… but La Cieca finally got the chance to get her beauty winks last night following a weekend of moving house. The Sunnyside Studios (where our editor JJ and his lovely vis-a-vis cohabit) are now on the ultra-fashionable northern side of Queen Boulevard, and it looks like they got out while the getting was good,…
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La Cieca extends her congratulations to her little sister Opera Chic for a namecheck in the AP story by Ronald Blum on the Met’s 2009-10 production cutbacks. According to Blum’s story, dropping Ghosts of Versailles from the Met’s repertoire will save “more than $1 million.” In the unfortunately ongoing “more bad news” section, La Cieca…
parterre.com editor Our Own JJ plays talking head with Brian Wise John Schaefer this afternoon circa 2:00 pm on WNYC. Topic for the day is the recent bombshell at NYCO. Let’s hope that in the hour or so before the show it doesn’t turn to be a literal bombshell, which at this writing about the only disaster the…
Our Own JJ (right) reviews the Met’s revivals of Don Giovanni and Salome in Gay City News.
Tonight at Splash, Dorothy Bishop in “Viva la Diva,” directed by our own JJ: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/tMUy8bDyt94″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] More information on the show here.
La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Dorothy Bishop returns to NYC with a revamped version of her opera/cabaret show “Viva la Diva” at Splash Bar on October 15 at 8:00 pm. As always, our own JJ directs the show. Dorothy’s Splash debut features new material, new costumes, new “Viva la Diva” dancing boys and (perhaps…
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” /]
Our own dear publisher JJ informs La Cieca that he will be interviewed tomorrow afternoon during CBC’s “Saturday Afternoon at the Opera” by host Bill Richardson. In this, his first international radio interview, JJ is expected to field hard-hitting questions on such topics as “The Busch Doctrine,” and he warns us in advance that his…
Glimpsed (left to right) after the Sunday performance of “Viva la Diva”: dancer Ralph Coppola, eponymous diva Dorothy Bishop, audience member
The cabaret show “Viva la Diva,” directed by Our Own JJ and starring Dorothy Bishop, has been booked for an additional performance this week as part of the Pillowfight Theatre Festival. The show goes on at 9:00 p.m. on July 3 at The Green Room at 45 Bleecker. Tickets are $25 at the door. Already…
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.
After Natalie Dessay‘s second act aria in La Fille du Régiment, the Metropolitan Opera audience just didn’t want to stop applauding — that’s how much fun they were having. Finally the soprano had to shush them so this new production of the Donizetti comic opera (heard April 21) could rollick to its triumphant conclusion. Our…
Philip Glass’ 1980 opera “Satyagraha” is a very high-minded work, but it never hides behind its principles. Musically and scenically the Met’s production (seen April 11) would rank as a successful work of art even if its subject matter were less inspirational. Our own JJ’s review appears in the current issue of Gay City News.
La Cieca wants to reassure her cher public that she has neither fallen off the face of the earth nor succumbed to that mysterious illness that’s killing all the bloggers. The last few days have been something of a slow news period for opera gossip and your doyenne has taken advantage of that fact by…
“Three situations that inspire terror in any opera singer — going on as an understudy, making a Metropolitan Opera debut, singing that most challenging of all tenor roles, Wagner’s Tristan, for the first time. On March 14, Gary Lehman took on all these challenges in a single evening, emerging a hero.” Our Own JJ comments…
Our own JJ recounts how “John Doyle‘s new staging of Britten’s Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera sinks without a trace” in the current issue of Gay City News.
Director of the Met and ENO Madama Butterfly (and librettist of the Met’s Osvaldo Golijovcommission) is dead at 54. Further details are not available at this time.
Our Own JJ was at the Met last night (and part of this morning) to review Tristan und Isolde for Gay City News. As such he witnessed the rather astonishing series of events that Atomic Wings told you about earlier. La Cieca cannot of course ask JJ to comment on the specifics of the performance…
A loyal reader writes: I wanted to let you know that the Tristan prima was a disaster. Only because of the Tristan (which, I guess we can’t relegate to a minor consideration), since it was otherwise mostly okay — if you can accept zero visual dramatic sense in the whole expedition. (As an extreme illustration of this…
… well, not tonight, actually, but on Saturday afternoon, when La Cieca once more will convene the faithful for a live chat on the topic of the Met broadcast of Manon Lescaut. Now, honestly cher public, how was La Cieca to resist? You’ve already read Our Own JJ‘s reaction to the performances of Karita Mattila…
“Even though Puccini’s first successful opera is called Manon Lescaut, the eponymous party girl is not the real protagonist of the work. By far a more interesting character — and the recipient of Puccini’s most grateful music — is her lover Des Grieux.” Our Own JJ reviews the Met’s revival of Manon Lescaut in the current…
Our own JJ‘s little scribblings over at Gay City News are now indexed on a handy page here at parterre.com.
La Cieca, who only yesterday was perpendicular hanging from a cable car, has been annoying San Francisco natives this week by humming the immortal theme song of that city by the bay while strolling her streets. (That’s the Jeanette MacDonald song, not the Tony Bennett number, but that’s not the point here.) Providing a welcome…
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