parterre box fave Aprile Millo is on WQXR tonight at 9:05 PM EDT in a broadcast of a concert given for the George London Foundation. Sharing the bill are tenor Garrett Sorenson and Ken Noda on the 88s. You can listen in to the excitement here.

By on October 20, 2005 at 11:45 PM
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To mark the 70th birthday (and rumored retirement) of Luciano Pavarotti, “Unnatural Acts of Opera” presents a performance from the tenor’s pre-superstar period. It’s La boheme opposite Mirella Freni, with Thomas Schippers conducting, as broadcast on RAI (Rome) on July 17, 1969. After the acts, it’s even more of the Pav, singing scenes from I…

By on October 16, 2005 at 2:55 AM
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The recently-premiered opera The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is webcast by the BBC this afternoon at 2:25 New York time, a broadcast from the English National Opera. The Beeb’s website describes the work so: “Gerald Barry‘s new opera, based on the play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, translated by Denis Calandra, exploring the tortured…

By on October 01, 2005 at 2:22 PM
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“As I have never in life felt the real bliss of love, I must erect a monument to the most beautiful of all my dreams, in which, from beginning to end, that love shall thoroughly satiated. I have in my head ‘Tristan and Isolde,’ the simplest, but most full-blooded musical conception. With the black flag…

By on September 27, 2005 at 4:29 PM
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The notorious 1969 Met broadcast of Lucia di Lammermoor, featuring Anna Moffo in, uh, unusual voice, will be webcast by Concertzender this afternoon beginning at 1 PM EDT. Sorry for the late notice, but this is worth at least a partial listen. For those of you who keep up with these things, Nicolai Gedda and…

By on August 21, 2005 at 4:03 PM
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It has come to La Cieca’s attention that not everyone listens to music on an Ipod, or, for that matter, wants to. Chacun a son gout, as she always says. To accomodate those of you who want to listen to “Unnatural Acts of Opera” over your computer’s speakers, she’s added a new gizmo to the…

By on July 01, 2005 at 6:42 PM
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The decentralization of the music business is progressing so quickly La Cieca can hardly keep up. (Though it’s not like she’s completely in the loop; as you know, she only recently found out that Giulio Ricordi had died!) The very latest (as of this morning) is that Apple has launched a new build of iTunes…

By on June 29, 2005 at 2:08 PM
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… is one of the milder things the critics called Anna Caterina Antonacci‘s first Medea at Toulouse earlier this month. If Antonacci can live up to even half this praise, I’m going to have to get a tattoo of her on my back! “L’ardente Anna Caterina Antonacci a véritablement fait vibrer les foules toulousaines. Chanteuse…

By on June 01, 2005 at 2:13 AM
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This one is just a whisper at the moment, but La Cieca has heard that Mirella Freni is not going to show up for the Met Pension Fund gala in May? Like I said, it’s just a whisper, but… Those of you listening to today’s intermission feature during the Met’s Walkuere broadcast just heard Sally…

By on April 23, 2005 at 9:43 PM
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