The maestro trap
Il maestro Fabio Luisi dirige correttamente e talora anche con qualche eleganza; ma sta così male sul podio!
critic
The critic on the hearth
La Cieca’s looking for a few good commenters to join the exalted ranks of parterre reviewers of new CD and DVD releases. Care to apply? Read on after the jump.
Truth, force
Critic Ann Binlot draws some perhaps rather obvious parallels between Satyagraha and the Occupy Wall Street movement in a brief feature on ARTINFO.
Perfect casting
Though the headline seems to apply a whole series of epithets to a revered critic (“Stand-In Meets Sweet Snake, Shrieky Diva, Grumpy Dad: Manuela Hoelterhoff”), the actual review of the Met’s Siegfried on Bloomberg offers more than purely comic interest. While La Hoelterhoff is no better than usual as an opera reviewer, she does briefly […]
Bloomberg onions
The multi-slashed Manuela Hoelterhoff (Bloomberg editrix/spouse to disgruntled New York City Opera intendant manquée Francesca Zambello/grouch emeritus) dipped her goose quill in venom this morning once again to take on her favorite subject, i.e., how NYCO has gone to hell in a handbasket ever since they didn’t hire her girlfriend to run the place.
Things go better with Coote
“Sophie Koch, a mezzo-soprano favoured by the current management over Brits Alice Coote and Sarah Connolly, sang Charlotte very intelligently and musically, without ever suggesting a woman on the brink of losing self-control.” [The Telegraph]
Lepage turner
“Near the end of Robert Lepage‘s production of Wagner’s Die Walküre, which opened at the Metropolitan Opera on Friday, there is a moment of arresting visual beauty. The raked stage slowly rises and, with the help of projections, turns into a looming, stark, snow-covered mountain. It’s a breathtaking transformation, one that encapsulates everything that’s wrong […]
Blonde item
“It’s just that it seems rather perverse to have cast such opulent voices and then given them not much to sing…. the role of Anna Nicole would not stretch Danielle de Niese.” Loyal parterrian Jondrytay (not pictured) looked in on the Royal Opera’s Anna Nicole and shared this thoughts on his blog Not So Wunderbar.
Solid gold
“Sombre splendor there is frequently not.” Zachary Woolfe mulls Don Carlo. [New York Observer]
Sicilian Whispers
There is no peace for Verdi in Parma. As a second production of its Verdi Festival the Teatro Regio presented I vespri siciliani on October 10, starring Giacomo Prestia as Procida, Leo Nucci as Monforte, and the lovebirds Daniela Dessì and Fabio Armiliato as Elena and Arrigo.
Debut
Congratulations to Nicola Lischi, of the younger generation of critics the one with the best developed… knowledge of Italian opera, for his first review on Opera Brittania.
Your friend when things get rough
There have been about 2,000 reviews of the Met’s new Rheingold so far, but for now, anyway, this one is my favorite—and not only for “Sid and Marty“.
No cure for the common scold
Every time La Cieca says she’s through once and for all reading Norman Lebrecht, that middlebrow minstrel of the maestro myth soars to new heights of noisomeness. This time (yet again) it’s about how utterly callous those silly opera singers are for canceling (imagine!) when they’re too sick to sing.
Plain speaking
Martin Bernheimer, who was wise long before most of the rest of us were on solid food, writes what is likely to be remembered as the definitive essay on the Donald Rosenberg/Plain Dealer situation.
You know we’ve got Regie in the cellar?
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 […]
The unanswered question
“Why is the needlessly naked executioner so coy about showing us his wobbly bits?” [The Telegraph]
Who criticizes the critics?
See, La Cieca thinks Brian Kellow is asking for trouble when, in the second paragraph of his analysis of last March’s Slatkinshchina, he admits, “I did not attend the March 29 opening-night performance of La Traviata, nor did I listen to it on Sirius Radio.”
Metaphor, thou mighty monster
“Marianne Cornetti‘s Amneris…. gives the audience a heart attack every time she opens her mouth, possessing an ability to literally drown out the orchestra.” La Cieca has a new favourite opera critic, and his name is Jamie Tabberer.
Bright Lights, Big Ideas
Forget all the others. You need to read this review of The Nose. [New York Observer]
Rosa’s turn
“Unlike Ms. Garanca, Ponselle was among the many Carmens who have tried some real dancing.” Why is La Cieca not surprised that one of the few intelligent and detailed surveys of the dramatic element of the Met’s new Carmen should be written by a dance critic? [NYT]
Wagging the Tale
La Cieca’s saturation coverage of the Met’s new Contes d’Hoffmann begins officially on Monday, when one of her most reliable and most devious spies promises a report from the dress rehearsal. You, the cher public, will be expected to sound off loud and clear during the opening night chat on Thursday at 8:00 pm.
Dead reckoning
Is it just me, or does this seem like using From the House of the Dead as a club to beat a dead horse?
Peace offering
I have to be honest, when I first got this CD from Cieca cara I thought, “What the fuck did I get myself into?” My assignment was to review the new Naxos recording of Leonard Bernstein‘s Mass. I did this show 10 years ago in school and it was not a happy experience. So, at […]
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
