At this point, Maria Guleghina is still listed as tonight’s Turandot at the Met. Any of the cher public attending this performance are encouraged to share news, reviews and scuttlebutt about what did or did not happen (broad enough for you?) here in the comments section.

By on October 31, 2009 at 3:51 PM
38 comments

Right now on BBC 3, Tristan und Isolde from the Royal Opera.

By on October 31, 2009 at 2:12 PM
51 comments

Cecilia Bartoli’s latest vanity release bucks protocol to present an album heavy on historical concept. The classical recording industry has long feasted on the popularity of operatic solo records, especially during the last few years of industry-wide decline in CD sales. Incidentally, as record companies run out of ways to sell the standard repertoire to…

By on October 31, 2009 at 12:57 AM
44 comments

La Cieca hopes you will enjoy the following little video (shared with us by the lovely and personable kashania) and that you will be inspired to go and do likewise. (You know what the comments section is for!)

By on October 30, 2009 at 5:18 PM
25 comments

Felicity Palmer has withdrawn, alas, from the Met’s spring revival of La Fille du Régiment. In her place, alternating in the role of the Marquise de Berkenfield we will hear Ann Murray (pictured, with friend) and Philip Langridge. (Oh, all right, La Cieca is being silly. Not Philip Langridge, actually, but rather Meredith Arwady. But…

By on October 30, 2009 at 11:35 AM
23 comments

The response to the critic auditions post has been something more than gratifying, cher public, with over 30 of you competing for entry into one of La Cieca’s limited number of slots.

By on October 30, 2009 at 11:14 AM
3 comments

“Since its 1987 premiere, this Franco Zeffirelli production has transitioned from breathtaking to tasteless to endearingly camp.” [JJ in NYP]

By on October 30, 2009 at 8:12 AM
27 comments

Okay, La Cieca has just revised her standard for “Gayest Thing Ever.”

By on October 29, 2009 at 9:37 PM
41 comments

The Random Number Generator has spoken, and from the whopping 442 comments offered during the Turandot Chat, the randomly chosen winner of the Cecilia Bartoli Sacrificium CD is #185, as written by….. Our Own squirrel. Congratulations, to you, o little nut-hoarder, and La Cieca asks that you email her a shipping address where your CD…

By on October 29, 2009 at 12:43 PM
45 comments

La Cieca is holding auditions this week, looking for a few good reviewers of opera CDs and DVDs. 

By on October 29, 2009 at 12:06 PM
6 comments

Tonight’s chat during tonight’s season premiere of Turandot from the Met begins at 7:30 pm. Sirius/XM RealNetworks from metopera.org

By on October 28, 2009 at 7:30 PM
477 comments

Lise Lindstrom sings Turandot tonight.

By on October 28, 2009 at 6:50 PM
28 comments

They should have overlooked the cell phone, but arrested her for this video.

By on October 28, 2009 at 6:24 PM
8 comments

UPDATE: Looks like Guleghina’s going on (no big surprise, that). Chat is on for 7:30 as mentioned before. If Maria Guleghina is going to cancel tonight’s Turandot (following up on “bronchitis” privately announced at the dress where she marked the role) the announcement from the Met should come shortly after 5:00 pm (five minutes from…

By on October 28, 2009 at 6:12 PM
8 comments

The legendary costume designer for film was born October 28, 1897 in Searchlight, Nevada. Miss Head dressed practically everyone in Hollywood, including Helen Traubel, seen after the jump in an outtake from the 1961 comedy The Ladies’ Man.

By on October 28, 2009 at 11:10 AM
55 comments

La Cieca invites the newly reunited cher public to participate in an archeological dig scavenger hunt puzzle quiz promoting the new “Sacrificium” CD from Cecilia Bartoli. Ready to play? Well, first you have to answer this question: Farinelli’s remains were exhumed in 2006 from this cemetery in Bologna? Most of you surely know the answer,…

By on October 27, 2009 at 3:27 PM
54 comments

All things come home at eventide, Like birds that weary of their roaming. And I would hasten to thy side, Homing!

By on October 27, 2009 at 10:22 AM
47 comments

“Mr. Pell said that perhaps in a year or so, when a permanent general director has been found, the whole business with Mr. Steel’s brief tenure here may seem like the episode of ‘Dallas’ when Bobby Ewing stepped out of the shower and ‘the entire previous season was revealed to have been a dream’.” [NYT]

By on October 26, 2009 at 4:31 PM
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Now, this, my dears, is how you do PR! Don Juan: Everyone’s Favorite Bad BoyTuesday, October 27, 7:00-8:30pmThe Museum of Sex233 5th AvenueNew York, NY 10016 New York City Opera’s own Don Juan (bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch) in its new production of Don Giovanni, director Christopher Alden, and sexlogist Esther Perel (Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic…

By on October 26, 2009 at 12:37 PM
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From the Orders Report for La Cieca’s Amazon store for October 23, 2009: And a reminder, cher public, even though La Cieca is coming to you from an alien server until tomorrow, the Little Shop of Arias is still in business.

By on October 24, 2009 at 7:27 PM
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“Gloria Davy, Claudia Muzio, Renata Scotto and Lynne Strow Piccolo.”

By on October 24, 2009 at 1:12 AM
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Tonight’s chat during the season premiere of La Damnation de Faust from the Met begins at 8:15 pm. Sirius/XM RealNetworks from metopera.org

By on October 23, 2009 at 7:10 PM
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I’m sure you’ve all read by now about the “famous Argentine opera diva” (who, by the way, nobody has ever heard of, so she’s not famous; and she doesn’t sing opera, so she’s not an opera diva; and at the rate she’s going, she’s probably going to turn out to be from Bolivia)… but, anyway,…

By on October 23, 2009 at 10:46 AM
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Takeaway from this morning’s press conference unveiling the He Who Must Not Be Named Theatre at Lincoln Center: the Kellogg-era sound enhancement system has been “eliminated.” [via NYT]

By on October 22, 2009 at 12:58 PM
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