
He’s here, he’s there…
Placido Domingo wants to conduct at Bayreuth: Domingo will in Bayreuth den Taktstock schwingen. (And is La Cieca the only one who thinks that headline sounds like the first line of a Lieder text?) One presumes that on the dark night between Siegfried and Goetterdaemmerung, Domingo will jet to Los Angeles to sing a quick […]