Mark, with thee we mean to live Mark, with thee we mean to live

People these days often exclaim “…..is everything!” but often it feels like gross hyperbole. But surely anyone who has seen Mark Morris’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato since it premiered in 1989 would agree that it is indeed everything!

Et voila l’histoire Et voila l’histoire

To mark Beverly Sills’s 90th birthday (May 25, 1929) “Trove Thursday” offers the late diva’s acclaimed Massenet heroine opposite her ideal Des Grieux, Alain Vanzo.

Goodness had everything to do with it Goodness had everything to do with it

The Met stage was filled with considerable magic Monday night when its dizzily effervescent revival of La Cenerentola starring Joyce DiDonato and Javier Camarena stirred a bewitched audience to some of the most ecstatic ovations heard this season.

Truth: dare

Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center,  celebrated mastermind of the financial turnarounds of the Royal Opera, American Ballet Theatre the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, has some interesting advice for arts organizations in our current troubled times. His ideas take on a strong resonance, La Cieca thinks, when applied to our big New York opera…

Illuminata a festa splende Venezia nel lontano

Having recovered from today’s five hour dress rehearsal at the Met, La Cieca’s spy Barnaba offers this report: There isn’t much point to doing La Gioconda in this day and age if you haven’t got a cast who can put it over. Wonder of wonders, the Met has dug its ancient (1967) staging out of…