Cold dead hands
The press department at the English National Opera is considering a revamp of the company’s press seating policy.
fucking brits
When you’re a Brit, you’re a Brit all the way
The international finalists for the International Opera Awards have been internationally named from international artists.
Già dell’Apocalisse appariscono i segni
Ryan Speedo Green will sing Colline in tonight’s performance of Puccini’s La Bohème.
Hire of wonder
WQXR has hired BBC radio and TV presenter, author, novelist, journalist and violinist Clemency Burton-Hill to be the station’s Creative Director, Music and Arts.
Punch drunk
Breaking: Pasolini estate to sue Rupert Christiansen for libel.
This happy breed
“Lyric’s November staging of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck is the only American contender in the new-production category, conducted by Lyric Music Director Sir Andrew Davis and directed by Sir David McVicar.”
Breaking: horses not to be frightened
“Our patrons are also our investors, and because many of our core subscribers are also our most generous philanthropists, we need to make sure that our programming jives with their expectations, what they’d like to see onstage.”
Once upon a Thames
“Likewise Susan Bullock and Nicholas Phan—leading exponents of Wagner and Britten respectively…”
Fog lifts over channel
“When you read, and credit, the more feverish musings of the internet chatterati, there is some kind of British invasion storming the bastions of American opera.”
Kate Royal, Toby Spence ink 10-year Met deal
“Robert Rattray, who has long experience in artist management, has been appointed the Met’s next assistant general manager for artistic affairs, replacing Sarah Billinghurst, who will retire at the end of this season after two decades at the Met, the company announced Tuesday.”
By La Cieca
Out of Touch
In a press release that was obviously sent in 1985 and for some bizarre reason only just arrived an hour ago, Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced the production of a new Ring cycle with Sir Andrew Davis conducting and David Pountney directing.
Not canard, more loon
“More telephone ring tones come from Bizet’s Carmen that any other opera.”
Why Rupert Christiansen is the wrong commentator about gay rights protesters
The veteran British critic click-whored…
Queer canard
“That [Tchaikovsky] committed suicide cannot be doubted, but what precipitated this suicide has not been conclusively established…”
Wack on Wacker
The announcement of the 2013-2014 season at Lyric Opera of Chicago is not good news at all.
Update on great operatic scandals of the 20th century
Noted junk sculptor Dr. Jonathan Miller is now the subject of a biography and it appears he’s mellowed in his old age.
Provocative ad provokes, surprisingly
But not everyone is amused.
Decrease your word power
La Cieca is starting a new series of Words Critics Need to Stop Using.
All things Brit and beautiful
“Time and tide wait for no one” pontificates Myrtle the barmaid, setting the tone for André Previn’s opera about fleeting romance but enduring love: Brief Encounter. Loosely based on the play Still Life by Noël Coward and the screenplay for the film Brief Encounter by Coward and David Lean, this opera (now on CD) tells […]
Brittania rule the lake
Houston Grand Opera’s Brit-in-Chief Anthony Freud will take an early departure of his post (recently extended to 2015) to move into the power vacuum created by the departure of William Mason from Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2012, says Culturemap Houston.
Today in corrections
“A profile of Richard Eyre – ‘All good actors are quick-witted’, 27 November, page 12, Review – mentioned the theatre director’s recollection of having played one of the Three Little Maids in a school production of The Pirates of Penzance. Clarification has since come from the interviewee that in Pirates he played Kate, one of […]
The return of Glimmertrash
Given the choice, I’ll take Hans Neuenfels.
Greasy poll
Next time you feel like rolling your eyes at one of La Cieca’s informal for-entertainment-only polls, put then back in your head and gaze on this silliness.
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).
