La Cieca is delighted to announce a week-long series of investigative reports deciding once and for all the question “Who is the greatest opera diva of our generation?”
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La Cieca hears that two spectacular events crowned last night’s performance of La sonnambula at the Vienna State Opera.
Fans of Natalie Dessay (and there are legions of you!) will be overjoyed to hear that, now that the Met’s Hamlet is no longer on the boards, she has completely recovered from whatever it was that was ailing her. The Gallic nightingale is currently gracing the stage of the Wiener Staatsoper in Bellini’s La sonnamubula.…
The good news: whatever Natalie Dessay‘s “illness” was, she didn’t permanently lose her voice. The bad news: she can still talk.
La Cieca presents an open letter from a parterre box reader.
La Cieca is delighted to hear that the Opéra de Paris and soprano Natalie Dessay just last night performed an hommage to Maria Callas by recreating one of the most famous nights of La Divina’s career. Unfortunately, that “night” was January 2, 1958, and in the intervening half century, opera management still hasn’t learned its…
What is it about Natalie Dessay, La Cieca wonders, that provokes journalists to badmouth La sonnambula?
UPDATE: Dessay has “just now” confirmed she will go on for tonight’s performance, which begins in about 15 minutes.
“Natalie Dessay … in a fuchsia dress and lace-up high boots, flaming red hair piled high on her head …. swung her arms above her head, stretched, and then literally screamed out what sounded like wild joy and barely bridled lust.” [Santa Fe New Mexican]
Natalie Dessay crosses over with Michel Legrand. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/x7VyXKAvNV0″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] This clip is one of a number of “Perle Nere” selections (including some classic filth) to be found on YouTube channel The Cucumber Masked. (For the record, your doyenne will state that she thinks the inclusion of Rolando Villazón material at this…
Peter Gelb has just announced that, due to the indisposition of Natalie Dessay, the role of Amina in La sonnambula will be sung tonight by Rolando Villazon. (Thanks to Opera Chic!)
[Our Own Gualtier Malde (along with a few thousand other people) attended the public dress rehearsal of the Met’s new production of La sonnambula this morning. Here is his report.] Innocence, rustic naiveté and virginity just don’t get no respect no more. I should know, I grew up way out in central New Jersey and…
One of La Cieca’s most trusted spies wangled his way into the house last night for the surprise cast change in Lucia di Lammermoor, and here’s his report: Perhaps it is the side benefit of low expectations, but I was not offended by Anna Netrebko‘s performance on Tuesday night. Though certainly not a bel canto…
UPDATE: And now the reactions to Act 2: “Villazon continued to struggle. Pushed upper register and passaggio. High notes he seems to accomplish (or in some cases misses) by sheer will of force. Aside from a beautiful legato in the sextet, his voice is very worrisome. Netrebko has bloomed in this act, acuti seemingly in…
Well, the first thing La Cieca will say about the Met’s 125th Anniversary Gala is that for all its sprawling splendor it doesn’t look quite what you’d call entertaining. Or rather let’s say it looks as if it won’t sound very entertaining. The visual element — you know, computer-animated Marc Chagall murals and Waltraud Meier…
“Alex, age 4, clearly in love with what he’s hearing and seeing.” [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/9uyJ-hrTknA” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
You know, it’s funny. Just this morning La Cieca was thinking, “Is it just me, or can I actually feel the days growing shorter now that midsummer is past?” At first your doyenne attributed the feeling to encroaching middle age; after all, middle age is her scapegoat for everything wrong these days. But in fact,…
The grandeur of Unnatural Acts of Opera continues with a podcast of Hamlet by Ambroïse Ambroise Thomas. Hamlet, Act 1 Hamlet: Simon Keenlyside; Claudius: Robert Lloyd; Gertrude: Yvonne Naef; Ophelie: Natalie Dessay; Laerte: Yann Beuron; Le Spectre: Markus Hollop; Marcellus: Edgaras Montvidas; Horatio: Graeme Broadbent; Polonius: Jonathan May; Gravediggers: Darren Jeffery, Matthew Beale. Orchestra of…
Following a performance of Lucia in San Francisco, Our Own “sassy bald” High C’s models the notorious blood-stained t-shirt for none other than Natalie Dessay.
After Natalie Dessay‘s second act aria in La Fille du Régiment, the Metropolitan Opera audience just didn’t want to stop applauding — that’s how much fun they were having. Finally the soprano had to shush them so this new production of the Donizetti comic opera (heard April 21) could rollick to its triumphant conclusion. Our…
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