Of course you’re all busy this afternoon with the HD of Boris Godunov, right? Oh, pardon me, you’re reading this, aren’t you? In that case, maybe you’ll take some of Betsy’s suggestions for the weekend pick a little chat a little.
La Cieca is sure that at least a few of the cher public will want to tune in and sound off this evening as the Met broadcasts La boheme on Sirius and the online Listen Live. The Grigolity begins at 8:00 pm!
As we count down the weeks until the first live Met Saturday afternoon broadcast of the season, subjects for chat continue in rich array.
La Cieca is delighted to inform the cher public (pictured) that Betsy has managed in the very nick of time to aggregate a list of listening (and chatting) possibilities for this afternoon.
Opera Music Broadcast is pleased to announce our first-ever LIVE VIDEO webcast featuring the Toledo Opera and their production of Ariadne auf Naxos. And La Cieca is pleased—nay, delighted—to invite the cher public to enjoy the webcast and to chat back here at La Casa della Cieca on Wednesday evening, October 6 at 7:00 PM…
A certain person soon to return from exile has a tale to tell: “So, the nameless Wanderer sat down and posed some questions to the groveling Mime. ‘You have heard and believed the accepted wisdom. Are you willing to put your ears where your mouth is?’”
Our Own JJ is dashing about like a mad crazed thing today. At 4:00 this afternoon, he’s joining Naomi Lewin at WQXR to discuss the Met’s impending season (you can listen here), then dashing over to Lincoln Center to cover the opening night Rheingold for the New York Post. In your doyenne’s understandable absence, hosting…
Betsy is back in Pike or wherever she hails from, so this week we don’t have the usual smörgåsbord of listening selections she ordinarily provides. Our Own Hans Lick, though, has nominated a brace of broadcasts of possible interest to the cher public.
Betsy’s recovered (if you can call it that) from last weekend’s marathon, and apparently game for more. If you’re feeling likewise, the meeting is at the usual location.
Friendly correspondent Kalena (not pictured) reports that (so far as she can make out) the telecast of the Mantua Rigoletto this weekend will in fact be viewable here in the US. Her email and La Cieca’s attempt to figure out time zones after the jump.
Everybody loves an orgy. But, in the words of Betsy Ann Bobolink (pictured), “a really good orgy takes preparation, and I don’t mean Preparation H.” Our Betsy continues (discussing, I mean) after the jump.
In a week that includes the news of the release of nearly 100 “lost” Judy Garland performances and the announcement that Bernadette Peters will star as Sally in a lavish revival of Follies, even Betsy Ann Bobolink is hard-pressed to thrill with choices for Saturday afternoon listening. As she so often says, “Maybe something really…
All the cool kids will be watching Die Walküre from Bayreuth tomorrow afternoon. That leaves Betsy Ann Bobolink and the rest of us sitting by the radio and chatting, chatting.
Our Own Dear Betsy reports: Right this way, ladies and gentlemen, for The Greatest Show on Earth, the world-famous La Cieca Chat. Feted (“Fated”? “Fetid”?) artistes from the far corners of the planet demolish reputations with a single mot. SEE — dainty Mam’zelle Manou soar high above the heads of the crowd in flights of…
Last week’s listening experiment showed that, left to their own devices, most folks spring into instant inertia. So maybe gentle prodding and encouragement would do some good.
Your doyenne is occupied this afternoon getting Our Own JJ tweezed, powdered and cinched for his sojourn to Caramoor, and that’s a full-time job, my dears, because you know those venues that admit natural light can be most unkind to vain middle-aged queens. As such, La Cieca will leave you to your own devices for this…
The pickings are slimmish this week for online listening Saturday afternoon, but those of you who are up and around by 11 AM may want to tune in to Die Meistersinger on BBC Radio 3, a concert performance by the Welsh National Opera starring Bryn Terfel. (Though I warn you: per the the Beeb’s website,…
Here’s home base for the cher public’s afternoon opera listening, whichever of the multitude of selections you choose to follow.
Sweet Betsy again rounds up the Saturday afternoon listenables. La Cieca leans toward Manon naturellement, but she should warn you that she’s off like Des Grieux’s cassock at 3:00 pm to jump on the Caramoor Caravan. After the jump (not onto the Caravan!) the complete list of what’s singing who.
Those of you escaping the summer heat this afternoon may want to gather ’round for a performance of Don Giovanni (featuring recent convert to the shaved-noggin lifestyle Bo Skovhus) live from the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, beginning at 3:30 New York time.
Though she has not made many in-person appearances on the weekend chat since the summer began, La Cieca has realized (or has been told, truth be told) that directing parterrians, even by means of a democratic vote, is not any easier than herding cats. Which is to say, you guys who are chatting on Saturday…
UPDATE: La Cieca is calling this one for Le Damnation de Faust. The performance (and chat) starts at 1:00 pm EDT, and the list of online stations carrying the WFMT broadcast may be found here.
UPDATE: The results are in, and the topic for this afternoon’s chat session will be Maria Stuarda. Please look after the jump for details.
UPDATE: La Cieca is going to call this one for L’elisir d’amore from LOC, though depending on the enthusiasm and whim of the cher public, we may dart over to La donna del lago in midafternoon. Details after the jump.
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.
