UPDATE: And now, my dears, we’ve even reached the AP! (How long before we’re on the UP and every other damn P?) La Cieca’s young, young, young friend Maury D’anatto writes: “Too funny, La Cieca: did you coin hunkentenor? Because there was just this intermission interview with Joseph Kaiser that went somewhat off the rails…
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Stepdaughter Sieglinde summarizes the critical reaction in blog and print to Stephen Costello‘s Met debut. No surprises here for La Cieca, who observed equivalent ecstasy in real time during her Monday night online chat:
La Cieca wasn’t “in the house” for the Lucia prima last night like so many of her colleagues; instead she hosted perhaps the most popular of all her online chats thus far. Approximately 120 of you cher public logged in at some point during the night, with 75 or so on average staying for the…
Our Own John Yohalem is the subject of a quizzical posting on dishy gawker.com today. Dear John (whom La Cieca likes to call “The Ragin’ Pagan”) wrote a letter to the New Yorker in response to a mention in an article on Asperger’s syndrome. It seems that author Tim Page recalled John’s erstwhile(?) habit of…
Curiously, the response to La Cieca’s challenge to identify the ten “wrong numbers” she reached whilst trying to phone Milton Host has evoked something less than the usual excitement associated with an Unnatural Acts of Opera quiz. As such, your doyenne will make it easy for you by making available an excerpt from the Vestale…
Multifaceted Aprile Millo has branched out into blogging, and her site, operavision, includes some of the smartest online opera commentary La Cieca has seen. Currently she’s expounding on Opera in 3D, a fascinating article if you can tear yourself away from the image of Renata Tebaldi shaking hands with an astronaut! La Millo naturally has…
A Faithful Reader writes: “Went to the closing performance of Deuce today and during one quiet moment I thought I heard a familiar snore. Sure enough, as I was leaving, there was Lois, wakened by the ovation . . . . “I’m sure she was headed back to get autographs as she was looking in…
Update: beginning tonight on Unnatural Acts of Opera (2007 edition), a return to Italian opera, with one of today’s most controversial cult divas starring as (what else) a conflicted queen. Nelly Miricioiu sings the role of Elisabetta I in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, in a 2002 performance from the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. La Cieca has…
More proof (as if any were needed) that 70 is the new 50: “Viva la Diva: Gala zum 70. Geburtstag von Grace Bumbry.” The concert (performed at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival on July 17 of this year) featured the septuagenarian siren in a demanding program of arias and scenes from Aida, Ernani, Les Troyens and…
As if the third act of Parsifal were not enough for a single podcast, La Cieca and her sidekick Milton Host are surprised in the studio by a visit from The First Lady of the American Musical Theatre. Eventually TFLOTAMT has to leave the studio to prepare for her evening performance, and Milton and I…
Just a few quick words about the magnificent soprano Antonietta Stella, the “tie-breaker” in our recent quiz. She is perhaps not quite so familiar to some of La Cieca’s readers as the more celebrated divas also heard on the track such as Tebaldi and Price. La Cieca will quote her dear colleague Enzo Bordello, who…
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.
Currently on Unnatural Acts of Opera, the ravishing Loreley by Alfredo Catalani in a performance from La Scala in 1968. Heading the cast is perhaps the definitive “meteoric” diva, Elena Suliotis. La Cieca remembers as a tiny child seeing this late ’60s photo of La Suliotis and thinking that she had to be the most…
In observance of the 100th anniversary of the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Madama Butterfly, La Cieca presents a podcast featuring the original cast of that production: Geraldine Farrar, Enrico Caruso and Antonio Scotti. The three superstars are heard in ten selections from Puccini’s score. Unnatural Acts of Opera
La Cieca was contacted this morning (not too early!) by a representative of the “Lebrecht Live” programme on BBC3. The show is set to discuss the burning topic “Is there cultural value in blogging?” And this is what La Cieca has to say, at least to begin with: One may read consistently brilliant cultural criticism…
Senator (and presumptive Republican Presidential nominee in 2008) John McCain is wasting no time in getting started with the necessary pandering. According to cnet.com, McCain has proposed legislation that would require “[m]illions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs … to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up…
Intrepid girl reporter Opera Chic has lead the blogosphere in her coverage of the recent Alagnadammerung. But who is this mysterious Opera Chic? An important piece of evidence has made its way into the greedy mitts of La Cieca: soon the truth may be told. Here we see a photograph of the poster for tonight’s…
Well, it had to happen sooner or later, and so it did happen, sometime between last night and tonight. La Cieca has decided she’s taking Roberto Alagna‘s side in The Scandale. Yes, yes, La Cieca hears your gasps and snorts of disbelief and contempt, but you know, cher public, La Cieca is, deep in her…
It just gets better and better. Now Opera Chic reports that Roberto Alagna is threatening to (counter)sue La Scala, citing a hostile work environment. And yet, he has announced he intends to sing Thursday night’s performance, even though the Scala management has already announced a substitute singer. More tales of anonymous phone calls, threats, showdowns…
Walkout tenor Roberto Alagna is just generally pissed at the whole La Scala Aida experience, frankly. Even before the “buu” incident at last night’s performance, Bobby was spewing in an interview with La Repubblica that he (and the other singers in Aida) were being treated like second-class citizens: “La verità è che, in Italia, ormai…
As La Cieca mentioned last month, the 2007-2008 Met season will include a new production of Satyagraha, the Gandhi-themed opera by Philip Glass and Constance De Jong. And now La Cieca has been informed that there is actual basis in fact for her wild surmising. Darling Dawn Fatale drew La Cieca’s attention to an announcement…
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