La Cieca wishes her dear, dear, dear friend many happy returns, and reminds her cher public that Charlie’s podcasts (gleaned from his vastissimo collection) are about the best opera you can find anywhere on the web.
By La Cieca
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Karita Mattila in the HD telecast of Salome starts here in New York on Channel 13 in ten minutes. DVRs set?
By La Cieca
Today’s the birthday of another great lady of song: Ethel Merman‘s 100th101st! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Z7VzlCk1NoE” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
By La Cieca
The fabulous and funny American mezzo-soprano is 75 today.
By La Cieca
Our Own Gualtier Maldè reports: The Met’s orchestra and audience have found a new conductor to love: Daniel Barenboim.  The debutante conductor got a huge ovation before he even lifted his baton. Lots of applause for Danny B. all night from an adoring audience including a generous amount at his final bow. There was lots of touchy feely…
By La Cieca
The legendary dramatic tenor is 82 years old today. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/yyLUIxpg-KY” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Joining Vickers for this 1967 clip from Die Walküre is Gundula “They tried to make me go to rehab” Janowitz.
By La Cieca
A bit of Salome from the Royal Opera, with a somewhat less skittish sense of cinematography than what we got from the Met’s HD! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/nBAbXZptfIk” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Finally a chance to see Naked Busker Guy Duncan Meadows in action! (And, forgive La Cieca for saying so, but if your leading lady sounds…
By La Cieca
La Cieca has managed to obtain a few fragments of the camera rehearsal for Saturday afternoon’s Salome HD telecast. Note the cutting-edge video techniques employed to distract the (presumably) pre-adolescent audience from Karita’s Kooter of Kontroversy. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/UdWjLz5NY-E” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
By La Cieca
Although the staging of the Met’s Saturday afternoon’s production of Salome will remain unchanged (i.e., Karita Mattila intends to jam out with her clam out) the HD cameras will demurely divert their lenses at the climactic moment of the Dance of the Seven Veils. According to Culture Monster, instead of the Full Mattila, the video…
By La Cieca
A reporter/graduate student who recently interviewed La Cieca is asking if any of you cher public would be willing to answer a few questions for an article he’s writing on the impact of the Met’s HD broadcasts on “opera queens outside of larger cities.” So, any of you rural or otherwise bucolic parterre.com readers who…
By La Cieca
Sharing the stage another diva in one’s identical fach always puts a girl on her mettle, La Cieca has always said, and no better proof of that just-invented shibboleth is there than this week’s edition of Unnatural Acts of Opera. Grace Bumbry and Shirley Verrett grace the stage of Carnegie Hall on January 31, 1982,…
By La Cieca
I was there in the house and it was a good night. I still think that Mattila and the production were fresher in 2004 with a wider range of colors and dynamics. However, she didn’t sound frayed or at the end of her rope. Some of the louder high notes can get a blanched quality…
By La Cieca
Artistic adminstrators at the Met and around the world are gnashing their teeth and tearing their hair this afternoon at Bryn Terfel‘s bombshell announcement that he will retire from opera “within three years.” The biggest local impact will be felt in the Met’s glossy new Ring cycle, in which (according to Brad Wilber) Terfel was slated…
By La Cieca
August 30 is the anniversary of the birth of a famous Quickly: Regina Resnik! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ipFMt7bPStg” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] And here we have Mme. Resnik in a campy mood, sending up the faux-exoticism of Kismet. Not Since Nineveh!
By La Cieca
La Cieca about to try one of those 21st century activities all the kids are talking about, and no, it’s not chugging Nyquil. Your doyenne is going to use crowdsourcing (that is, put you cher public to work as reporters) to cover the Met’s Opening Night Gala on September 22, 2008 at 6:30 pm. Since…
By La Cieca
La Cieca’s dear colleage The Counter Critic is writing a piece for a New York paper about the Met’s HD program. He is looking for “people to interview who have seen the simulcasts, and who have strong opinions about how folks behave during the screenings.” Here’s your chance for your voice to be heard loud…
By La Cieca
La Cieca has just learned that Salvatore Licitra has withdrawn “for personal reasons” from the Met’s new Trovatore, which opens February 16, 2009. Marcelo Ãlvarez will be Manrico instead, which means he (Ãlvarez) will cancel Adriana Lecouvreur, which opens on February 6. The replacement Maurizio will be announced at a later date once the hysterical…
By La Cieca
La Cieca has just learned that Anna Netrebko, who is currently awaiting the September arrival of her first child, has withdrawn from her scheduled Met performances as Mimì on December 29, 2008 and January 3 matinee, 6, and 10, 2009. According to a press release from the met, the soprano “has decided that she will need a…
By La Cieca
The latest Newsweek includes a tech piece on a new bit of synergy that may well have opera queen/pirate applications. The idea is that one can attend an event, point and shoot with a video-enabled cellphone, and have the resulting video streamed instantaneously to a website.Â
By La Cieca
La Cieca extends birthday greetings to one of her favorite redheads . . .Â
By La Cieca
Happy birthday to indefatigable maestro James Levine, who is 65 today!
By La Cieca
La Cieca hears that Marcello Giordani has withdrawn from his scheduled June and July performances as Cavaradossi at the Arena di Verona this summer. The June 21-July 19 performances will be shared between Marcelo Alvarez and Carlo Ventre. Giordani’s next stage performances will be his role debut as Alvaro in La forza del destino in…
By La Cieca
. . . much to our dismay, we caught a glimpse of high-C-flaunting Juan Diego Florez coming out of the Juilliard School’s Meredith Wilson Residence Hall with fiance Julia Trappe in tow at around, oh, 1pm. That’s like 30 minutes before curtain! Little sister Counter Critic goes to the movies and gets a surprise preview.…
By La Cieca
