Achim Freyer‘s concept for the Wälsung twins in his LA Ring looks oddly familiar. Or is that Frank Gorshin doing his celebrated impression of Placido Domingo?
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You can pull the fork out of Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh, because, believe it or not, she’s still not done. How, you ask, can that be? Well, according to an email received by La Cieca this morning, In the tradition of many great divas who pack it in, only to unpack, Madame Vera emerged from retirement…
At long last, a new episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera, featuring the classic Janacek team of Leonie Rysanek and Gabriela Benackova. Jenufa, Act 1
Those of you who may be toying with the idea of a trip to the city this fall to check out the New and Improved York City Opera may be interested to hear the performance schedule for the company’s fall season. Remember these dates are provisional they should give you an idea of how the repertory sorts out.…
In an exclusive scoop you will not read anywhere else, La Cieca has obtained the story line for Rufus Wainwright‘s next opera, the followup to the much-discussed Prima Donna. According to La Cieca’s source, the wispy composer’s second effort is to be entitled “A Vampyre Story.” Deep within the walls of a gloomy castle in…
Wieland Wagner directs James King and Leonie Rysanek in the legendary 1965 production of Die Walküre at Bayreuth. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ILGJSK-i65I” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Note at around 0:40 Wieland gets Rysanek set up for her explosive gesture at 1:20. The long, tense stillness suddenly broken by a quick, strong movement is a trademark of this…
Our previous Regie puzzler was a very non-standard opera indeed, György Ligeti‘s Le Grand Macabre. More standard and equally grand if perhaps less macabre is this week’s Regie quiz after the jump.Â
A member of the cher public who attended last night’s premiere of Verdi’s Macbeth at the Opéra national de Paris filed this report: It was Paris Opera GM Gerard Mortier‘s penultimate opportunity – his term ends in July –  to moon opening night Parisian audiences and he did just that. He flew in bad-boy director…
Liza’s main man Paulo Szot has some interesting and rather bold (if La Cieca may say so) opinions about the character of Leporello in today’s New York Times: “Don Giovanni needs him for everything: butt sex, to give him food, to give him drink, to share his feelings with.” (The article, fetchingly entitled “The Great…
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In what might be the scariest Friday news dump ever, the New York Times calls a job action by AGMA against the New York City Opera “likely.” [NYT]
First there was Florence Foster Jenkins, and in her wake followed Vassilka Petrova and Sylvia Sawyer. Then came Olive Middleton, and hot upon her sling-back heels Mari Lyn. And then, it seems, the line of high-caliber singing ladies dwindled… until, of course, the recent advent of Angel Taormina. In fact, La Cieca has unearthed the…
Per the Met’s press office, Erin Wall will make her house debut Met debut as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and will also sing the remaining performances of the season through the 24th. Wall replaces Barbara Frittoli, who will sing Donna Elvira instead, replacing Soile Isokoski, “who has withdrawn from the four performances due to…
Emily Magee plays Tosca (in a Robert Carsen production in Zurich); Zarah Leander lives for art.
This vastly superior caption replaces La Cieca’s original, “Rebecca Glasscock back on the pipe?” [Danielle de Niese in Acis e and Galatea at The Royal Opera, photo by Bill Cooper.]
Yes, La Cieca realizes it was all hashed out a week ago here in the blogosphere, but Daniel J. Wakin of the New York Times has finally got around to transcribing the New York City Opera’s press release about its new season. As you all know, the season opener will be Esther, starring Lauren Flanigan.…
As Peg, the boozy, washed-up screenwriter (Kathleen Turner) in Charles Busch‘s play The Third Story explains, I told you the third story is often the best. The first is the genesis of an idea, but usually completely off the track. The second is when you go overboard with flights of imagination. The third story is…
La Cieca is delighted to announce that you, cher public, have broken yet another record! During the month of March you viewed parterre.com a total of 352,139 times. That’s the highest monthly number of pageviews ever for this site. Just to give you some sense of proportion, that number is more than the population of…
Which opera company may find itself the target of criticism since they are requiring singers to fly to New York to audition for their new stage “director” — a big name who has never directed anything more complicated than a runway show?
The Met’s season premiere of L’elisir d’amore, starring Angela Gheorghiu and Massimo Giordano, is tonight’s topic of discussion. Listen at 8:00 pm on Sirius or RealNetworks and chat, chat, chat!
In the bodice-ripping tradition of HBOShowtime’s The Tudors, DG presents I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Or does La Cieca just think everyone looks like Jonathan Rhys Meyers?
Latest to join the ranks of classical music bloggers: intrepid Anne Midgette, whose Classical Beat offically launched today. Coverage includes la Midgette’s recent head-butt with Norman Lebrecht on the subject of the Wizard of Bayreuth.
At last we know the identity of the eponymous heroine of Rufus Wainwright‘s maiden effort as opera composer. The aging Prima Donna who is strugging “to regain her status as a top-flight soprano on the world stages” s’appelle Régine Saint Laurent. If ever a name screamed, “cover girl, put the bass in your walk,” surely…
Since we in New York are not going to hear Rolando Villazon until (at the earliest) April 8, La Cieca thought it would be interesting to share a recent document of his singing. Here’s a scene from Act 3 of Werther, as sung in Paris earlier this month. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/1EpdcOzw8o4″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] (Thanks,…
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