La Cieca proudly presents the latest Unnatural Act of Opera, a 1974 concert performance of Salome. Salome Narraboth: George Shirley; Jokanaan: Norman Bailey; Salome: Birgit Nilsson; Herodes: Ragnar Ulfung; Herodias: Ruth Hesse; Page: Sandra Walker. Carnegie Hall, New York. December 18, 1974. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti.
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.
La Cieca hears that Sondra Radvanovsky is not, in fact, making her Met farewell this year, but will return to the company in future seasons. Your doyenne is not sure what lesson to take away from this experience: either that whining to the media prematurely makes you look like a fool later on, or else…
UPDATE:Â “Joining City Opera will be Director of Artistic Planning Edward Yim, perhaps best known for playing an integral role in the exciting and highly successful multidisciplinary programming at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Casting Advisor Steven Blier, an eminent pianist and vocal coach who is equally at home in the traditional operatic repertoire and…
“In Adriana Lecouvreur, Domingo manages to portray plausibly a character young enough to be his grandson. He is the dashing Count Maurizio, who is entangled in a romantic triangle with the celebrated actress Adriana and a scheming princess. The count’s excuse for two-timing Adriana is perhaps the most original in the history of cheating. He’s…
Florida Grand Opera announced today that Music Director Stewart Robertson has decided to relinquish his position at the conclusion of the current season in May 2009. It should be noted Robertson has not completely pried his mouth off the American teat, as he will continue as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Florida based Atlantic…
Placido Domingo has been named the winner of the first $1 million Birgit Nilsson Prize for achievements in classical music. [via AP]
Sharp-eyed reader Sadie Salome writes: It seems I was the only one spent much of last night’s letter scene peering through her binoculars at Karita Mattila‘s fine acting, because I see no report on your site of last night’s mishap (and if it isn’t on your site, then it obviously hasn’t been reported anywhere!) As you…
Our Own JJ is shown here “wrangling” the dancers for his friend Dorothy Bishop‘s cabaret show last night at Splash. There were supposed to be only two dancers, which is more than enough to fill the very small Splash window ledge of a stage. But three showed up: E.J., Alain and Michele. La Bishop is…
“Gypsy camp! Almost a dance outright! Sweaty musclemen! Rhythmically coordinated swings! Throbbing … impetuous … distinctive … alluring … dusky … creamy … robust … restless … full of yearning … hard-edged!” [After Dark NYT]
La Cieca thinks any revival of Adriana Lecouvreur is reason for rejoicing, though this photo made her stop and wonder: since when does Hillary Clinton sing verismo? Oh, all right, it’s La Cieca’s little joke. Our Secretary of State has not sung any opera role, recently anyhow. The Hillary lookalike is none other than Nelly…
Let’s talk about chest: theories, recollections, examples, caveats… All about chest, in fact. To start the conversational ball rolling, here’s what some celebrated mid 20th century divas have to say about the subject of chest voice. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/j2hd_2m1qXE” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Chest nut Charlie Handelman has so much to say on “voce di petto”…
Sirius XM Radio will avoid bankruptcy thanks to a half-billion dollar loan from Liberty Media. The “bailout” assures that the satellite company’s Metropolitan Opera Radio will stay on the air for now. [via Washington Post]
or, “The Art of Can’t Canto.” [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/wk84Niba5Fo” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
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La Cieca reminds her cher public that the always inventive Gotham Chamber Opera returns this week with a rare production of Haydn’s L’isola disabitata. Mark Morris directs the non-dancing proceedings, with Neal Goren conducting the “typical early classical orchestra.” Castaways include Takesha Meshé Kizart, Valerie Ogbonnaya, Vale Rideout and budding barihunk Tom Corbeil. According to…
Longtime friend of the ‘box Little Stevie returns to Adriana Lecouvreur: I have always believed that as with La Gioconda, a great performance of Adriana Lecouvreur needs to serve up “the four greatest singers in the world”, and the Met seems to come close to doing just that. I have attended all of the performances…
A witty YouTube ad from Dallas Opera, who seem to be doing just fine. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/uLU0M6EkuKg” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Following in the footsteps of Harrison Birtwistle‘s Minotaur and Thomas Adès’ The Tempest (which featured the half-human character Caliban), the Royal Opera House has commissioned yet another opera based upon a legendary monster. The as-yet-untitled oeuvre is the life story of Anna Nicole Smith, with music by Mark-Anthony Turnage (The Silver Tassie) and libretto by…
A reminder that La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Dorothy Bishop shakes her little tush on the catwalk of Splash tonight in her new cabaret show, as written and directed by Our Own JJ.
Despite rave reviews for her recent “comeback” show at the Palace, vocal problems continue to plague legendary songstress Liza Minnelli.
In the words dear Renata Scotto once used in a master class when advising a young soprano not to gesture so much, “And look who is telling her this!” Would you believe that La Cieca is actually having a gay old time reading Tony Tommasini‘s “Talk to the Newsroom” feature this week? Something about the…
La Cieca is happy to announce that you, cher public, have set a new record for pageviews in a single day here at parterre.com. On February 6, dear people, you viewed this little blog a whopping 16,713 times. Over the past 12 months parterre.com has averaged around 1,500 vistors per day, totalling more than 2.6…
La Cieca’s take on the Met’s new productions for 09-10: unless the Mary Zimmerman Armida turns into something very elaborate indeed, it looks like a return to the dreaded “empty box” syndrome of the 1990s. All the new productions are stripped down unit sets, even the Hoffmann. Not that there is anything fundamentally wrong with…
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.
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.