Noxious in China

In this artist’s conception, your intrepid girl reporter La Cieca is seen covering tomorrow’s season preview press conference at the Met. Assuming she regains consciousness in time, watch for her live reports from the event beginning at 1:00 pm, right here on parterre.com!

Two heads are better than one

La Cieca is pretty sure this is going to be a popular choice, and she thinks as well she’s just discovered parterre’s new resident futurologist. Congratulations to Baritenor (pictured) for his exhaustive essay on the Met’s 2011-2012 season.

When heroes collide

As perhaps you may have heard hinted hereabouts, “Gary Lehman and Stephen Gould will sing the role of Siegfried in the Met’s 2011-12 season performances of Wagner’s Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, replacing Ben Heppner who has retired the role from his repertory.” That’s according to a release from the Met’s press office less than an hour…

Future events such as these will affect you in the future

All this talk about girls and ladies prompted La Cieca to turn (not for the first time!) to Brad Wilber’s Met Futures Page, freshly updated just a couple of days ago. So detailed and fascinating is Brad’s vision of the future that La Cieca is inspired to invite the cher public to play a little…

On a brisé la glace avec des chats rougis!

La Cieca (not pictured) reminds the cher public that the first chat of 2011 will begin at noon today at La Casa della Cieca. Details on Pelléas et Mélisande after the jump.

Futurino

The updates on Brad Wilber‘s new Met Futures page are arriving almost daily now, with perhaps the most startling recent news the “removal” of Juan Diego Flórez from a projected new production of I puritani in April 2014. But there’s more to it, after the jump.

“Style, not sincerity, is the vital thing”

Now, don’t you go thinking that Peter Gelb doesn’t listen to his public, which intersects quite steeply, of course, with the cher public.  For instance, just the other day La Cieca and a couple of others were lamenting that opera has lost some of it mad silly gay folie lately. Lo and behold, today it…

The season approaches

With only 117 days remaining before the start of the Met’s 2010-2011 season, Olga Borodina has withdrawn from the revival of Les Contes d’Hoffmann.  Stepping into the gondola will be Enkelejda Shkosa. Yes, that’s right, the lineup of Hoffmann ladies will be Elena Mosuc, Hibla Gerzmava, and Enkelejda Shkosa — at a $420 top.

2010 season officially begins

Carlos Álvarez has withdrawn from the Metropolitan Opera’s January 2011 performances of Rigoletto. Veteran Verdian Leo Nucci will take on the title role for these five performances, including the Saturday broadcast.

Jungle booking

La Cieca has it on good authority that the new music director for the Santa Fe Opera will be Frédéric Chaslin (not pictured), who will preside over a 2011 season featuring Faust, La Boheme, Vivaldi’s Griselda, Wozzeck, and (you guessed it) The Last Savage.

Mister Act

Above, the cutest press photo released today by the Met. (Juan Diego Flórez in the title role of Rossini’s “Le Comte Ory.” Photo: Micaela Rossato / Metropolitan Opera.) Following the jump: more preview images of the Met’s other six new productions of the 2010-2011 season.  

Abreast of the new season

Spring must be near, because the little birds are beginning to sing! After the jump, some very specific specifics about the 2010-2011 Metropolitan Opera schedule.

Songs for the new depression

Washington National Opera in 2010-2011: dreary season, or dreariest season ever? [Washington Post]

Where’s Osvaldo?

The Metropolitan Opera commission Daedalus by Osvaldo Golijov seems to have slipped through the cracks, for now at least. According to the virtually always accurate Met Futures by Brad Wilber, the premiere of the work, planned for the 2011-2012 season, is not going to take place.

something sort of grandish

La Cieca hears that the “all 20th century” concept of the first Gerard Mortier season at NYCO may be subject to modification. According to an impeccably reliable source, the first season will include a rarely-seen French Grand Opera and an evening centered around pieces of Verdi done with a double chorus – one all African-American,…

missing minghella

The recent death of Anthony Minghella leaves at least two Met projects in limbo. First is the opera commissioned from Osvaldo Golijov, Daedalus, currently scheduled for the 2011-2012 season. Minghella was set to serve as librettist and to direct the completed work. According to Variety, the late director’s plans at the Met also included a…