bella e giovane
First reports indicate major personal successes for Anna Netrebko and Charles Castronovo in last night’s Traviata at San Francisco Opera.
anna anna anna
first response
Anna Netrebko was not pregnant as of this morning, according to Jeffrey D. Vanderveen, managing director of Universal Music Classical Artists Management, who broke the non-news to Opera Chic. La Cieca will continue to keep you updated on the state of the soprano’s gravidity as the situation develops.
stork club?
Earlier today Opera Chic reported on a still fairly vague rumor that Anna Netrebko is pregnant again. Here in New York the information is also pretty vague, but La Cieca has heard that Erwin Schrott (currently in Naples) is spilling spilled beans as proud papas will do. Whispers in New York indicate that the Met […]
pur tanto lusso?
For those of you who care to continue the fracas, here’s more of Anna Netrebko‘s recent Violetta. Madamigella Valery? Vladimir Stoyanov is the Germont and Marco Armiliato conducts.
she’s old fashioned
From a performance on April 26, Anna Netrebko does a few “traditional” things with Violetta’s first act scena. (Piotr Beczala later gets in on the fun as well.) Ah quel amor…
photo fop
A layout (in the very nearly literal sense of the term) of “seven international opera stars who are putting to rest the ‘fat lady sings’ cliché” graces the current issue of Vanity Fair. Since nobody actually reads this magazine, La Cieca will link to the photo of the The Low BMI Septet. Click to embiggen
love’s throbbing grupetto
In the bodice-ripping tradition of HBOShowtime’s The Tudors, DG presents I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Or does La Cieca just think everyone looks like Jonathan Rhys Meyers?
change partners
One of La Cieca’s most trusted spies wangled his way into the house last night for the surprise cast change in Lucia di Lammermoor, and here’s his report: Perhaps it is the side benefit of low expectations, but I was not offended by Anna Netrebko‘s performance on Tuesday night. Though certainly not a bel canto […]
the morning after
The operatives were busy over the midnight hours: “Act 3 was a mixed bag. The opening showed Villazon in much better form, with solid phrasing. The Mad Scene started out beautiful, Netrebko spinning out haunting legato. She was completely involved and engaged. Then she fell apart at the flute solo, sounding under supported and wavering […]
lucia: two acts
UPDATE: And now the reactions to Act 2: “Villazon continued to struggle. Pushed upper register and passaggio. High notes he seems to accomplish (or in some cases misses) by sheer will of force. Aside from a beautiful legato in the sextet, his voice is very worrisome. Netrebko has bloomed in this act, acuti seemingly in […]
art decoletee
Mom of the Moment Anna Netrebko and her weapons-grade bazooms are featured in an interview with the Post’s Barbara Hoffman.
they have so much in common it’s a phenomenon
La Cieca is perhaps a little slow on the uptake these days. Your dimwitted doyenne only just noticed (when it was pointed out to her, that is) that the conductor for Anna Netrebko‘s return to the stage at the Mariinsky on January 14 was Keri-Lynn Wilson. Ms. Wilson is of course not only a distinguished […]
anna, continued
Here’s a brief video clip from Russian TV news on Anna Netrebko‘s return to the operatic stage in Lucia di Lammermoor last night at the Mariinsky. For Netrebko’s return, the Mariinsky imported a production of the Donizetti classic directed by John Doyle. It is unclear from early reports whether Netrebko was required to play the […]
divan decadence
Our Own Gualtier Maldè reports: Not every opera has to be a masterpiece. I couldn’t subsist on a steady diet of Tristan und Isolde, Die Zauberfloete, Fidelio, plus Otello, Falstaff et al. Frankly the occasional light comic bonbon or trashy but fun melodramatic tunefest makes a nice palate cleanser. I am talking Adriana Lecouvreur, La […]
fan the flame of a new love
Anna Netrebko has her work cut out for her…
sieglindes weh
As usual when it’s a Fleming Flapper doing the writing, everything is everyone else‘s fault: poor Renée just sort of wanders in off the street and all this stuff keeps happening to her:
baby it’s cold outside
At first La Cieca thought this next clip was an excerpt from the film version of La bohème lensed earlier this year in Vienna and currently in post-production. But the director of that film is Robert Dornhelm and (at least as credited) the director for this video is Vincent Paterson. Your doyenne is further not […]
it’s a boy (but you knew that)
Congratulations to proud papa Erwin Schrott, whose 7 pound, 13 ounce boy TBA Tiago Aura Arua Schrott was born today in Vienna. La Cieca extends her best wishes as well to Anna Netrebko, though she hopes the couple will not allow any cigar smoking in the presence of The Schrott Tot. (“Tiago,” La Cieca is […]
september song
La Cieca hears that Anna Netrebko has scheduled the birth of The Schrott Tot for September 1 in Salzburg via c-section.
baby love
La Cieca has just learned that Anna Netrebko, who is currently awaiting the September arrival of her first child, has withdrawn from her scheduled Met performances as Mimì on December 29, 2008 and January 3 matinee, 6, and 10, 2009. According to a press release from the met, the soprano “has decided that she will need a […]
defying gravidity
Pregnancy certainly seems to agree with Anna Netrebko! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/TIWw1ls4QwY” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
life, universal and everything
As La Cieca first reported back in March, Jeffrey Vanderveen, recently split from IMG, will now head up Universal Music Classical Artists Management and Productions, a division “meant to provide management services for and produce live events for prominent classical musicians.” IMG has responded by filing filed suit against Vanderveen and other Universal honchos, claiming […]
out there in the dark
La Cieca is putting her entire nest egg into popcorn futures, since next season opera lovers will rarely emerge from their local movie palace. The Met will do an astonishing 11 HD simulcasts during the 2008-2009 season. Monday, September 22, 2008: Opening Night Gala starring the astonishingly well-preserved Renée Fleming in fully staged performances of La Traviata (Act […]
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 […]
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Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
