“It was all surprisingly good? Even the Party Pork, which has you marinate a piece of pork neck in vermouth and steak seasoning. It shouldn’t work, and yet it did.”
Maria José Siri gives a historic encore performance of the aria “Io son l’umile ancella” during the March 25 performance of Adriana Lecouvreur at the Ópera de Las Palmas in Gran Canaria.
Maria Callas and Montserrat Caballé are two of the most highly-regarded and esteemed exponents of the great soprano roles in both bel canto and in the operas of Verdi, and their recordings are held as artistic triumphs of the highest order.
No one ever leaves a star. That’s what makes one a star.
Lise Davidsen, who makes her role debut tonight as Leonore in Fidelio, is still very early in what appears to be a most promising career.
“What happens when that music no longer comes easily, or when the public’s attention shifts elsewhere?”
Kathleen Turner will join the cast of Donizetti’s comedy La Fille du Régiment at the Metropolitan Opera February 7–March 2.
Anna Netrebko is the greatest performing artist singing opera today. Nobody else comes close; she makes me love her in a way that verges on the erotic.
I was overjoyed by the coincidence that Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival would be presenting Façade.
Dapper countertenor Ray Chenez is temporarily putting aside the turbans of his operatic career for, well, the turbans of a Broadway diva as he appeals via Indiegogo for funding to record a CD of show tunes.
Legendary diva and long-time friend of parterre box Aprile Millo offers a gracious and witty speech in acceptance of the Verdi d’Oro Prize in Busseto.
La Cieca, fashion arbiter though she may be, cannot figure out what is going on with this day-to-evening (and then some) look Sonya Yoncheva is flaunting.
Tonight’s program at the New York Philharmonic, Arthur Honegger’s massive oratorio dramatique Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher, has been an occasional visitor to the orchestra’s repertoire starting with the performance conducted by Charles Munch in January of 1948.
Just discovered: a Swedish documentary about Birgit Nilsson.
Fall 2015 is the target date for an as yet untitled one-woman show based on the life of Kathleen Battle, scheduled to star Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o.
Cecilia Bartoli and Joyce DiDonato are not the only ladies who have recorded recitals this year featuring music from the 17th and 18th centuries.
La Cieca supposes that maybe the reason Angela Gheorghiu doesn’t include any music from Manon Lescaut on her new “Homage to Callas” CD is that she can’t quite identify with the character?
“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.
The Bulgarian diva was born December 15, 1934.
This is the way the public used to greet the entrance of a beloved star, and La Cieca is very unhappy to think that she will never hear the like again.