He’s interested. He’s not interested. And yet, he’s still in the running. According to former NYCO honcho Mark Weinstein, “…the embattled company will appoint George Steel, the former director of Columbia University’s Miller Theater, to the [director] position in early January.” Need I add that Susan Baker hasn’t answered the phone in days? Now, La Cieca loves…
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.
A garden of Diva Blingees is right after the jump.
Fun for the holiday season: La Cieca invites her cher public to blingee your favorite diva and then email your doyenne the image or link to include on parterre.com. Update: Our Own Harold submits the first of what La Cieca is sure will be the first of many blinged-out opera stars:Â
Followers of the cultural scene on the Left Coast will be interested to see that Michael Capasso (of Dicapo gala notoriety) is apparently involved in the production of A Christmas Carol at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. Although the graphic promises “John Goodman, Jane Leeves, Jane Seymour, with Christopher Lloyd . . . and…
According to Bloomberg News, George Steel is interested in running the New York City Opera. However, the situation is complicated by the fact that George Steel is not interested in running the New York City Opera. What is clear, though, is that La Cieca had the story first.
La Cieca just saw what must be the Platonic ideal of a Regie Quiz photo, but since the piece is supposed to be a sendup, it’s really not eligible for competition. And yet… pugs in iguana costumes! Brilliant! If you want to know more about this work, click here.
Diva Angela Gheorghiu, due onstage at the Met next week for a new production of La rondine, is seen heard here as a remarkably complete package at the age of only 20. The video is dated 1986, four years before the soprano’s professional opera debut. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/8aBVrSgwp9o” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Here’s a gala a little further into the future but more firmly grounded in reality than tomorrow’s event for Dicapo: To purchase tickets for this concert benefiting Blue Gargoyle and its literacy programs, you can click here.
As commenter paddypig points out, something fishy seems to be going on with the Puccini 150th Anniversary Gala presented by Dicapo Opera Theatre, scheduled for this Monday night. As of this evening, the company’s website still advertises “Daniela Dessi, Fabio Armiliato, Francisco Casanova, Aprile Millo, Francesca Patané and others” even though certainly Millo is not…
Can it be a whole month since the Regie Quiz last graced the laptops of the cher public? Indeed it has, and perhaps now it is a bit anticlimactic to reveal that the operatic rarity depicted in that long-ago puzzler was Marco Polo. This one’s not a bread and butter work either, and La Cieca…
A different look at Thaïs, this time from the Teatro Regio di Torino. Thaïs: Barbara Frittoli; Athanaël: Lado Ataneli; Nicias: Alessandro Liberatore. Teatro Regio di Torino. Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda. Stage direction, design and choreography by Stefano Poda.
La Cieca hears whispers that Will Crutchfield‘s “Bel Canto at Caramoor” may be the next victim of the economic crisis. No reflection on Will (he can’t be expected to predict the future, after all), but the year the nation enters a recession is hardly the best time to try to put on Semiramide. Update: La Cieca just…
A judge ordered “felonthropist” Alberto Vilar imprisoned Thursday to await sentencing after his conviction on conspiracy fraud charges. [via Business Week]
Okay, cher public, you’ve heard the theories. Now it’s time for you to predict who’s getting the nod as new NYCO honcho/honchess.
La Cieca just received the official notice from the Metropolitan Opera that Linda Watson will sing Saturday night’s Isolde. Your doyenne has received further inside information that the Met has secretly hired an Irish white witch to break the curse on the company’s current staging of the Wagner music drama by setting ablaze the sets and costumes…
There’s a rumor that’s been sort of meandering around for the past few weeks in vague will o’ the wisp format concerning the New York City Opera. (As if anything about that company right now is anything but vague, but still…) So here goes. One of the restructuring models that La Cieca keeps hearing about…
Waltraud Meier‘s one (and probably only) Met Isolde is immortalized visually on the Met Archives site in photos by Marty Sohl.
CORRECTION: It seems that nasty curse has landed on La Cieca, too. Can you believe that your doyenne misheard the bit of gossip she relayed you a couple of hours ago? Yes, it does indeed appear Katarina Dalayman and Susan Foster are both too ill to sing the last Tristan of the season at the…
“The campy diva lover in me should exult at the credit in the program ‘Renée Fleming‘s Costumes by Christian Lacroix,’ but in fact the couturier’s frocks were something of a mishmash. Best was a shimmering gold sheath that set off Fleming’s first entrance and trim waistline to perfection; worst was a rumpled ivory silk ballgown…
UPDATE: La Cieca’s going to go out on a limb here and say that at the very least George Steel will be offered the direction of NYCO. Industry insiders are whispering that a certain impresario who recently upgraded his career from uptown new music maven to regional opera honcho may be about to prove that he is…
First opera queen: “So, you’re seeing Renée in Thaïs tonight?” Second opera queen: “Yeah, I’m leaving home early so I can stop at Thom McAn on the way.”
La Cieca’s indefatigable network of operatives has managed to track down the identity of that scrummy young cellist seen in virtually every shot of Monday night’s telecast of the 2007 Tucker Gala. The gentleman’s name is Joel Noyes and he has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 2002. Readers of parterre.com will…
The Met’s lastest semi-Isolde made her debut last night, as Susan Foster jumped into the third act of Wagner’s music drama. A spy at the performance reported that the supposedly recovering Katarina Dalayman sounded “SCHRECKLICH and was announced as unable to continue at the beginning of the third act … Susan Foster and proceeded to…
 La Cieca realizes that some of her younger readers (and aren’t you all?) may not remember Dr. Repertoire, La Cieca’s serious and near-pedantic colleague of the zine era. Dr. Repertoire used to answer questions about operatic roles, vocal technique and (mostly) Manuela Hoelterhoff, and so La Cieca feels he is the appropriate one to…
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.