“Local favourite, bass Robert Pomakov was an energetic Bottom…” [via Toronto Star]

By on May 08, 2009 at 7:42 PM
57 comments

Opera Chic caught it first, but this video deserves to be seen again and again. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/PCn5osoQK_k” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

By on May 01, 2009 at 1:54 PM
25 comments

At last we know the identity of the eponymous heroine of Rufus Wainwright‘s maiden effort as opera composer.  The aging Prima Donna who is strugging “to regain her status as a top-flight soprano on the world stages” s’appelle Régine Saint Laurent. If ever a name screamed, “cover girl, put the bass in your walk,” surely…

By on March 31, 2009 at 10:59 AM
37 comments

“Salvatore, viens, j’ai trouvé une étoile!” [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/5xXf8mh81dg” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Wenarto, watch your back!

By on March 26, 2009 at 3:05 PM
18 comments

Opera composer Rufus Wainwright sings Berlioz. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/psUGIE7Ugjw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

By on March 23, 2009 at 1:29 PM
124 comments

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…

By on March 10, 2009 at 1:28 PM
18 comments

“And a sweeping tale it is even if you just listen to the romantic strings alone . . . but here’s a video of Sherril Milnes as Minnie fielding Sherriff Rance’s advances.” [examiner.com]

By on March 06, 2009 at 4:34 PM
196 comments

Broadway star, opera diva, image consultant, self-help guru: the late Dorothy Sarnoff was all these and more. But did you know that (according to the New York Times) Ms. Sarnoff was also a pioneer in the field of gay-themed opera?

By on December 28, 2008 at 12:20 PM
5 comments

La Cieca invites the cher public to supply their own captions to this photo of “Dresser strapping corset on Heldentenor Lauritz Melchior backstage at the Metropolitan Opera House as he prepares to sing his 200th Tristan.” (1944/Alfred Eisenstaedt)

By on December 25, 2008 at 1:16 PM
54 comments

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/KE_YiNED5WQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] An excerpt from Jeffrey Lependorf‘s Tim Gunn’s Podcast (a reality chamber opera), performed by baritone John Schenkel, with the composer at the piano, from a performance at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival at The Jazz Gallery.

By on November 11, 2008 at 4:35 PM
3 comments

La Cieca hears that now that NYCO is relinquishing its commission of Charles Wuorinen‘s Brokeback Mountain, another opera company at Lincoln Center is interested in premiering the work, starring one or more of their stable of telegenic baritones. Perhaps in this version Jack and Ennis can meet at a honky-tonk called The Diamond Horseshoe?

By on November 11, 2008 at 10:22 AM
56 comments

Sharpen those nails and slather on a fresh coat of “Jungle Red,” ladies, because La Cieca hears that “it’s on” between two of the biggest players in NYC’s opera criticism power gay elite. (Well, admittedly that’s not a large pool of talent, but what they lack in numbers they more than make up for in…

By on September 29, 2008 at 4:24 PM
169 comments

La Cieca dedicates this video to pop singer/Broadway belter Clay Aiken. Nice to have you with us, buddy, and it’s about fucking time. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/JjK1k9y7ccY” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

By on September 25, 2008 at 11:44 AM
51 comments

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/7HMCZ589eKc” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] “WHAT in GAY hell was jumping around him?” exclaims a puzzled YouTube fan, and La Cieca agrees that even the gifted Stephen Costello seems nonplussed by, well, all that gay hell. (This clip is from a recent Rigoletto performance.)

By on September 24, 2008 at 4:13 PM
67 comments

In what La Cieca believes is the gayest photograph ever taken, Rufus Wainwright strikes a pose with Faye Dunaway on the red carpet at the Met’s opening night. More heart-warming news from Women’s Wear Daily: Oscar de la Renta will not, after all, boycott the Met as he previously threatened.  The designer had complained to…

By on September 24, 2008 at 11:19 AM
40 comments

La Cieca hears that at least one of the ultracool ultraqueer world premieres scheduled for the Met is definitely off the bill.

By on August 22, 2008 at 12:05 PM
75 comments

The current issue of The Advocate includes an interview with adorable 27-year-old bedhead Nico Muhly about his next composition project, an opera “based on a true Internet romance/friendship between two teenage boys that ended in one of the two stabbing the other to death.” Muhly’s “teen gay Internet sex drama,” to a libretto by Craig Lucas,…

By on August 13, 2008 at 1:06 PM
33 comments

The ideal match of subject matter to critic: the role debut of Teddy Tahu Rhodes in Billy Budd, as reviewed by Anthony Tommasini. (“On being pressed into service, Billy is made a foretop man, and repeatedly throughout the performance Mr. Rhodes climbs up and down rigging with abandon, sometimes using only his arms.”)

By on August 03, 2008 at 1:47 AM
65 comments

This photo by Nancy Palmieri for The New York Times illustrates a review of Karol Szymanowski’s King Roger, a production that even Tony Tommasini thought was just too gay. Perhaps the cher public have ideas for an alternative caption for this photo?

By on July 31, 2008 at 4:45 PM
20 comments

Can it be that in mid-July we are already thinking about the last days of summer? Well, La Cieca is, especially since she’s just found out that Robert Wilson‘s Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation will offer the unlikely duo of Rufus Wainwright and Jessye Norman in a concert entitled “Last Song of Summer” on August 30.…

By on July 18, 2008 at 11:40 AM
8 comments

Those muckraking scamps over at Opera News are at it again, quoting a in their June issue a particularly inflammatory passage from the mad gay diaries of mad gay Cecil Beaton. Dear Cecil, you will recall, designed the Met’s celebrated 1961 production of Turandot that starred Birgit Nilsson. It seems that mere critical and popular…

By on June 20, 2008 at 10:26 PM
59 comments

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.

By on June 20, 2008 at 12:56 PM
76 comments

Our Own JJ chats with pal Dorothy Bishop about her upcoming cabaret “Viva la Diva.” [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/o_NYvOYmpoI” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] “Viva la Diva” graces the stage of the Zipper Factory Theater on June 29 at 3:00 PM. Online booking is available through OvationTix.

By on June 20, 2008 at 11:29 AM
7 comments

Hunks in skimpy loincloths have long been a feature of productions of twentieth century opera, especially during the Christopher Keene era at New York City Opera. But you don’t often get to see much homoerotic action in bel canto works like Norma, more’s the pity. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/sFdrWy8TzSQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] [via Barihunks]

By on May 31, 2008 at 3:13 PM
22 comments