The Met broadcasts Wagner’s Siegfried this afternoon. Discuss. Listen at noon EDT on Sirius or RealNetworks or your favorite internet radio station. Online: the libretto and the vocal score. And check out La Cieca’s Amazon Deal of the Day: the complete 1953 Bayreuth Ring conducted by Clemens Krauss, priced as low as $39.87!
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.
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/26lm82M7L2Q” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] From The Great Waltz (1938), one of Renée Fleming‘s favorite films!
Many of you (well, a few of you) have expressed an interest in La Cieca’s working process as a journalist. As such, your doyenne thought she would share with you dear people some rare documentary footage of La Cieca’s early days reporting and writing opera gossip. Or, in other words: this, cher public, is how…
Werther with Rolando Villazon and Susan Graham continues on France Musique. (Broadcast began at 3:00 pm EDT.) Concert donné le 28 février 2009 à l’Opéra Bastille à Paris, en simultané avec l’Union européenne de radios. Rolando Villazon : Werther, poète; Ludovic Tézier : Albert, jeune homme; Alain Vernhes : Le Magistrat; Christian Jean : Schmidt,…
La Cieca is of course delighted to learn that dear John Waters intends to have Pink Flamingos adapted into an opera — though, sadly, he might as well forget about having the work premiered in his home town. La Cieca can’t imagine which currently active composer might be up for the daunting task of setting…
Our Own JJ makes his farewell to Gay City News, — not “in a box — simple pine” à la Morgana Neri — but with a review of the Met’s current production of Il trovatore. Meanwhile, still in place, and festive as ever, is that pearl among podcasts, The Entertainment Beat with Frances Gumm.
A preview of the new (and now available) Angela Gheorghiu/Jonas Kaufmann/Antonio Pappano performance of Madama Butterfly — a rare avatar of that extinct species the “studio recording.” Amazon.com Widgets (If you don’t see the amazon player above, try here.)
As La Cieca hardly thinks she needs tell you, among the attributes of a prima donna necessary to the success of a performance of Adriana Lecouvreur are morbidezza, il sacro fuoco, voce di petto and of course the ability to wear a turban. And surely you do realize that, sad to say, not everyone can pull off a turban.Â
“Gypsy camp! Almost a dance outright! Sweaty musclemen! Rhythmically coordinated swings! Throbbing … impetuous … distinctive … alluring … dusky … creamy … robust … restless … full of yearning … hard-edged!” [After Dark NYT]
Longtime friend of the ‘box Little Stevie returns to Adriana Lecouvreur: I have always believed that as with La Gioconda, a great performance of Adriana Lecouvreur needs to serve up “the four greatest singers in the world”, and the Met seems to come close to doing just that. I have attended all of the performances…
Congratulations to, well, several of you who recognized that in the previous quiz, the peeling paint on the walls was caused, as so often it is, by the singing of Abigaille in Nabucco. Only one photo this week, but La Cieca offers an amazon.com gift certificate for the wittiest explanation of what the hell is…
La Cieca is naturally drawn to a headline reading “Upheaval at the Opera House” as bees to honey or ugly to a bear. Imagine her surprise, then, when the titular upheaval has nothing to do with Dallas Opera, the New York City Opera, La Scala, or even the Met. So far as she can make…
So, what’s stranger than Pola Negri singing the “Hojotoho?” Well, La Cieca is sure she couldn’t say, but she is willing to venture a guess that the answer just might involve Billie Burke, Adolphe Menjou, June Havoc, and an apartment decorated in psychedelic wallpaper. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/eWOU6PmkgXA” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Musical guests scheduled to appear at “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial” include Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder. [via Gawker]
More light entertainment from the First Annual Pitchy Awards: the prancing panniers of Max Emanuel Cencic. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/5awkNNA7XFM” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Miraculous Mariella Devia sings “Casta diva” at a New Year’s Day concert at La Fenice. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/1rEx2M5zRX0″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Mariella Devia at amazon.com
La Cieca wishes to thank you, cher public, for making this year’s Amazon Associates advertising program successful beyond her wildest dreams. And now, the top ten most ordered items of 2008! 1. Wagner: The Great Operas from the Bayreuth Festival 2. Marilyn Horne – The Complete Decca Recitals 3. The Original Jacket Collection: Montserrat Caballé…
“The campy diva lover in me should exult at the credit in the program ‘Renée Fleming‘s Costumes by Christian Lacroix,’ but in fact the couturier’s frocks were something of a mishmash. Best was a shimmering gold sheath that set off Fleming’s first entrance and trim waistline to perfection; worst was a rumpled ivory silk ballgown…
La Cieca knows that one should not judge any work by the odd snippet, but she’s going to go out on a limb here and predict that Frédéric Chaslin‘s Wuthering Heights will be the next big camp opera in the “Technicolor Twaddle” tradition of The Ghosts of Versailles and The First Emperor. Update: the videos…
Our Own Gualtier Maldè reports: Not every opera has to be a masterpiece. I couldn’t subsist on a steady diet of Tristan und Isolde, Die Zauberfloete, Fidelio, plus Otello, Falstaff et al. Frankly the occasional light comic bonbon or trashy but fun melodramatic tunefest makes a nice palate cleanser. I am talking Adriana Lecouvreur, La…
Much as La Cieca would like to believe that this photo represents a scene from a new opera entitled Meine liebe Rabenmutter, alas, it’s just plain old Zauberflöte as performed at a Berlin subway station. This image of Darleen Ann Dobisch was chosen one of Reuters Entertainment’s “Images of the Year” for 2008.
It turns out that La Cieca’s fanciful prediction (of what Renée Fleming would wear from the Christian Lacroix collection) was not so far off after all! More images from the Met’s Thaïs after the jump.Â
La Cieca thanks her cher public for joining her last night for yet another of your doyenne’s notorious online live chats. Starting at 7:45 PM, La Cieca and approximately 50 members of the parterre posse indulged in a little catty camaraderie during the Sirius and RealNetworks broadcast of Massenet’s fin-de-siècle fantasia. UPDATE (Friday): La Cieca’s…
Next week in New York will be notable for more than just Renée Fleming‘s first local whack at Thaïs. In fact, the night of Wednesday December 10 promises the convergence of two of La Cieca’s favorite demoiselles of dementia, Jessye Normous and Dorothy Bishop performing within minute and blocks of each other. La Bishop’s show,…
