The legendary mezzo-soprano of the Russian Soviet period, Zara Dolukhanova, died last week at the age of 89. Though she excelled in brilliant Rossini roles in the opera house, her greatest success was as a recitalist. Dolukhanova’s broad repertoire included music from arie antiche to Prokofiev and Stravinsky; unusually for Soviet-era singers, she often included…
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One of La Cieca’s pet peeves (and you know she has so many she has to keep them organized with a spreadsheet), well, anyway, one of La Cieca’s pet peeves is that operatic orgies so rarely bear even the vaguest resemblance to orgies in real life. Why, just last week, La Cieca was viewing the…
As if Tomotaka Okamoto weren’t enough, here’s another countertenor looming on the horizon: Max Emanuel Cencic. Now, don’t get La Cieca wrong. She loves her some countertenors, and she frankly adores how Herr Cenic rocks the tête de peau. She warmly congratulates him on his burgeoning discography and of course wishes him well in his…
Worlds collide, or maybe converge, when Alex Ross (right) the New Yorker‘s classical music go-to guy sits down with Doree Shafrir (not pictured), gawker gossip girl emeritus, for a confab about life, love, Ugly Betty and, of course the long-awaited The Rest is Noise, skedded to drop October 16. Look for the interview in the…
Aided and abetted by Noel Coward, the scintillating Mary Martin crosses over into operatic territory.
Ever since everyone’s favorite apocryphal diva (with the possible minority exception of Lena Geyer), the oracular Oltrano herself, Marwdew Czgowchwz, vanished across the ocean at a time (time out of mind) that was somehow both 1956 and 1975 and yet neither, La Cieca, like all the rest of you, has reread her first copy of…
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…
Tending the sacro fuoco this week at Unnatural Acts of Opera will be that priestess of the primo ottocento Leyla Gencer. The diva sings the title role in Spontini’s La Vestale in a performance from Teatro Massino di Palermo, December 4, 1969. Ferando Previtali conducts, and the young Renato Bruson is heard as Cinna. Also…
La Cieca must first of all express how startled she is that this particular item didn’t appear first on NYC Opera Fanatic — after all, Lana Turner as Elisabetta in Don Carlo? Well, in fact, Miss Turner never did sing any Verdi, on- or off-stage (unlike her precursor Joan Crawford), but my goodness, doesn’t she…
“This writer approached the new off-Broadway play The Second Tosca with more than a bit of trepidation, worried that it might amount to no more than second-rate Terrance McNally or, even worse, unfunny inanity like Lend Me a Tenor. What a relief, then, it is to report that The Second Tosca is a delightful, campy,…
From today’s Daily News coverage of Naomi Campbell‘s community service: “Decked out in a pencil skirt, leather trench coat and cloche hat, the supermodel sure knows how to make sweeping the floor look good every day of the week. “On Monday, she opted for Christian Louboutin boots, an Azzedine Alaia coat and Chanel cap, while…
It’s still two years before the dreaded Mortier monster is due to descend upon the city, but right-wing thinktankstress and Giuliani enabler Heather Mac Donaldisn’t wasting any time getting the hyperbole rolling. From The City Journal (“the best magazine in America” — Peggy Noonan), a sample of Mac Donald’s heady prose: While Belgian-born Mortier’s fellow…
Good times and bum times — She saw them all, but my dear,She’s no longer here.The actress everyone is eulogizing as the “definitive Lily Munster” had another, in La Cieca’s opinion far more important credit. In 1971 Yvonne de Carlo created the role of Carlotta Campion in Follies, and introduced the showbiz anthem “I’m Still…
What’s happening next week on Sirius. Monday, November 13, 2006 6:00 AM Offenbach: Les Contes D’Hoffmann. 12/3/55 Monteux; Tucker, Peters, Stevens, Amara 9:00 AM Donizetti: Don Pasquale. 4/15/06 Benini; Florez, Netrebko, Alaimo, Kwiecien 12:00 PM Mascagni/Leoncavallo: Cavalleria Rusticana/I Pagliacci. 4/11/1964 Santi; Farrell, Miller, Tucker, Bardelli / Amara, Corelli, Colzani, Marsh, Ghitti 3:00 PM Wagner: Tannhauser.…
La Cieca notices that The Met’s website metopera.org has relaunched with an abundance of new content, focusing at the moment on the eagerly-awaited opening night whoop-de-do, but also pointing to the first week’s revivals of Gioconda and Idomeneo.And that’s just the tippity-tip of the iceberg, because deeper in the site there’s a magazine’s worth of…
Speaking of the Ynimitable Yma, La Cieca was just sent a track from the Queen of Exotica’s 1971 acid-rock classic “Miracles!” You only think you know Camp until you experience “Let Me Hear You.”
“Among the distinguished Camp alumni are opera and concert soprano Jessye Norman, ‘Roseanne’ star Sara Gilbert, actor Tom Hulce, ‘Cathy’ creator Cathy Guisewite, vocalist Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, and CBS News Correspondent Mike Wallace.” (Well, actually that paragraph is from a news article about Interlochen, but it certainly sounds like it belongs…
Oh, it’s been a lot of years since La Cieca’s days in the campy cabal. How long, you ask? So long that she plumb forgot the moment where Lohengrin hands Elsa the Cockring of Remembrance. Dies Horn soll in Gefahr ihm Hilfe schenken,in wildem Kampf dies Schwert ihm Sieg verleiht;doch bei dem Ringe soll er…
So, who said this? “… all opera hovers on the border of parody. No other performing art — except possibly dance — so exposes its practitioners to ridicule. Part of the thrill of opera is pitting sheer volume against human limitations, the constant awareness of the possibility of failure.” Was it James McCourt? Ethan Mordden?…
“Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.” That’s the advice Judy Garland gave Liza Minnelli, and I think we can all agree that dear Liza took those words to heart with great success. At the moment, though, La Cieca is wondering how Judy would feel about a…
That Eveready Rabbit of a diva, Montserrat Caballe, is going to camp it up once more at the Vienna State Opera when she makes her role debut as the Duchesse de Krackenthorp (the Ljuba Welitsch part) in Laurent Pelly‘s production of Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment in April 2007. This production, starring Natalie Dessay and…
Rolando Villazon not apparently in his very best form but La Cieca is very impressed with a) his willingness to sing out and take chances even when he is less than 100% and b) his well-supported legato that is the basis of even his most vehement singing. Anna Netrebko found a way to interpret Gilda…
The hallmark of Camp is the spirit of extravagance. Camp taste turns its back on the good-bad axis of ordinary aesthetic judgment. Camp doesn’t reverse things. It doesn’t argue that the good is bad, or the bad is good. What it does is to offer for art (and life) a different — a supplementary —…
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