The cher public have spoken: La sonnambula is the must-see event this season at the Met, with 159 votes (a plurality of 43% of all votes cast). Runners-up are Salome and Thaïs. Complete poll results after the jump.Â
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parterre box is launching a new themed regular feature curated by our readers and opera fans across the world! We are asking for your favorite clips, recordings, and anecdotes to get people chatting, listening, and thinking.
La Cieca is looking for a member of the cher public who is already planning to attend the opening night gala at the Met and is willing to write about it for parterre.com. Your doyenne will need 400 – 600 words by 11 AM on Tuesday, September 23 for publication that day with your byline.…
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…
So you doyenne may better know the minds of her cher public, she asks you to participate in the following online poll. Which Metropolitan Opera performances this year do you consider the most sizzling Sternstunden, the not-to-be-missed evenings of musico-dramatic madness, or (to put it another way) those nights when you know everyone will be…
Our Own Lindoro has contributed a vocal ID quiz based on Liù’s first act aria from Turandot. This one’s just for fun, so feel free to make your guesses in the comments section. Signore, ascolta!
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,…
La Cieca about to try one of those 21st century activities all the kids are talking about, and no, it’s not chugging Nyquil. Your doyenne is going to use crowdsourcing (that is, put you cher public to work as reporters) to cover the Met’s Opening Night Gala on September 22, 2008 at 6:30 pm. Since…
Our previous Regie quiz depicted (as Nerva Nelli so quickly guessed) Verdi’s Aida, in a production by Christopher Alden for the Deutsche Oper Berlin. And now, cher public, our weekly edition of Name that Regie. Remember, if you have seen the production or otherwise recognize the photos, please remain silent while others guess the answer!
Several of you cher public have been kind enough to forward to me an email from Peter Gelb offering the Met’s apology for the debacle of the first day of subscriber ticket exchanges. Though La Cieca has sneered a bit at the Buoso Donati contingent, she certainly can understand why loyal subscribers might feel that…
Here’s a very special audio quiz for La Cieca’s cher public du weekend. In the following mp3 clip, 11 sopranos sing the soaring aria “Zweite Brautnacht!” from Die Ägyptische Helena of Richard Strauss. If you think you can identify these beauties, email [email protected]. The first email received with the names of all 11 sopranos in…
La Cieca’s dear colleage The Counter Critic is writing a piece for a New York paper about the Met’s HD program. He is looking for “people to interview who have seen the simulcasts, and who have strong opinions about how folks behave during the screenings.” Here’s your chance for your voice to be heard loud…
With the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2008-2009 season barely a month away, La Cieca is already half-drunk with the sheer glamour of it all. Not only will this first night boast a bouquet of bonbons from Renée Fleming‘s greatest rôles (and, frankly, aren’t they all?), but the musical experience will be enhanced by…
La Cieca braves tornado warnings (tornado warnings!) to bring her cher public the final Unnatural Acts of Thomas’ Hamlet. Hamlet Acts 4 and 5
It seems to be a day for funny pictures. Here’s barihunk Daniel Belcher as Billy Budd, who he looks like he can’t wait to come aboard the Indomitable! (Cher public, you just know you want to click to enlarge!)
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…
Some of the starry roster for the Rudolf Bing Farewell Gala accept the plaudits cher public. Ah, 1972, when opera and hair were at their respective peaks of style! Introducing the cavalcade of curtain calls is La Cieca’s role model Risë Stevens. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/2m6M9rPgAbs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
La Cieca is warning you she’s going to get meta for a while here, so if it’s opera (or even hunks) you’re interested in, you might want to skim or just skip this posting altogether. Anyway, your doyenne has noticed lately on another blog or two where she is a commenter a phenomenon she is…
La Cieca’s toughest Regie quiz so far baffled even the cleverest of the cher public. Admittedly it was not exactly a warhorse, but the title should be recognizable enough: Chabrier’s L’etoile. To atone for this perhaps overdone obfuscation, your doyenne offers a special treat this week. It’s a video trailer for an opera, stripped of…
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
Since the new Bayreuth Parsifal was so easily recognizable and the all barechested barihunk all the time Don Giovanni from Salzburg not particularly challenging, La Cieca offers a bonus Regie quiz for the first week of August. Blurting out the answer (as in “I saw this production last week: it’s [title]” or “I saw these…
This photo by Nancy Palmieri for The New York Times illustrates a review of Karol Szymanowski’s King Roger, a production that even Tony Tommasini thought was just too gay. Perhaps the cher public have ideas for an alternative caption for this photo?
Well, cher public, La Cieca thinks it’s safe to say that April 19, 2007 will stand in history as Andrea Gruber‘s Metropolitan Opera farewell. The soprano’s dates for Cavalleria Rusticana, her only appearances scheduled for the 2008-2009 season, have now been reassigned to Waltraud Meier and Ildikó Komlósi.
Cher public, you very nearly let La Cieca down with your guesses on last week’s Regie quiz. Until neiln007 rode to the last-minute rescue, nobody recognized Les Troyens among the white pantsuits and grand pianos. (The production, by the way, is from Stuttgart and directed by Joachim Schlömer.) And now, let’s take a look at…
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