“Ein Film, das Sie nie vergessen werden,” says the announcer, and this claim may very well be true. Presenting Das Lied der Balalaika, a 1971 attempt by “opera singer” Ivan Rebroff to cross over into… well, it’s difficult to define exactly the genre here. L’homme qui vient de la nuit (as the picture is entitled,…
STEMdiva status
Ahead of a special boozy, bawdy Valentine’s Day concert, artistic director of Opera Lafayette Patrick Quigley speaks with soprano Maya Kherani about her journey from MIT to rising American Baroque star.
You know, La Cieca and her alter ego JJ are just like the pair in that lovely song by Mr. Sondheim, “The Story of Lucy and Jessie.” Well, not just like, perhaps. La Cieca can hardly be accused of having “maturity and plenty of security” and dear JJ does not exactly boast “the purity along…
An opera quiz with the composer who’s been on everyone’s lips lately, Rufus Wainwright. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/svjlK74xZRw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
In honor of our current series of Unnatural Acts of Opera featuring La forza del destino, La Cieca presents yet another vocal identification quiz. The aria is “Son giunta… Madre, pietosa Vergine” and your task is to identify the baker’s dozen of divas singing it. Just to shake things up, La Cieca has decided we…
The first rule in writing an artist’s program bio is to find some interesting and unique detail that will catch the reader’s interest. This tidbit need not be directly relevant to the production at hand or even to the artist’s ostensible talent, so long as it’s, as the journalists like to say, “hooky.” Which is…
Belated best wishes to the legendary Russian diva, who turned 70 on July 7. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Ddg2OypBVng” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
“It suddenly occurred to me that there’s no opera about an opera singer,” [Rufus Wainwright] says. “It doesn’t exist in the repertoire.” [The Globe and Mail]
Not so many guesses for our most recent Regie quiz, so perhaps it’s not surprising that nobody identified the show as La finta giardiniera. This week’s puzzler is a more familiar title, though that might be hard to guess at first glance.
“Is there anything Rufus Wainwright can’t do?” Though, to be fair, une doyenne d’un certain age like La Cieca should be much nicer to any whippersnapper who has the grace to say things like, “she’s in her 50s. If you consider that aging or not, I don’t know. Some people told me that 50 is…
Dear departed Shelley Winters knew a thing or two about the diva experience, and one of her most apt mediations on the topic may be found in her memoirThe Middle of My Century. She was starring in the Broadway production of A Hatful of Rain, and during rehearsals she stumbled on the heavily raked stage,…
Dishy scribe Zachary Woolfe muses on “The Bewitching Art of La Cieca” in The New York Observer. Our Own JJ is profiled, covered, revealed, reported, what he eats and what he wears and whom he knows and where he was, and when and where he’s going.
This one is dedicated to the wizardly Nick Scholl. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Y2_u248S9s4″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
La Cieca is proud to relaunch a completely overhauled parterre.com, previously seen in fragments, dribs and drabs, but now here to stay. The new look features a return to the (now) retro punky aesthetic of the early ’90s zine, updated fonts and all sorts of other improvements intended to enhance your reading and commenting pleasure.…
“Ya are going on tonight at the Royal Opera in Barbiere. In a wheelchair!”
Just added to Google’s online archive of Life magazine photographs: over a hundred full-color images from the Old Met in the 1960s. Be prepared for a strong pang of nostalgia as you glimpse Richard Tucker, Leontyne Price, Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli, Anna Moffo, Zinka Milanov and many other greats of that regrettably bygone era. [Google Images]
“The American mezzo-soprano Faith Sherman makes a striking debut as the Pilgrim, but surely ENO could have found a British singer for this role.” [The Telegraph]
Trailer for the new Richard Jones production of Lohengrin at the Bavarian State Opera, featuring Jonas Kaufmann‘s role debut as the Swan Knight.
“Natalie Dessay … in a fuchsia dress and lace-up high boots, flaming red hair piled high on her head …. swung her arms above her head, stretched, and then literally screamed out what sounded like wild joy and barely bridled lust.” [Santa Fe New Mexican]
La Cieca hears that Joyce DiDonato took the proverbial “break a leg” too literally during the opening night of new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at Covent Garden yesterday. The mezzo caught her foot in a track on the steeply-raked stage and fractured her leg during the first act. Despite the pain, she continued…
That favorite strawman of closed-minded critics, “Regie opera,” is the target of yet another limp-noodle critical flailing, this time from a chap by the name of Geoffrey Wheatcroft — as if someone whose mugshot is so obviously a emblem of bowtied entitlement has any right to pronounce judgment on anyone else’s visual taste. Just how…
“When I was in junior high and my parents found gay porn on my computer, I told them that it was just popup ads from parterre.com.” La Cieca just returned from an interview with Zachary Woolfe, who gave La Cieca that “I loved you when I was a child” crap, but you’ll be happy to…
La Cieca is delighted to present, by special arrangement with VAI, the legendary “New Orleans Forza” as the latest installment of Unnatural Acts of Opera. This live performance was recorded in March of 1953 and stars Zinka Milanov, Mario del Monaco and Leonard Warren. You can hear the first act after the jump.
What a gorgeous performance of “Vissi d’arte!” And was La Cieca surprised when she learned the name of the artist!
The embattled NYCO chairwoman is 59 years young today!
A Baroque Valentine’s with Opera Lafayette | Feb | DC & NYC
Celebrate love in all its guises with tender ballads, amorous duets, cheeky verses, and bawdy drinking songs plus food, cocktails and wine.
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.