In an interview in the Washington Post, Anne Midgette and Ruth Ann Swenson say the word “box” so often it starts to sound dirty.
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.
Another astonishing discovery on YouTube, pointed out by a very cher member of the cher public. Courtesy of tenore23, here is Aprile Millo singing “Tu che le vanita” at the Arena di Verona. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/hmDguWslDUs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
“The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead – they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.” That’s how La Cieca (as author of…
For your compare-and-contrast delight, here’s WNO’s alternative poisoness. You surely all remember the earlier exponent of this role.
… but La Cieca finally got the chance to get her beauty winks last night following a weekend of moving house. The Sunnyside Studios (where our editor JJ and his lovely vis-a-vis cohabit) are now on the ultra-fashionable northern side of Queen Boulevard, and it looks like they got out while the getting was good,…
Most everyone caught an “Oriental” vibe from our previous Regie quiz, but only one of you guessed correctly that the opera depicted was Aida, as performed at Staatstheater Stuttgart in October 2008, directed by Karsten Wiegand. Our next little quiz is right after the jump.
Anna Netrebko has her work cut out for her…
“I’m also confident that both the long-overdue New York premiere of Daniel Catán’s sumptuous Florencia en el Amazonas and Spike Lee’s fiery new staging of The Gospel at Colonus—a retelling of the Sophocles in the form of a gospel church service—will continue to bring new visions to our audiences and new audiences to our vision. …
“Maria Callas arrives in San Francisco in 1958 with her toy poodle and 17 pieces of luggage,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle 50 years ago (November 24, 2008).
La Cieca extends her congratulations to her little sister Opera Chic for a namecheck in the AP story by Ronald Blum on the Met’s 2009-10 production cutbacks. According to Blum’s story, dropping Ghosts of Versailles from the Met’s repertoire will save “more than $1 million.” In the unfortunately ongoing “more bad news” section, La Cieca…
Official word from the Met concerning rumored cutbacks in next season is that Ghosts of Versailles is to be replaced with a revival of Traviata, rolling over Angela Gheorghiu and Thomas Hampson. No word on what happens to Kristen Chenoweth, but Peter Gelb promises that the new productions are going ahead as scheduled. [via NYT]
Left to right: Lypsinka in As I Lay Lip-Synching and Anne Sofie von Otter in The Rake’s Progress. (Thanks to Opera Chic for finding the Stravinsky production photo!)
ORGIA
Kennedy Center head Michael Kaiser will assist the New York City Opera in finding a new leader and scheduling a 2009-10 season following the departure of Gerard Mortier. [via AP]
This afternoon, after breaking the tragic news that Baltimore Opera seems to be on its last legs, Opera Chic added the startling tidbit that even the mighty Met is planning major cutbacks for next year. The blog says (with no source offered) that the company “is about to excise four [productions?] from their 2009-10 season.”…
La Cieca has just been informed that Boston Lyric Opera “is mere hours away” from announcing their new Director of Artistic Operations, Nicholas Russell (formerly of Glimmerglass Opera before the regime coup there). It should be noted that although Russell is “dall’ immondo sangue degl’inglesi dei scozie,” he is a naturalized U.S. citizen, so it’s…
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/KE_YiNED5WQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] An excerpt from Jeffrey Lependorf‘s Tim Gunn’s Podcast (a reality chamber opera), performed by baritone John Schenkel, with the composer at the piano, from a performance at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival at The Jazz Gallery.
A jump-in a due in tonight’s Met Butterfly, as Maria Gavrilova and Marcello Giordani substitute for Patricia Racette and Roberto Aronica . Earlier today at the production presentation and first rehearsal for Thaïs, Olga Makarina played the titular hooker — while Renée Fleming played hooky.
La Cieca hears that now that NYCO is relinquishing its commission of Charles Wuorinen‘s Brokeback Mountain, another opera company at Lincoln Center is interested in premiering the work, starring one or more of their stable of telegenic baritones. Perhaps in this version Jack and Ennis can meet at a honky-tonk called The Diamond Horseshoe?
Screenshot of the “Pressroom” page at the New York City Opera’s website, taken at 2:50 pm on November 11, November 10, 2008. Note the date of the most recent item. And this from the “About” page, same site, captured at 8:30 am, November 11:
parterre.com editor Our Own JJ plays talking head with Brian Wise John Schaefer this afternoon circa 2:00 pm on WNYC. Topic for the day is the recent bombshell at NYCO. Let’s hope that in the hour or so before the show it doesn’t turn to be a literal bombshell, which at this writing about the only disaster the…
Low camp, admittedly, but it’s still some sort of accomplishment when a movie is camp even before it’s released. With Paul Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton heading the cast, how could Repo! The Genetic Opera possibly go wrong? [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/1TbiM3dVJhQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
If you ever wondered, cher public, what Adriana Lecouvreur would look like as a Charles Busch “Grande Dame Guignol” epic, well, now here’s your chance. (It’s surely coincidental, though serendipitous, that mezzo-soprano Marianna Bódi so closely resembles Olivia de Havilland circa Lady in a Cage.)
Nothing could illustrate better the “strange intercourse” between artist and public than the following clip. Chris Merritt‘s 2008 performance of the rarely-heard cabaletta to “Rachel quand du Seigneur” is not much worse than you might expect, but it is the “ovation” at the end that elevates the entire experience to the highest summit of Filth.
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.
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.