La Cieca just taken a look at a detailed schedule of Met performances for next season, and so she’s only just become aware of the following very interesting couple of weeks around the holidays:

on March 26, 2008 at 5:18 PM

La Cieca did a bit of nosing around about the abrupt departure of Jeffrey Vanderveen from IMG, and this is how the story is shaping up. Vanderveen’s upcoming gig is the creation of a new division at Universal Music Group devoted to the production and promotion of Tibor Rudas style arena concerts for Universal Classics’ recording artists.…

on March 12, 2008 at 11:47 AM

Musical America reports this morning that Jeffrey Vanderveen has resigned from his post as Senior Vice President/Director, Vocal Divison at IMG Artists. At IMG Vanderveen repped such superstars as Anna Netrebko, Thomas Hampson, Sam Ramey and Denyce Graves. [via wqxr.com]

on March 11, 2008 at 10:46 AM

La Cieca hears from several authoritative sources that Diana Damrau will sing the autumn revival of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met, replacing the gravid Anna Netrebko.

on February 29, 2008 at 1:27 PM

Okay, La Cieca knows a bit about fashion and even a smidge about clothing construction (you should hear her dishing the godets during Project Runway) but she must admit she can’t figure out what the hell Anna Netrebko is wearing here. Did she just take a dip in the pool? Was she performing a nude…

on February 11, 2008 at 5:08 PM

Officially, Anna Netrebko is expecting her baby “this autumn,” and La Cieca of course extends her and Erwin Schrott all the best wishes. However, let’s take a peek at a few recent photos of Netrebko… [Traviata at Covent Garden, early January] [Arriving at the Opernball in Vienna, February 1] [On set of Boheme film, around…

on February 07, 2008 at 2:26 PM

It looks as if those whispers about a romance between two of opera’s most charismatic stars have been correct all along. La Cieca has just heard from a generally reliable source that Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott are now “officially engaged” and will set a wedding date “within the year.”

on February 02, 2008 at 7:09 PM

The Met officially announced today that the company will stage Anna Bolena for Anna Netrebko for the opening night of the 2011-2012 season (old news to you, cher public!) and, the following season, Maria Stuarda for Joyce DiDonato. The company has no current plans to produce Roberto Devereux. In what La Cieca is choosing to…

on January 30, 2008 at 11:05 PM

A controversial new production of Massenet’s erotically-tinged opera Manon featuring “it girl” soprano Anna Netrebko opened last night in…. Oh, all right. Obviously that’s not our Anna. In fact it’s ecdysiast Dita Von Teese performing her signature “cocktail glass” strip. The model and performer (whose adorably mousy real name is Heather Sweet) has accepted an…

on January 16, 2008 at 10:43 AM

La Cieca is loath to scoop dear Bradley Wilber, but rumors are swirling once again about future seasons at the Met. Perhaps the most controversial (among the cher public, at least) of these plans is a new production of Anna Bolena to open the 2011 season, with Anna Netrebko‘s pretty head on the chopping block.…

on January 15, 2008 at 5:19 PM

Juan Diego Flórez will make his role debut as the Duke of Mantua in a new production of Rigoletto on March 31. The event will mark the inauguration of “The International Opera Festival Alejandro Granda” in Peru. Puppylicious Flórez is pictured here with Latin Grammy winner Gian Marco, with whom he shared the stage for…

on January 09, 2008 at 11:06 PM

Cher public, La Cieca meant to turn in early tonight, but she got one of those bees in her bonnet. This particular specimen of Apis mellifera is the “debacle” (as La Cieca has been astonished to see it termed) of Anna Netrebko‘s Juliette last Saturday afternoon. Such harsh criticism La Cieca has rarely heard since…

on December 21, 2007 at 12:00 AM

“At High School of Enterprise, Business and Technology on Grand Street Campus in Brooklyn, the show is sold out at nearly 1000 tickets. The school didn’t spare any effort in terms of marketing: there’s a huge color banner for ‘Live in HD’ on the side of the building, facing Bushwick Avenue, with a picture of…

on December 19, 2007 at 5:57 PM

There hasn’t been much chatter about it, but it seems that Rolando Villazón is emerging from his four-month period of silence. His recently updated website states that the tenor is scheduled for staged performances in Vienna (Manon and Werther) beginning January 5, followed by a series of concerts and a couple of Verdi Requiems in…

on December 15, 2007 at 1:03 AM

Controversial soprano Anna Netrebko has gone on record categorically denying recent rumors that she… is a lesbian? (My dears, La Cieca has been out of the dating pool for a while, but even she wouldn’t mistake Erwin Schrott for a girl!) Well, my dear Sapphic comrades, all La Cieca can say is, you win some,…

on December 14, 2007 at 4:21 PM

Purely a rumor at this point, but La Cieca hears that Erwin Schrott and Anna Netrebko are engaged. (To be married. To each other.) UPDATE: A reliable source informs La Cieca: “As far as I know they are very close friends but I have not heard anything about marriage.” So let’s wait and see.

on December 12, 2007 at 10:56 AM

“… Netrebko is the larger presence. She has an earthiness and impishness — a daredeviltry — that may prevent her from ever attaining the kind of rarefied, disembodied sainthood that has been awarded, for example, to the American sopranos Renée Fleming and Dawn Upshaw but that also makes her more fun to watch.” Charles McGrath…

on December 01, 2007 at 1:45 PM

Our Own Little Stevie reflects on the Met’s new Macbeth. I’d like to admit a guilty pleasure of mine: I’ve secretly been waiting with a lot of anticipation for Maria Guleghina to sing in Macbeth and Norma this year. I have not told this to many people because it seems that the common expectation has…

on October 27, 2007 at 1:00 PM

Of course, cher public, you heard it about it here a few weeks ago, but La Cieca has just read a press release from the Met announcing that, yes indeed, Roberto Alagna will reprise his Roméo opposite Anna Netrebko on December 12 and 15. (Our Own Gualtier Maldè, as you no doubt recall, confirmed the…

on October 18, 2007 at 5:06 PM

La Cieca has just heard that Marcello Giordani goes on tonight (i.e., two hours from now) as Roméo at the Met, jumping in for Joseph Kaiser who presumably is ill. That brings the total number of lovers for Anna Netrebko‘s Juliette to three after only four nights of the 10-performance run. By the end of…

on October 06, 2007 at 6:08 PM

La Cieca predicted a cast change earlier, and what do you know, so it came to pass! Soprano Lisette Oropesa will sing the Tuesday prima of the Met’s revival of Le nozze di Figaro and at least one more performance. She is jumping in for the enceinte Isabel Bayrakdarian. Ms. Oropesa is not only a…

on September 28, 2007 at 4:03 PM

A full account of “A Tribute to Beverly Sills” may be found at PlaybillArts though, curiously, the “photo journal” (from which this image was yoincked, and which includes a look at la Netrebko’s more tasteful garb) seems to have vanished into the ether.

on September 20, 2007 at 4:02 PM

“Jossie is a wild girl,” says a former MetOpera colleague. “You never knew what gutter you’d wake up in when you went out with her.” …. As her career began to escalate, so did, by many accounts, her outlandish party lifestyle and behavior. Like Carmen, Pérez moved fluidly from man to man, boasting to colleagues…

on September 19, 2007 at 5:30 PM

As La Cieca whispered earlier this week, Rolando Villazón is going to cancel at least the fall portion of his Met Roméo engagement. This morning PlaybillArts.com says the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting a statement from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that the tenor is “ill and has been instructed by his doctor to cancel all performances…

on August 10, 2007 at 7:58 AM