All about my mother
On her 90th birthday “Trove Thursday” presents the late great Belgian mezzo Rita Gorr parenting Régine Crespin in Massenet’s Hérodiade.
dawn fatale
Bühne nights
Your doyenne and her faithful confidante Dawn Fatale are off later this week for a safari, seeking the wild Regie in its natural habitat.
Dongs of mirth and triumph sing!
Donkey dick and other Asian Fusion vaudeville acts arouse “The BAM Effect” at Handel’s Semele.
A little list
In response to repeated urging by La Cieca, Our Own Dawn Fatale has contributed a “to do” list for the benefit of Met management, assuming the company makes it out of this summer alive.
The voice of the pundit
Our Own Dawn Fatale (artist’s conception) will take to the airwaves of Bloomberg Radio this evening at 9:00 pm to discuss the Met’s current woes.
“Ecco la luce…”
That day we all knew eventually would come did come, in the winter of 2001, when the final issue of parterre box, the queer opera zine was mailed out to the cher public, such as they were at the time.
Spunk
In issue #46 of parterre box the queer opera zine (“Spunk”), you will find an endorsement by the legendary Astrid Varnay.
A Life in the Theater
Devotees of Dawn Fatale (and you are legion!) will be delighted to hear that the parterre scribe made an early (2001!) appearance in issue #45 of parterre box, the queer opera zine, ranting about the “squish-squish school of opera direction.”
Less than Zarah
In a slight detour from the usual all-opera-all-the-time format of parterre box, the queer opera zine, issue #44 centers on Ben Letzler‘s superb appreciation of film and cabaret diva Zarah Leander.
City of dreams
With issue #42a, “City of Dreams,” parterre box the queer opera zine returns at least temporarily to a rational numbering system.
On with the motley
In Issue #40 of parterre box, the queer opera zine, Our Own JJ nabs lengthy interviews with critic John Ardoin and tenor Richard Leech.
Drama queen
The very first words in this issue are “Renata Scotto will return to the American operatic stage in the 2001 season!”
Something beyond the normal
The celebrated “lost” issue of parterre box, the queer opera zine (now found, thanks to the avid cataloging of Indiana Loiterer III.)
Ogni Cura
“Ogni Cura si doni al diletto / E s’accorra nel magico petto,” the joke went back in the late ’90s. What wags we were!
She is a diamond
“La Cieca cannot imagine it is much fun to sing ‘Dove sono’ when you’re suffering a fresh case of the Reno jumpy-wumps.”
That kind of diva
In Vintage Issue #32: How that opening night of Lohengrin might have gone; La Cieca on La Gran Scena…
Two ghosts
The ENO was filled with ghosts last week. Spectral, possibly illusory figures fleetingly materialized in the Internet chatrooms that provide the setting for much of Nico Muhly’s new opera Two Boys, and brutal boarding school memories came back to troubled life in director Christopher Alden’s dark take on Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Regietourneereiseverlauf
Or, for those of you who don’t take pleasure as La Cieca does in inventing totally bogus German compound words, Itinerary for the Regie Tour. Your doyenne and faithful sidekick Dawn Fatale (also pictured) will be hitting the continent later this week for a taste of productions done in the German style. Any European members […]
Katharina’s church
In the summer of 2007, at the height of the heated speculation and public debates over who would succeed Wolfgang Wagner as the head of the Bayreuth Festival, his daughter, Katharina Wagner presented a new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the festival, replacing the mind-numbingly boring one by her father (his third at […]
Talk the stalk
Dawn Fatale (pictured) shares with us a horoscope:
Dawn of the Philistines
I’m not sure who I find more annoying – the partisans who vigorously defend Luc Bondy‘s production of Tosca at the Met or those who decry it. As Bondy’s production replaces one of the Met’s signature offerings, both groups have seized on this event as a watershed event in the history of opera in America […]
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).
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!
