La Cieca would like to remind her cher public that parterre.com stays afloat thanks to your generosity when shopping at amazon.com) and making donations through PayPal. Won’t you take a moment to click on the “donate” button so La Cieca may continue her good work? That gossip isn’t going to repeat itself!

on May 01, 2008 at 1:00 AM

It took sharp-eyed reader Weill Fan less than eight hours to recognize our most recent Regie puzzler. The correct answer was (of course) Ariadne auf Naxos.  Additional kudos are due to Weill Fan for pinpointing exactly the characters and situations depicted in all three photos. So, will he (she?) be able to name this week’s…

on April 27, 2008 at 11:03 PM

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/qvDWwm2MHlI” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Many thanks to loyal reader Oliver for pointing us to this astonishing clip of Hildegard Knef singing “Seeräuber Jenny” from Die Dreigroschenoper.  True, she was hardly an opera singer; in fact, Ella Fitzgerald once called her “the world’s greatest singer without a voice.”  But as this clip demonstrates, La…

on April 27, 2008 at 8:48 PM

La Cieca thanks you all for your lively conversation during this afternoon’s chat about La Fille du Régiment.

on April 26, 2008 at 12:46 PM

La Cieca has just added a new bit of functionality to the commenting system on parterre.com. As you type your comment into the form box, you will notice that lower on the page there will appear an instant preview of what your comment will look like. This feature is handy for checking spelling, and it…

on April 21, 2008 at 12:28 PM

So, who’s listening to the broadcast of Satyagraha? Reactions?

on April 19, 2008 at 4:43 PM

Two of the cher public (thanks, Paul and Michael!) have tipped La Cieca to what may be the ne plus ultra of operatic Regie, a new production of Un ballo in maschera in Erfurt. According to an article in the Telegraph, This “different . . . provocative” staging of the Verdi warhorse sets the tale…

on April 11, 2008 at 11:58 AM

Okay, the Boheme was too easy. This opera might be a bit more challenging. Guesses? (PS — remember, cher public, if you recognize the production, shhh!)

on April 10, 2008 at 11:59 PM

So, what’s the opera? (If you can’t guess right away, La Cieca will add more photos.)

on April 08, 2008 at 3:16 PM

La Cieca wants to reassure her cher public that she has neither fallen off the face of the earth nor succumbed to that mysterious illness that’s killing all the bloggers. The last few days have been something of a slow news period for opera gossip and your doyenne has taken advantage of that fact by…

on April 07, 2008 at 11:59 AM

Cher public, in response to a request from Nerva Nelli, La Cieca has added a new feature to the parterre.com main page; or rather she’s improved upon an old feature. You may remember the excerpts from your comments used to appear above the logo at the top of the page. The new format will display…

on March 30, 2008 at 12:12 AM

A loyal member of the cher public noticed this howler by Need You Ask in the online NYT earlier today: Unfortunately for La Cieca (and, well, yes, for anyone else with journalistic standards — so sue me!) the Times has already managed to do one of their “Ministry of Truth” numbers on the offending paragraph…

on March 26, 2008 at 1:50 PM

Cher public, that’s the headline on a Bloomberg News interview with Our Renée, and first of all La Cieca will thank the news service for supplying us with such ready-made comic material.

on March 24, 2008 at 12:17 PM
on March 19, 2008 at 1:28 PM

Cher public, La Cieca hopes you will join her tonight for a live chat during the Sirius and RealNetworks transmission of the Metropolitan Opera’s Ernani. Since the opera begins at 8:00, the chat room will open at 7:45.

on March 17, 2008 at 7:00 PM

Our Own JJ was at the Met last night (and part of this morning) to review Tristan und Isolde for Gay City News. As such he witnessed the rather astonishing series of events that Atomic Wings told you about earlier. La Cieca cannot of course ask JJ to comment on the specifics of the performance…

on March 15, 2008 at 1:53 AM

The previous Regie photo (depicting Toby Spence with wiggy hookers) was from a production of The Rake’s Progress. Okay, so which opera might this be? (If you recognize the photo, cher public, DON’T blurt it out!)

on March 14, 2008 at 5:38 PM

Cher public, you have striven valiantly but no one of you has managed to accomplish what was most likely an impossible task: the identification of 14 singers of Violetta in only a few notes. As a group mind, though, you came awfully close. And so, to put an end to this particular source of stress,…

on March 13, 2008 at 11:25 AM

Well, actually, yes, now you do. The New York Times is no longer the only major metropolitan daily whose music critic drools all over opera singers of the masculine persuasion. La Cieca is delighted to introduce the verbal stylings of David Mermelstein, who apparently is that gay man who has heretofore been trapped inside the…

on March 12, 2008 at 6:44 PM

This has to be the strangest staging of a Puccini opera ever! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/JGa1Z2UlvMY” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Ah, La Cieca must have her little joke! But seriously, cher public, the previous Regiequiz depicted (as so many of you divined) Parsifal. But wait! If this is Parsifal. . . . . . then surely this…

on March 08, 2008 at 11:03 PM

La Cieca has removed the image of the Royal Opera’s Rigoletto production (you know, the one starring Juan Pablo di Pace and his amazing disappearing dick) from parterre.com in response to an email from the copyright owner of that photo, ArenaPAL.

on March 07, 2008 at 2:58 PM

Even a veteran sob sister like La Cieca cannot cover the vast field of opera all by herself, though goodness knows she does her best. But one must give credit where credit is due. As such your doyenne wants to offer her thanks to a journal which is rapidly becoming her source for the best…

on March 06, 2008 at 9:34 PM

Cher public, the Met is expected to unveil the specifics of their 2008-2009 season later today. While we’re waiting for all the luscious and/or gory details, La Cieca thought it might be fun to do a quick recap of the season as is is predicted on Brad Wilber‘s MetManiac site. Brad (who historically is spot-on…

on March 04, 2008 at 11:29 AM

Our previous Regie quiz returned La Cieca to her position of mysterious superiority since even her very clever cher public weren’t able to figure out that the opera represented was… Das Land des Lächelns. The director was our old, old, old friend Peter Konwitschny. And now for your next challenge.

on March 02, 2008 at 9:28 PM