For no particular reason, La Cieca has been thinking of the duet “E un anatema” from La Gioconda, and for a very particular reason, she’s been thinking of Aprile Millo. Anyway, to get the discussion started for the weekend, cher public, how’d you like to share your favorite performances of this duet, YouTube style, down…

on November 13, 2009 at 7:41 PM

Cher public, if you plan to see the Met’s production of From the House of the Dead (and you might as well know that she expects you move heaven and earth to do so!), La Cieca urges and entreats that you avoid reading Anthony Tommasini‘s review of the production in tomorrow’s New York Times. 

on November 13, 2009 at 11:36 AM

La Cieca reminds the cher public that tomorrow evening will be the Metropolitan Opera premiere of From the House of the Dead, an event to be Sirius’d and RealPlayered beginning at 8:00 pm. And naturally you all are invited to listen and discuss here at your favorite virtual venue. Check back tomorrow evening for chat…

on November 11, 2009 at 1:31 PM

Once again we have an email from a budding member of the cher public (and you know La Cieca never could resist a budding member), so put on your thinking caps, cher hive mind, and offer a little advice: 

on November 08, 2009 at 11:17 AM

Cher public, La Cieca would like to call your attention to the latest innovation by our webmeister Nick Scholl: threaded comments. You can now reply to a specific comment (instead of the entire thread) and thus we can avoid having to start every reply with, “squirrel, you have got to be kidding me!” (Though doubtless…

on November 07, 2009 at 12:12 AM

Among the “auditions” that have come flooding in from the cher public are reviews of three very different productions of Don Giovanni. Your doyenne has taken the liberty of combining the three critiques into a single posting, but she urges you to remember, remember well the names of the authors of this troika of treatises. 

on November 05, 2009 at 8:17 PM

La Cieca invites you to enjoy a new blog from occasional member of the cher public (or member of the occasionally cher public) Crewmantle: COMMANDOpera.

on November 05, 2009 at 1:10 PM

In the year and half that New York City Opera has been absent from the musical milieu of our metropolis, Tony Tommasini has been sadly deprived of one of his favorite topics of conversation. 

on November 04, 2009 at 10:28 PM

The BBC 3 broadcast of Tristan und Isolde that so captivated the cher public yesterday afternoon is available in streaming form for the next week.

on November 01, 2009 at 1:09 PM

Two weeks the cher public have had to ponder our most recent Regie quiz, and yet none of the usual suspects were able to work out the obvious clues. A Victorian ingenue and her doting father are interviewed by an Italian fascist in a Rita Hayworth wig?

on November 01, 2009 at 11:26 AM

A special Halloween trick (or is it a treat?) for the cher public.

on October 31, 2009 at 10:44 PM

At this point, Maria Guleghina is still listed as tonight’s Turandot at the Met. Any of the cher public attending this performance are encouraged to share news, reviews and scuttlebutt about what did or did not happen (broad enough for you?) here in the comments section.

on October 31, 2009 at 3:51 PM

La Cieca hopes you will enjoy the following little video (shared with us by the lovely and personable kashania) and that you will be inspired to go and do likewise. (You know what the comments section is for!)

on October 30, 2009 at 5:18 PM

The response to the critic auditions post has been something more than gratifying, cher public, with over 30 of you competing for entry into one of La Cieca’s limited number of slots.

on October 30, 2009 at 11:14 AM

The Random Number Generator has spoken, and from the whopping 442 comments offered during the Turandot Chat, the randomly chosen winner of the Cecilia Bartoli Sacrificium CD is #185, as written by….. Our Own squirrel. Congratulations, to you, o little nut-hoarder, and La Cieca asks that you email her a shipping address where your CD…

on October 29, 2009 at 12:43 PM

La Cieca is holding auditions this week, looking for a few good reviewers of opera CDs and DVDs. 

on October 29, 2009 at 12:06 PM

La Cieca invites the newly reunited cher public to participate in an archeological dig scavenger hunt puzzle quiz promoting the new “Sacrificium” CD from Cecilia Bartoli. Ready to play? Well, first you have to answer this question: Farinelli’s remains were exhumed in 2006 from this cemetery in Bologna? Most of you surely know the answer,…

on October 27, 2009 at 3:27 PM

Even though La Cieca is sure you will agree with her that “Meglio stasera, che domani o mai. Domani chi lo sa, quel che sarà,” the fact is the server people are still working on parterre.com with a “go” time set for sometime early tomorrow. Be assured that your doyenne will inform you here at…

on October 26, 2009 at 9:52 PM

From the Orders Report for La Cieca’s Amazon store for October 23, 2009: And a reminder, cher public, even though La Cieca is coming to you from an alien server until tomorrow, the Little Shop of Arias is still in business.

on October 24, 2009 at 7:27 PM

Just for the sake of everyone’s convenience, cher public, La Cieca asks you to identify yourself with your comments. You don’t need to log in to the site; just use the”Name/URL” option in “Choose an identity” section of the comments form. Again, this is a temporary measure until we get back to good old parterre.com.

on October 21, 2009 at 11:21 PM

Welcome, cher public, to the temporary home of parterre box during our move to a new server. Please continue commenting and otherwise shmoozing here through the evening of Saturday the 24th.

on October 21, 2009 at 9:30 AM

First was littoraldrift, but funniest was Krunoslav in our most recent and (as one might say) entry-level Regie quiz, the answer to which was rather too obviously Falstaff.  So, on to something more challenging this week, after the jump. 

on October 18, 2009 at 1:14 AM

Four of the cher public caught yesterday’s HD presentation of Tosca and have agreed to share their impressions with La Cieca and the rest: “The death of Puccini’s Tosca was much exaggerated, in fact it did not take place.” “After about 34 years of going to the opera, I don’t think I’ve ever left a…

on October 11, 2009 at 5:08 PM

Actually, only a single riddle, cher public, but perhaps a baffling one.

on October 09, 2009 at 9:44 PM