A Happy Shade whispers to La Cieca about the Met’s Orfeo (opening tonight): “This show is awesome. The dancing is really interesting and fits the music very well. Donald Palumbo has really worked tirelessly to make the chorus sound as good as possible, giving notes and comments all through rehearsals. I’m told from long-time members…
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.
Our very own editor takes to the airwaves this afternoon when he is interviewed by John Schaefer on WNYC’s Soundcheck. As part of “Tristan Mysteries” week here in New York, JJ will play selections from a few of his favorite recordings of Tristan und Isolde, and probably will find time to mouth off a bit…
La Cieca is no big believer in omens, but she must say that within a hour of Aprile Millo‘s final curtain call on the Met stage Saturday night, all hell broke loose over New York. Not exactly “stars with trains of fire and dews of blood/Disasters in the sun” but certainly a messy and unseasonable…
Comeback queen Montserrat Caballe shared a birthday celebration in Vienna yesterday with legendary confection the “Original Sacher-Torte.” The diva was born 74 years ago, the cake first devised just over a century earlier in 1832. The soprano sang a brief serenade to the dessert before sampling the chocolately goodness, quipping, “Calories don’t exist!” Scene of…
In further celebration of our 200th podcast, La Cieca presents a second program of superstars and their superstardom. Featured in the current episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera are Karita Mattila, Rolando Villazon, Renee Fleming, Dorothy Kirsten, Renata Scotto, Elena Obratszova, David Daniels, Ruth Ann Swenson, Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe diStefano, Marilyn Horne, Montserrat Caballe, Kostas…
Leave it to La Cieca to offer added value to even so glittering a performance as Act Two of I Capuleti e i Montecchi starring Anna Netrebko, Daniela Barcelona and Joseph Calleja. Your doyenne makes her legitimate acting debut in a new episode of Apocryphal Opera Anecdote Theater in the demanding role of “Lady Capulet”…
These two gentlemen (Craig Ramsay and Timothy John Mandala) are among the players in Matthew Passion: A New Play (with music) by La Cieca’s erstwhile colleague Phil Hall. The show opens Monday, April 2, 2007 at 8:00 pm for a limited engagement. Per the show’s press notes, “Matthew Passion tells the story of the passion…
On the recommendation of tipster La Malipasta, La Cieca presents a snippet or two from a January 14 performance of Meyerbeer’s Il crociato in Egitto at the Teatro Fenice. Heard in a duet from the first act of this rarity are two sopranos of differing genders, Michael Maniaci and Patrizia Ciofi. Part One Ah non…
So now it seems there may be a season for Opera Orchestra of New York next year after all. But keep in mind that word “may” because it’s not a lock yet. In an email to supporters, Eve Queler says that she and the other OONies “are currently devoted to assuring you a splendid season.…
Hunka hunka burning tenor Darío Volonté jumped into San Diego Opera’s production of Il trovatore last night, replacing Nicola Rossi Giordano as Manrico. (Does Rossi Giordano ever actually sing anywhere? All La Cieca has ever heard about is his cancellations.) Anyway, this is Mr. Volonté’s second time out with SDO, following up on his Calaf…
On Torsten Kerl in Die Aegyptische Helena: “The role, as we all know, is unsingable, and so unsing it he did.” — Maury D’Annato, My Favorite Intermissions.
The 2007-2008 Met season, with casting, all in one place. (Though the Met’s own site is very nearly as handy — by far the earliest the company has ever presented repertoire and casting information.) La Cieca would also venture an opinion that next season threatens a rather lower percentage of “why bother” nights, and certainly…
La Cieca is delighted to divulge that our publisher JJ has been asked to participate in the panel discussion “On Opera and Technology” at Columbia University on March 23. The discussion is one event of the two-day conference “Technologies of the Diva” presented by The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America. The identities of…
Well, let’s say the first bit of good news associated with the Mortier appointment. La Cieca is talking about how NYCO is no longer pursuing its bratty, entitled “I SAID I want a BRAND NEW opera house or I’ll THROW all my BOWTIES on the FLOOR” attitude of the past decade or so. La Cieca…
Iridiscent Ira Siff will give (though not too much) a master class under the auspices of the Metropolitan Opera Guild on Wednesday, March 7 at 4:15 – 5:30 P.M at DiCapo Opera, Lexington Avenue at 76th Street. He will coach three young singers on Mozart, Puccini and the bel canto. Some tickets will be available…
La Cieca hears that incoming NYCO intendant Gérard Mortier is wasting no time in putting his stamp on the company, even though his tenure is not due to begin until 2009. La Cieca’s source whispers that Mortier is sending Kevin Murphy (currently head of the music staff at Paris) to New York to replace the…
Until the Met gets around to installing their Robert Wilson video portrait of Renee Fleming, we can bide our time with the artist’s take on Brad Pitt. (Warning: audio contains wild ranting and screaming, but at least it’s not “I could have danced all night.”)
First Opera Professional: Mortier will be a disaster at NYCO! He has the worst taste in singers of anyone in the business! Second Opera Professional: Oh, then he must have done the casting for for their 2007-08 season.
The delectable details of the 2007-2008 season at the Metropolitan (discussed this morning in a press conference with Peter Gelb, James Levine and representatives of the new season’s production teams) may be found on the Met’s web site. Our publisher JJ was there in the flesh, and he forwards his impressions: The biggest news this…
Ah, dear Alberto Vilar — remember when he was going to swoop down from the skies and rescue the Metropolitan Opera and The Royal Opera at Covent Garden and, well, just opera, in general? And, more to the point, remember how he never tired of bragging about his munificence, and demanding lavish expressions of gratitude?…
A quick perusal of the website of Giuseppe Filianoti suggests that the honey-toned tenor might well be dubbed “the Nathan Gunn of Italy.” Well, that’s not completely accurate, because Filianoti doesn’t take off his shirt in every operatic role. But even without singing, he does make something utterly poetic of the dying Werther:
On Tuesday, in the criminal courthouse in lower Manhattan, Jerry Hadley was cleared of the DUI charge for which he was arraigned on May 10 of last year. After months of procedural appearances in court, the tenor was exonerated when the District Attorney’s office moved for dismissal.
A quarter of a century elapses between the prologue and first act of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. By a bizarre coincidence, that’s exactly the same length of time since Bernard Holland has had anything remotely relevant or intelligent to say in print. His latest “efforts” are in today’s NY Times, but I’m not going to bother…
UPDATE: CORRECTED MP3 PLAYER The remarkable OperaChic was in attendance for the prima of La Scala’s revival of La fille du Regiment, where Juan Diego Florez encored his first act cabaletta “Pour mon ame.” This performance marked the first “bis” of a solo aria at La Scala since 1933. Photos and an account of what…
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.
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.