Ioan Holender was General Manager of the Wiener Staatsoper for nineteen years, the longest anyone has held this post, and the august institution honored him with the gala to end all galas in the final days of his administration. With the goal of commemorating each of the 40 new productions premiered at the Staatsoper during…
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As we look forward to New Year’s Eve and to the gala opening of Willy Decker’s La Traviata at the Met, it seems fitting to look back—by way of the official, live, DVD recording of the production’s sensational world premiere at the Salzburg Festival in 2005—to get some sense of what’s behind all the hype.…
An appearance by legendary diva Virginia Zeani is but one of the highlights of tomorrow night’s Marcello Giordani Foundation Concert and Dinner.
The annual Richard Tucker gala came and went at Avery Fisher Hall with the usual quota of gaffes, wardrobe malfunctions, no-shows, too-much-shows, substitutions and surprise guests (well, guest). And sandwiched between the routine, the egocentric and the just plain dull were moments of true dementia, the moments that we melomanes live and die for. Most…
La Cieca is delighted to throw out the first ball or lift her baton or whatever it is one does to launch a discussion, which in this case is on the topic of that most quintessential of all opera novels, Mawrdew Czgowchwz—though she does insist on prefacing anything she says with the caveat that she’s…
Those among the cher public inclined toward philanthropy and/or star-gazing will want to check out the details on a gala fundraising dinner and concert for the Marcello Giordani Foundation on May 7. The evening will feature performances from young singers and a litotic “Lifetime Achievement Award” presented to Magda Olivero (in virtual attendance via videoconferencing…
It took the Metropolitan Opera decades to catch up with the rest of the world and finally stage La Cenerentola. Gioachino Rossini’s opera buffa, one of his most beloved and accomplished works, received its belated Met debut in 1997, amidst legitimate suspicions that the new production was less a genuine desire to add a belcanto…
Gotham Chamber Opera presented Haydn’s Il Mondo della Luna on Tuesday evening at the Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium, in a production that took advantage of the museum’s NASA constellations and a multitude of other more economical yet impressive stage and lighting effects. Despite cramped quarters and inhospitable acoustics, the company made a strong…
I was still warming frigid fingers Friday night, when before me unfolded something like a history of the world viewed from a small café: an enchanted journey from the gaslights of Berlin to the crowded alleys of Buenos Aires.
La Cieca received this letter yesterday. If you have reviews, opinion pieces, appreciations, or (as in this case) a Letter to the Doyenne, please email to [email protected]. Saving New York City Opera?
New Kid on the Plaza Drammy writes: April 9, 2009. A traditional Otto Schenk production featuring Diana Damrau as Gilda and who cares but.. Frizza conducting, Viktoria Vizin as Maddalena, Calleja as the Duke, Frontali as Rigoletto, Aceto as Sparafucile. Stellar performances from the entire cast, excepting poor Mr Frontali. The set was phenomenal –…
Those of you who may be toying with the idea of a trip to the city this fall to check out the New and Improved York City Opera may be interested to hear the performance schedule for the company’s fall season. Remember these dates are provisional they should give you an idea of how the repertory sorts out.…
This vastly superior caption replaces La Cieca’s original, “Rebecca Glasscock back on the pipe?” [Danielle de Niese in Acis e and Galatea at The Royal Opera, photo by Bill Cooper.]
And people say that in olden days singers used more chest! Ha, says La Cieca. Ha!
Our Own JJ reports on the Met’s 125th Anniversary Shindig in the New York Post.
Renée Fleming, known as “The Beautiful Voice” and “Diva of the Future,” has won a new whaddyacallit, a new, uh, sobriquet. Courtesy of commenter Camille, Ms. Fleming will henceforth be known as “Opera MILF.” (At last night’s 125th Anniversary Gala, La Fleming rocked “a costume based on the one worn by Maria Jeritza for [Die…
La Cieca (not pictured) invites you, cher public, to listen to the broadcast of the Met’s 125th Anniversary Gala (on Sirius or RealNetworks) and comment to your heart’s content! The (projected) program is availabe as a pdf from the Met’s website.
Friends of the box have asked La Cieca to inform you that they have two tickets for today’s 125th Anniversary Gala for sale, row C orchestra, $400 each. If you’re interested, call 646-266-8423 and ask for Siciliano. (That’s his name.)
Which diva predictably arrived late for rehearsal of her spot on the Met’s 125th Anniversary Gala? I’m sure the tardy singer did not laugh to see that another diva had already launched her comeback by sight-reading the aria from the prompter’s score!
According to a press release from the Met, “René Pape has withdrawn from the Met’s 125th Anniversary Gala on Sunday, March 15, due to illness.”  The cancellation starts a daisy chain of cast reshuffling, so listen carefully: John Tomlinson will sing the Death Scene from Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, replacing Pape. James Morris will sing Wotan in…
La Cieca has managed to pry the keyboard away from Our Own JJ for a moment to remind her cher public that she does, in fact, still exist, in the shadows as it were. Anyway, your doyenne will attend the Broadway revival of Blithe Spirit tonight and will share with you tomorrow a soupcon or…
A member of the cher public reports that a note in the program for tonight’s concert performance of the Der Rosenkavalier in Paris reads: “Renee Fleming wears a dress by John Galliano created specially for the Gala Opening of the Metropolitan Opera on September 22, 2008.”
All the way from exotic Portland, Operaman writes: Yesterday I attended the Met HD transmission of Orfeo ed Euridice and, once I have told you my reactions and feelings about this show, I cannot wait to hear what members of your cher public who saw or heard it have to say about it. And I…
Given the probable continued volume of news concerning the New York City Opera, its new General Manager, and the various melodramas thereto, La Cieca will institute a new policy starting today. A single post will serve to anchor all the NYCO news for the day, with updates as needed. This will also help to centralize…
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Win tickets to Piotr Beczala at Carnegie Hall!
pb—with our friends at Carnegie Hall—is giving away two tickets to PB’s December concert. Enter now!
