Well, the first thing La Cieca will say about the Met’s 125th Anniversary Gala is that for all its sprawling splendor it doesn’t look quite what you’d call entertaining. Or rather let’s say it looks as if it won’t sound very entertaining. The visual element — you know, computer-animated Marc Chagall murals and Waltraud Meier…
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Anna Netrebko has her work cut out for her…
Low camp, admittedly, but it’s still some sort of accomplishment when a movie is camp even before it’s released. With Paul Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton heading the cast, how could Repo! The Genetic Opera possibly go wrong? [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/1TbiM3dVJhQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Now, La Cieca asks you, cher public. Wouldn’t you think that someone as experienced in deconstructing Mozart as Gerard Mortier would find some new take on the role of the coy Zerlina, instead of all this “I would and then I waver, I tremble to depa-art” nonsense. Well, yes, you would, and so would La…
The winner of the Which Witch quiz is Lindoro, who will receive Cult Opera of the 1970s.Â
You voted, cher public, and La Cieca delivers on her campaign promises. Herewith the three most-requested mystery Ulricas. Use these sound clips wisely in formulating your entries in the Which Witch competition. Ulrica #3 Ulrica #8 Ulrica #11
For the week of Halloween, La Cieca offers her cher public a particularly SPOOKY competition. First, listen to the composite clip below of various artists singing Ulrica’s aria from Un ballo in maschera. Then, if you think you can identify all 13 singers, do so via email to [email protected]. The first email received with all…
“Each year seems to bring a fresh height for Fleming. Not since the sunny days of Beverly Sills has an American opera singer enjoyed so much popularity. And not since the brief, heady reign of Maria Callas has a soprano provided so much glamour to go with all the vocal appeal.” Tim Smith, in the…
Legendary Ladies from Sweden Zarah Leander and Birgit Nilsson celebrate Christmas 1977 with a belt-off.
Those of you cher public who ordered and enjoyed Decca’s bargain Wagner box may now be interested in a bargain Puccini edition offered by EMI. The set, Puccini: The Operas, retails for $59.98 (less than four bucks a disc) and includes complete performances of:Â
In case you’re still wondering, here’s what the whole thing sounds like: The Whole Thing In her characteristically grudging fashion, La Cieca will say that this does sound like the sort of thing you will really like if you really like that sort of thing. And so, if you do like that sort of thing,…
The heroic forces of VAI ride to the rescue once more with a cleaned up release of one of the most coveted (and pirated) live opera telecasts: the NHK Lirica Italiana production of La fanciulla del West, starring the luminescent Antonietta Stella. Â
Alaska Governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin (center, in fur) is seen here shmoozing with chorus members following a performance of Götterdämmerung by the Lyric Opera of Wasilla.
Cher public, you are getting too clever for this old doyenne. On our most recent Regie quiz, which La Cieca considered so curiously designed as to be unrecognizable, fully half a dozen of you guessed correctly that the opera was La traviata. Cocky Kurwenal was first, but stagelefty also managed to pinpoint the director, Achim…
La Cieca (not pictured) is delighted to note that the delightful and learned Nicholas Limansky (also not pictured) will grace the stage of the next Vocal Record Collectors Society meeting to explore the controversial topic of extended or “freak” sopranos. The main topic of his talk will of course be the Peruvian songbird Yma Sumac,…
August 30 is the anniversary of the birth of a famous Quickly: Regina Resnik! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ipFMt7bPStg” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] And here we have Mme. Resnik in a campy mood, sending up the faux-exoticism of Kismet. Not Since Nineveh!
It seems our lovely Shequida was not what the judges were looking for, not that night, anyway. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/atilzaDBVcg” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Â
Any singer who is known as “The Croatian Yma Sumac” you know already has won a place in La Cieca’s deepest heart of hearts. So the astonishing production values of the theatrical experience that is known as Priinceza na zrnu graÅ¡ka can only add to your doyenne’s abject veneration for the one, the only… Zdenka…
La Cieca has just learned that veteran soprano and beloved camp diva Katia Ricciarelli is treading the boards again, this time not in opera houses but rather on whatever it is they call the Italian version of the Straw Hat Circuit. The bionda bombshell is currently touring in a play with music by by Peter…
The current issue of The Advocate includes an interview with adorable 27-year-old bedhead Nico Muhly about his next composition project, an opera “based on a true Internet romance/friendship between two teenage boys that ended in one of the two stabbing the other to death.” Muhly’s “teen gay Internet sex drama,” to a libretto by Craig Lucas,…
La Cieca puts on the trousers (which is more than she can say for some of the cher public) and highlights her versatility by playing a male role! But even your doyenne’s dulcet speaking voice is no match for Simon Keenlyside‘s robust (ahem!) performance of the operatic Dane. Hamlet Act 3
Another serving of Hamlet, courtesy of Unnatural Acts of Opera. Hamlet (Thomas) Act 2
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/g5K5-dBnIlU” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Nothing tantalizes the diehard opera collector like a new version of Wagner’s mighty tetralogy. So La Cieca is pleased to offer for your consideration “The Copenhagen Ring.”
It would be tempting to say that the Wagner dynasty has nothing on the Menotti family, except that it’s just not true. The generational intrigues of the descendants of the Meister (as detailed in Brigitte Haman’s Winifred Wagner: A Life at the Heart of Hitler’s Bayreuth), reflect the superhuman scale of Wagner’s musical vision. The…
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