The blogger Crew Mantle, who is perhaps best known as that fellow who attends opera performances wearing a frilly Venetian carnival mask, complained earlier this week about something or other (who can say, really?) but more to the point he made a catty observation on the subject of La Cieca’s adored cher public (pictured), and…

on December 14, 2010 at 10:53 AM

La Cieca invites the cher public to visit The Little Shop of Arias (your doyenne’s Amazon store) for all those last-minute holiday shopping needs!

on December 12, 2010 at 8:02 PM

La Cieca (not pictured) hopes to hear reactions from the cher public who attended this afternoon’s HD of Don Carlo, a preview of which follows the jump.

on December 11, 2010 at 2:40 PM

This is the way the public used to greet the entrance of a beloved star, and La Cieca is very unhappy to think that she will never hear the like again.  

on December 07, 2010 at 8:30 PM

Inspired by Our Own Camille (not pictured, obviously), La Cieca proposes a new competition in honor of the Met’s coming revival of La fanciulla del West. Your challenge: share with us the most suggestive double-entendre line in a published synopsis or review of Puccini’s opera.

on November 17, 2010 at 12:04 PM

Reminder, all: the First Ever East Coast Parterre Meet and Greet is coming soon: Sunday November 14, to be exact. Here’s a reminder of the complete details, and, as an added enticement, there’s some video (apparently sent back from the future; I don’t pretend to understand the technology) of La Cieca’s participation in the festivities—after…

on November 09, 2010 at 3:46 PM

At long last, complete details on how you, the cher public, can join the party for the First Ever East Coast Parterre Meet and Greet this November 14. Details after the jump.

on October 26, 2010 at 3:40 PM

La Cieca (third from left) is delighted to announce to her cher public (also pictured) the first-ever East Coast Parterre Gathering , since, after all, we can’t let the West Coast chapter have all the fun! Your doyenne proposes an outing on Sunday, November 14. Details are after the jump. 

on October 20, 2010 at 3:29 PM

La Cieca (third from right) has always prided herself on offering opportunities to the young, even if they aren’t always quick to pick up on her hints, and today is no exception. Your doyenne has several unusual (one might even say offbeat) opera events on the calendar, and she’d be interested in sending novice parterre…

on October 05, 2010 at 11:49 AM

La Cieca would like to call the cher public’s attention to the new “share” buttons at the foot of each posting here on parterre.com. Clicking on the “Like” button will alert your Facebook friends of your affection for the given posting; the “Tweet” button will send the current posting to your Twitter feed.

on October 02, 2010 at 12:24 AM

Faithful and sharp-eared member of the cher public reedroom notes, “…an observation about the Levine 40th Wozzeck CD (Anja Silja/Jose van Dam)—the second CD (acts 2 and 3) has to be a different performance, different cast and different year. It is undoubtedly Hildegard Behrens on the 2nd CD. I don’t know who the baritone is…

on October 01, 2010 at 10:37 PM

Is it really true—the rumor La Cieca just now invented out of whole cloth—that René Pape will play Boris Godunov as an eccentric Chanel couturier? Cher public, you’ll have the chance to find out even before opening night of the Met’s new production of the Mussorgsky epic, since the company is making available making 2,000…

on September 30, 2010 at 12:35 PM

And now, cher public, let’s put today’s singers, the Contemporary Divas, under the microscope. How do they stack up?

on September 22, 2010 at 7:30 AM

La Cieca is delighted to announce a week-long series of investigative reports deciding once and for all the question “Who is the greatest opera diva of our generation?”

on September 20, 2010 at 1:04 PM

Our Own JJ will have a news item or two tomorrow, but until then, a couple of YouTube clips follow: a remake of a classic and a reimagining of a classic. La Cieca is confident the cher public (pictured) will have opinions.

on September 14, 2010 at 11:14 PM

Readers of parterre.com are, La Cieca calculates, about six weeks ahead of the curve, so your doyenne figures you are ready to hear what will likely be a major scoop in the New York Times a few days prior to Halloween. It’s about the technical rehearsals for the Met’s season opener Das Rheingold, and what is…

on September 10, 2010 at 11:29 PM

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.

on September 04, 2010 at 12:57 PM

La Cieca is proud to unveil what she hopes will become your second-favorite calendar: The New York Opera Calendar at Parterre. This handy resource includes an exhaustive list of opera and opera-related performances for the 2010-2011 season, the better to plan your busy social life. Opera companies and members of the cher public who have…

on September 01, 2010 at 11:51 AM

It’s just a little over a month until “The Season” starts here in New York — though La Cieca hears that there is opera done elsewhere and she hopes someone will keep her up to date on this trend — but, anyway, what with the Season starting and the glittering crowds and shimmering clouds in…

on August 19, 2010 at 3:28 PM

With over 2,600 votes cast over the course of last week, you, the cher public have spoken about which operas in the Met’s repertoire will be de rigueur, can’t miss, where-the-elite-meet Sternstunden, and which productions promise no more than a great big snooze. The top ten Met offerings will be Die Walküre, Das Rheingold, Le…

on August 11, 2010 at 10:52 AM

So how about another angle on Mawrdew Czgowchwz? Since, at the end of the novel, the eponymous oltrano decides to take a brief hiatus from her métier of “musicry” to star in motion picture, how about we produce (in the boundless realm of imagination) a film based on the McCourt novel? Above, La Cieca’s nominee…

on July 29, 2010 at 10:39 AM

The premiere of a new production of Lohengrin at Bayreuth is obviously this week’s hot topic. La Cieca suggests we continue on this thread thd discussion that began elsewhere on parterre.com and is also raging over at opera-l. (La Cieca invites the cher public and visitors to post links from other sites as well where…

on July 28, 2010 at 8:10 AM

La Cieca is delighted to throw out the first ball or lift her baton or whatever it is one does to launch a discussion, which in this case is on the topic of that most quintessential of all opera novels, Mawrdew Czgowchwz—though she does insist on prefacing anything she says with the caveat that she’s…

on July 22, 2010 at 12:20 PM

La Cieca was thinking that what with all the reading ye cher public are doing at the beach (or, more likely, bars and steam rooms and museums or wherever you hole up) it might be an interesting experiment to convene a virtual (i.e., online) book discussion. Except, instead of Oprah’s Book Club, this will be…

on July 15, 2010 at 12:20 PM