three tenors

La Cieca just returned from the HD of The Audition, a documentary about the 2007 Met National Council Auditions.  The film puts her in an optimistic mood about the future of opera performance, or at any rate opera performers.  Focus is on three young tenors who (spoiler) all end up winning the competition.

divan decadence

Our Own Gualtier Maldè reports: Not every opera has to be a masterpiece.  I couldn’t subsist on a steady diet of Tristan und Isolde, Die Zauberfloete, Fidelio, plus Otello,  Falstaff et al.  Frankly the occasional light comic bonbon or trashy but fun melodramatic tunefest makes a nice palate cleanser.  I am talking Adriana Lecouvreur, La…

Thank you, Sir, may i have another, Sir?

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…