La Cieca has just learned that tenor Joseph Kaiser will make a “surprise” Met debut October 3, singing the role of Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. He will also sing performances on October 6 and 11, replacing the ailing Rolando Villazón. Kaiser stars as Tamino in Kenneth Branagh’s film of The Magic Flute and…

Our new correspondent Miss Laura Hope Cruisey finishes her report from Santa Fe. Everywhere we look there is Nicole Cabell – so exotic! Wow! Very interesting looking woman; and her new arias CD is the most advertised classical record around, and it is getting good reviews. She was kind of a Mrs. Obama on stage…

In response to overwhelming listener demand, La Cieca is making the older Unnatural Acts podcasts available through RSS subscription. We begin with the first season, 2005. The RSS address for this season’s podcasts is http://parterre.com/podcast/2005_archive.rss. La Cieca will update the iTunes podcast directory later this evening so you can subscribe to the archive there —…

Well, this is what La Cieca gathers from Katharina Wagner‘s production of Die Meistersinger (without, of course, having had the benefit of actually seeing it!) KW’s basic idea is that Great-grandfather Richard presented an overly optimistic view of the dramatic action of the opera. Walther is taught by Hans Sachs to moderate his radical musical…

Our editor JJ‘s review of the Caramoor concert performance of Il trovatore (featuring Ewa Podlés as Azucena) is in the current issue of Gay City News. And for those of you who long for the gay stereotypes of yore, please note that this opera review is currently the most popular story on GCN’s site, beating…

“…the veteran dramatic soprano Gwyneth Jones, who, at the age of seventy, has lost remarkably little of her decibel capacity, made a comic tour de force of the Queen of Hearts. Memories of Jones’s Elektra at the Met added an aura of menace to her antics; when she sings, ‘Off with their heads!,’ you stroke…

… for the upcoming Cecilia Bartoli CD.

Jerry Hadley died at 11:20 this morning.

“Je voudrais que le public oublie que je chante” — Entretien avec Renée Fleming, Opéra Magazine No. 20 Juilliet – Aout.

The Chuck Jones classic What’s Opera, Doc? premiered exactly 50 years ago this week. And did you know that the “Bugs Bunny meet Wagner” motif was first essayed two years earlier, in the wartime short Herr Meets Hare?

Beverly Sills, 1929-2007

Unnatural Acts of Opera returns with yet another rarity, Wagner’s Rienzi in a performance from Vienna in 1997. Featured are Siegfried Jerusalem and Violeta Urmana, with Zubin Mehta wielding the baton. Unnatural Acts of Opera.

“Riveting!”“Seductively handsome!”“Chiseled physique!”“Exuding charisma!”“Unabashedly narcissistic!”“A stage animal!”“Opera houses everywhere will soon be clamoring for him!”“Exposing his muscled chest!”“Shirtless, dripping with perspiration and looking crazed!”“An image I’ll take home with me from London!”

La Cieca is delighted to announce the return of the online opera chat, this Thursday June 14 on the subject of Il trittico, as telecast on Channel 13 here in New York. The chat room will open at 7:45 for the 8:00 beginning of the telecast.

(a-p?th’?-?’s?s) n. pl. a·poth·e·o·ses (-s?z’) Exaltation to divine rank or stature; deification. Elevation to a preeminent or transcendent position; glorification: Many observers have tried to attribute Warhol’s current apotheosis to the subversive power of artistic vision” (Michiko Kakutani) An exalted or glorified example: Their leader was the apotheosis of courage. Tony Tommasini reviews Death in…

The long drought of Richard Strauss operas on Sirius Metropolitan Opera Radio ends with an appropriately post-romantic bang on Monday when the network launches a two-day marathon of archival Met performances of the composer’s works. Here’s the schedule: Monday, June 11, 2007 6:00 AM ET Ariadne auf Naxos. 3/20/1976. Levine; Caballé, Remedios, Welting, Troyanos, Dooley,…

“Eye makeup never looked so good on a man. In the latest installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp trowels on more black eyeliner than a Kabuki dancer. . . . and he is not the only man calling for more kohl. Lately, eyeliner — that little slick of dark paste — has acquired…

Dominique Meyer (currently at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées) and will take over as Intendant at the Vienna State Opera in 2010, with Franz Welser-Möst serving as Musical Director. Better luck next time Neil Shicoff, Christian Thielemann, Daniel Barenboim and Simone Young! (Via The Europe Channel)

WE HAVE A WINNER!. The lovely and talented Eric M. was the first to identify all six mystery sopranos correctly at 10:15 AM today, followed closely by Fred at 11:47. Congratulations to Eric and Fred, and thanks ever so to all of you who played! (For the correct answers to the quiz, check the comments…

Expanding the already bulging operatic repertoire, The Pocket Opera Players have announced the the world premiere of Pumped Fiction, composed by John Eaton with libretto by his daughter Estela Eaton. Pumped Fiction is a fable about the world’s leading patentee-distributor of penis pumps. The one-off performance will be Wednesday, June 20 at 8:00PM at Symphony…

“Mr. Hvorostovsky looked sexy in black leather pants and an open-collared black shirt.” Final paragraph.