UPDATE: The Royal Opera has apologized to Intermezzo!
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
The Archangel of Fabulous (or, as he’s known under that helmet, Andrew Richards) has been following the several Calixto Bietio Parsifal discussions on our little blog quite closely and in fact he has commented, answered and otherwise reacted to a number of the parterriani concerns on his own blog, Opera Rocks.
So a member of the cher public writes, “The odious Command Opera says that Netrebko has cancelled the Mariinsky Bolenas” which, according to the Mariinsky site certainly seems to be true. Or at least what seems to be true is that the rumored or planned production of Anna Bolena at the Mariinsky is not happening…
La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Intermezzo (not pictured) reacts to last night’s prima of Manon at the Royal Opera: Anna Netrebko “sang strongly, the voice fuller and darker than ever before, looking gorgeous” and Vittorio Grigolo‘s “technique and stamina were truly spectacular.” The pair “were, deservedly, a huge hit with the audience…. authentic and…
La Cieca will never, ever again (even if she ever had, which she didn’t so much) complain about the comments of the cher public. The comments are far and away crazier (and not in an entertaining way) elsewhere.
“I hate musicals. Why doesn’t the opera bother me?” The first visit to the Met with an enthusiastic host, here enacted by The Awl‘s lavishly-bemiddlenamed Mary HK Choi and Seth Colter Walls (of whom more soon). Photo: Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera
The real problem with opera today, according to Marcelo “Mouth of the South” Àlvarez? Could it be tubby tenors with teeny voices? Actually, no. The problem is… blogs.
La Cieca’s delight at the success of her colleague The Omniscient Mussel is equaled only by her bitter envy for the success of her colleague The Omniscient Mussel. TOM, you see, has built upon the success of last year’s #operaplot competition by signing up a slew of new opera houses to offer prize packages for…
“…in Parsifal, instead of digging out the chapters from Metaphysics for Dummies (which is what basically everyone does, except Herheim!), [Calixto Bieito] made it a perfectly plausible story, close to us, to our lifestyles…
“A report was posted soon after on Parterre.com, an opera blog, that Mr. Slatkin had been removed from further performances.” [NYT]
Ordinarily La Cieca bestows the Wildean accolade upon a local cher pube. This time, though, she cannot resist praising one of the commentariat at Unpop!, Daniel Stephen Johnson‘s new project over at the New Haven Advocate.
An appropriately ginormous discussion of Elektra and other operatic matters at that place where the cool kids hang out, The Awl.
What’s opening at the Met tonight may turn out to be a mere bagatelle next to a version of Les Contes d’Hoffmann “filmed in 3D and HD video, featuring 1000 extras, 150 musicians and chorus members from the Paris Opera, 50 dancers and 20 of the world’s greatest singers,” according to the blog By George.
On the heels of this, may I direct everyone’s attention to a funny and fascinating article about Stefan Herheim‘s production of Lohengrin from last spring at Berliner Staatsoper? Now we know what to do with those old costumes and sets that gather dust! [via the wellsungs]
(No, not that again.) The San Diego Opera, boldly exploring cutting-edge trends in dramaturgy, is producing a Twitter version of the complete history of opera.
Erstwhile opera blogger Nick Scholl (aka Trrill) is currently live-tweeting the Poisson Rouge “Sacrificium” launch party!
“What the…?” was my first thought when I opened the small manila package last week, unmarked save the NY return address. Inside I found a Wagner compilation CD set from an unknown label- not the obscure Spanish opera I had ordered online the week before. Although I saw no accompanying invoice, I assumed an Amazon…
La Cieca invites you to enjoy a new blog from occasional member of the cher public (or member of the occasionally cher public) Crewmantle: COMMANDOpera.
La Cieca is happy to announce that parterre.com is now accepting advertising via blogads.
… but these boys’ (and girls’) hearts are in the right place as they join with Wenarto to celebrate the apparent victory of Referendum 71 in Washington.
“Renée herself seemed as if she’d rather be somewhere else.
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…
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,…
“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]
