The Met’s new production of Janacek’s From the House of the Dead sets high standards for the company, but as an indicator of the Gelb Era, it may be too good to be true.

on November 18, 2009 at 12:14 AM

Far side of the lobby, near the big picture window overlooking the park.

on November 17, 2009 at 4:26 PM

Hui He will sing the title role of Verdi’s Aida at the Metropolitan Opera on March 26, 31, and April 3 matinee, replacing Hasmik Papian, who has withdrawn. 

on November 17, 2009 at 12:30 PM

I have just come back home from Le Poisson Rouge, a stylish multimedia art cabaret in Greenwich Village where Decca offered a sneak peak of Cecilia Bartoli‘s DVD Sacrificium, which will be released some time next year. I normally don’t drink liquor, but my duty as a reporter obliged me not to refuse a special…

on November 17, 2009 at 12:17 PM

Erstwhile opera blogger Nick Scholl (aka Trrill) is currently live-tweeting the Poisson Rouge “Sacrificium” launch party! 

on November 16, 2009 at 8:09 PM

They want it. The career. They want it really bad. So we learn from Susan Froemke’s Metropolitan Opera-commissioned documentary about the participants in the final round of the 2007 MetNational Council Auditions, which is out on DVD this month. Our own doyenne reviewed the film when it was screened as an HD theatrical event, and…

on November 16, 2009 at 11:37 AM

Our JJ writes his rave of raves: “If such a thing as perfection in opera is possible, in this House of the Dead, the Met achieves it.” [NY Post]

on November 16, 2009 at 7:46 AM

La Cieca knows the cher public will be intrigued to hear that tomorrow night (Monday, November 16), NYC’s downtown classical music venue Le Poisson Rouge will offer a screening of Cecilia Bartoli in a live concert, filmed September 10, 2009. Meanwhile, in honor of this cinematic event, your doyenne is launching a parterre competition for…

on November 15, 2009 at 9:02 PM

“For the premiere in 1918, the Metropolitan Opera marshaled … Florence Easton, whose repertory ranged from Carmen to Brünnhilde, as Loretta, the doting Gianni Schicchi’s ingénue daughter who winds him around her little finger with the Top 10 aria ‘O mio babbino caro’.” [NYT]

on November 15, 2009 at 7:04 PM

Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center,  celebrated mastermind of the financial turnarounds of the Royal Opera, American Ballet Theatre the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, has some interesting advice for arts organizations in our current troubled times. His ideas take on a strong resonance, La Cieca thinks, when applied to our big New York opera…

on November 15, 2009 at 1:32 AM

An elegantly beturbaned Miss Leontyne Price offers an object lesson in The Art of the Diva Interview.

on November 14, 2009 at 10:08 PM

“What the…?” was my first thought when I opened the small manila package last week, unmarked save the NY return address. Inside I found a Wagner compilation CD set from an unknown label- not the obscure Spanish opera I had ordered online the week before. Although I saw no accompanying invoice, I assumed an Amazon…

on November 14, 2009 at 9:19 PM

Noel Dahling hedged his bets, but one of those bets paid off: no, that wasn’t Liù in the body bag, but it was in fact Siegfried — which means, of course, the opera was Götterdämmerung.  For those among you who are devotees of the Regie art, the production is by La Fura dels baus.

on November 14, 2009 at 8:54 PM

Is it just me, or does this seem like using From the House of the Dead as a club to beat a dead horse?

on November 14, 2009 at 8:09 PM

Dame Kiri te Kanawa‘s cousin (who calls the opera diva “auntie because of the age difference”) is promoting “Australia’s first pole-dancing championships.” 

on November 14, 2009 at 10:34 AM

For no particular reason, La Cieca has been thinking of the duet “E un anatema” from La Gioconda, and for a very particular reason, she’s been thinking of Aprile Millo. Anyway, to get the discussion started for the weekend, cher public, how’d you like to share your favorite performances of this duet, YouTube style, down…

on November 13, 2009 at 7:41 PM

Squirrel is using his Parterre Pulpit to make a pitch. If the Met wants to produce a work that has never been seen in New York, they could do worse than a new production of Carl Nielsen‘s excellent comic opera Maskarade. It’s easy listening for sure, melodically akin to La boheme or Lehar, but marked…

on November 13, 2009 at 7:34 PM

The freshest imaginable gay hell in the December issue of Vogue: a fashion shoot based on the Richard Jones/Met production of Hansel and Gretel — with Lady Gaga in the Philip Langridge part! Plus… Annie Leibovitz! Grace Coddington! Marc Jacobs! Cate Blanchett! Oh, you know you want to know what’s after the jump!

on November 13, 2009 at 5:00 PM

The Berlin Philharmonic brought a spooky Halloween treat to New York on Thursday night, just a few days late. They are at Carnegie Hall for a three-night residency, offering the complete Brahms symphonies along with selected earlier works by that ugly duckling of Brahms disciples, Arnold Schoenberg. They are also far from home during Berlin’s…

on November 13, 2009 at 2:25 PM

Cher public, if you plan to see the Met’s production of From the House of the Dead (and you might as well know that she expects you move heaven and earth to do so!), La Cieca urges and entreats that you avoid reading Anthony Tommasini‘s review of the production in tomorrow’s New York Times. 

on November 13, 2009 at 11:36 AM

Two Faces of Diva Renée Fleming on DVD. (And here La Cieca thought it would be a documentary about cosmetic surgery!)

on November 13, 2009 at 8:16 AM

La Cieca invites all you Deadheads to chat during tonight’s Met season premiere of From the House of the Dead. The chat begins at 7:45 pm. Sirius/XM RealNetworks from metopera.org

on November 12, 2009 at 7:45 PM

The premiere of Hugo Weisgall’s 1993 Esther at New York City Opera occupied my mind for several days – though maybe not for the best reasons.  As I wrote earlier, it is a work that emanates, belatedly, from what might be called The Twelve-Tone Industrial Complex, that uptown conservatory lobby of the 1950s and 60s, which was…

on November 12, 2009 at 5:16 PM

Siegfried Wagner ‘s 1903 opera Der Kobold  (The Goblin) is a fascinating yet infuriating work. It often seems as if both music and libretto were written by a committee that couldn’t come to agreement.   The plot structure careens wildly from realism to mysticism to symbolism; the music hops from style to style and influence to…

on November 12, 2009 at 3:46 PM