[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rcmu5du2jkw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] The troubled NYCO tries a new approach.
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.
Watching the Richard Tucker Gala just now, La Cieca is reminded to something she said to a companion after an early Diana Damrau Met performance (Ariadne, she thinks it was.) What La Cieca said was, “Well, you can send all the others home, because we’ve found our Neely O’Hara!”
La Cieca knows that one should not judge any work by the odd snippet, but she’s going to go out on a limb here and predict that Frédéric Chaslin‘s Wuthering Heights will be the next big camp opera in the “Technicolor Twaddle” tradition of The Ghosts of Versailles and The First Emperor. Update: the videos…
La Cieca hears that Violeta Urmana fainted only an hour before tonight’s performance of Iphigénie en Tauride in Valencia. She decided to soldier on but then collapsed onstage after the interval. American soprano Jennifer Check finished the performance.
Hörst du Sie noch? Ich bin’s, ich bin’s
The season at La Scala continues under the guidance of Daniele Gatti.
Tim Ashley in the Guardian Unlimited writes: When Hansel and Gretel are out of the house, their parents (Thomas Allen and Elizabeth Connell) prepare to have sex on one of the children’s beds, and we recognise the potential for deeply inappropriate behaviour lurking behind this family’s facade. And speaking of deeply inappropriate behaviour, is Anja…
Texted from the Met a few minutes ago: During act 2 (still going on) a stage hand walked out in the middle of Tristan and Isolde’s first duet to move her yellow gown away from the torch and ensure it didn’t light! Meier and Seiffert just kept singing…
Our Own Gualtier Maldè reports: Not every opera has to be a masterpiece. I couldn’t subsist on a steady diet of Tristan und Isolde, Die Zauberfloete, Fidelio, plus Otello, Falstaff et al. Frankly the occasional light comic bonbon or trashy but fun melodramatic tunefest makes a nice palate cleanser. I am talking Adriana Lecouvreur, La…
So La Cieca is in moderate agony today since she chipped a tooth. She was eating turkey on white bread with mayo when it happened, which gives you some idea of your doyenne’s dental fragility, not to mention ethnic blandness, but that’s not the point of this story. You may recall that at least once…
Wunderfrau Waltraud Meier sings Isolde at the Met tomorrow night, replacing the ailing Katarina Dalayman. Peter Seiffert will go on as Tristan.
Much as La Cieca would like to believe that this photo represents a scene from a new opera entitled Meine liebe Rabenmutter, alas, it’s just plain old Zauberflöte as performed at a Berlin subway station. This image of Darleen Ann Dobisch was chosen one of Reuters Entertainment’s “Images of the Year” for 2008.
[The headline above replaces “Here am I, your special island! Come to me, come to me!” Congratulations Chacowhacko!]Â Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times.
The Met website just announced this week’s set of winners in the “$25 Weekend Ticket” lottery. La Cieca counts 260 pairs of ducats awarded for the December 12 Tristan und Isolde and 50 for the following night’s Don Giovanni. Your doyenne is interested to hear if any of you cher public participated in this week’s…
It turns out that La Cieca’s fanciful prediction (of what Renée Fleming would wear from the Christian Lacroix collection) was not so far off after all! More images from the Met’s Thaïs after the jump.Â
Counter Critic eschews false modesty long enough to offer a proposal for the New York City Opera.
Extended clips of the La Scala Don Carlo as telecast on Sunday night — after the jump.
La Cieca thanks her cher public for joining her last night for yet another of your doyenne’s notorious online live chats. Starting at 7:45 PM, La Cieca and approximately 50 members of the parterre posse indulged in a little catty camaraderie during the Sirius and RealNetworks broadcast of Massenet’s fin-de-siècle fantasia. UPDATE (Friday): La Cieca’s…
Glimpses of last night’s Don Carlo prima at La Scala:
A foundation created by the late soprano Birgit Nilsson will award a prize of one million dollars this year to an “outstanding achievement of a concert or opera singer, a classical or opera conductor, or a specific production by an opera company.” The first award winner was chosen by Ms. Nilsson herself and the foundation…
Maestro Daniele Gatti enters the pit at La Scala for the second act of Don Carlo.
Next week in New York will be notable for more than just Renée Fleming‘s first local whack at Thaïs. In fact, the night of Wednesday December 10 promises the convergence of two of La Cieca’s favorite demoiselles of dementia, Jessye Normous and Dorothy Bishop performing within minute and blocks of each other. La Bishop’s show,…
La Cieca has just heard that as of this afternoon, La Scala has dismissed Giuseppe Filianoti from their opening night new production of Don Carlos (scheduled for a worldwide telecast Sunday) and replaced him for the entire run of performances with American tenor Stuart Neill. Per La Cieca’s source, at the Thursday open dress rehearsal…
“Belgian Gerard Mortier said Thursday he hopes to turn Madrid’s Teatro Real into one of Europe’s top opera houses when he takes over as artistic director, adding that many of his productions would be from the 20th century.” [via AFP]
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.
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.