More news from the future More news from the future

Here La Cieca has scarcely returned home from a very pleasant concert performance of Pipe Dream (feeble show, attractive songs, fine cast) and what should she find in her inbox but an alert from the Playbill Club.

on March 30, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Saint Peter Saint Peter

La Cieca hears that for coming seasons at the Met, Peter Gelb plans to mix a little religion in with the opera, or non-opera as the case may be.

on March 26, 2012 at 2:07 PM
Lady in the dark Lady in the dark

La Cieca (not pictured) would just like to point out…

on March 14, 2012 at 8:06 AM
Dessa! Dessa!

La Cieca hears that soprano Latonia Moore will make her Metropolitan Opera debut this Saturday afternoon.

on March 01, 2012 at 6:49 PM

At tonight’s Faust performance, two events of note: René Pape, upon his re-entrance after the Jewel Song, ad-libbed the spoken line “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” The performance, a broadcast, was the basso’s final one of this production.) After this moment of comedy, drama followed at the curtain calls.

on December 29, 2011 at 12:06 AM

After today’s Met dress rehearsal of The Enchanted Island, La Cieca’s spy (pictured) reports: “You would think that if they had the entire Baroque canon to mine, they would’ve chosen music that wasn’t slow, dull, and long.  In Peter Gelb‘s opening remarks, he called it ‘the Met’s Baroque Coming Out party,’ which makes me think this entire endeavor was…

on December 28, 2011 at 10:43 PM

La Cieca hears that the New York City Opera is moving its administrative offices to 75 Broad Street, a location you surely remember as The International Telephone and Telegraph Building.  The a 1928 structure boasts  the mosaic dome glimpsed above, and (coincidentally) sits just across the street from the old Goldman Sachs building.

on December 06, 2011 at 11:34 AM

UPDATE: Blogger Out West Arts reflects on the “Occupy Wall Street” incident at the Met’s Faust last night, noting that the shouts (and various responses from members of the audience) did not interrupt the music.

on December 04, 2011 at 11:30 AM

Local 802 and AGMA have rejected New York City Opera’s “final offer,” placing the company at an “impasse,” according to an email from George Steel to members of the company’s board.

on December 01, 2011 at 11:00 AM

Soprano Mirella Freni is under investigation by the Bologna District Attorney’s office of Bologna for money laundering and exportation of money abroad in connection with the BER bank. The artist from Modena, 76, will be heard by the magistrates in the next few days to clarify her position, now that the DA Antonella Scandellari has…

on November 28, 2011 at 10:25 AM

Even as sinister gossip hinted to the contrary, the Met successfully completed negotiations with the stagehands’ union last night, averting the possibility of a job action next week. According to a source close to the Met, Peter Gelb sent out an email confirming the contract sometime after 1:00 this morning: 

on November 23, 2011 at 10:13 AM

Open your eyes, sleepyheads! In the news this morning, our own JJ raves about Satyagraha at the Met (“a masterpiece of musical and visual art”); the ever-articulate Nico Muhly takes aim at the Met’s production values (“Mercedes Bass or Anne Ziff paid for the opera. What do you think is going to happen?”); and NYCO’s…

on November 07, 2011 at 10:23 AM

La Cieca is not sure if this is a casting announcement or the result of a particularly silly round of Mad Libs: Plácido Domingo will add yet another notch to his repertoire, the title role of Der Fliegende Holländer, in a production at the Arena di Verona in the summer of 2013, with Daniel Barenboim…

on September 08, 2011 at 6:55 PM

This just in from La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Michael Riedel: it looks like the “new” Porgy and Bess isn’t coming into New York. Says the NYP gossipmonger: “…while [Audra] McDonald wins Tonys, her name doesn’t sell tickets. I’m told the producers are likely to fold the show after its Boston run.”

on September 02, 2011 at 6:36 PM

After what surely ranked as among the busiest (and silliest) pre-season ditherings ever, that scene everyone was so worried about, La Cieca is informed, is back where it belongs. The decision to restore the aria was made this afternoon, and the reason? Well, let’s just say the “purely dramaturgical” will always be trumped by the…

on August 31, 2011 at 4:21 PM

Twentieth century opera just can’t get a break in Dallas, it seems. La Cieca has just heard that the company, which 86ed Katya Kabanova from their 2011 schedule, has just canceled Salome (slated to star Deborah Voigt) from fall 2013 plans.

on August 23, 2011 at 2:16 PM

UPDATE: The answer is: George Manahan is out. FURTHER: La Cieca hears a very reliable rumor indeed that NYCO is in serious negotiations with El Museo del Barrio to relocate the troubled company there. EARLIER: La Cieca’s flawless if rather vague sources inform her that some big news is about to break concerning New York…

on August 02, 2011 at 4:56 PM

La Cieca has just heard that Salvatore Licitra is out of all performances of the Met’s 2012 revival of Ernani. The role of Verdi’s bandit will be shared between Marcello Giordani and Roberto DeBiasio.

on July 21, 2011 at 10:32 AM

An internet leak, quickly plugged but too late, reveals Opera Orchestra of New York’s 2011-12 projected season. On Tuesday, November 8, Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann will grace Carnegie Hall with Adriana Lecouvreur. Then, on Sunday, January 29, Ian Storey and Elisabete Matos headline Rienzi, presumably maestro Queler’s sole appearance of the season. The final…

on July 03, 2011 at 3:43 PM

What’s the diminuitive of “Normina?” Well, you’d better start coining the word, because Cecilia Bartoli is recording Bellini’s Norma, with John Osborn, Sumi Jo and Michele Pertusi; leading the Orchestra La Scintilla will be, well, Bartoli mostly, but nominally in charge will be Giovanni Antonini.

on June 04, 2011 at 8:56 PM

Sean Michael Gross, Director of Marketing and Special Projects for 21C Media Group, who is in charge of public and press relations (in North America) for Anna Netrebko, has informed La Cieca that the rumor-magnet diva “‘is not pregnant.”

on May 17, 2011 at 7:41 PM

La Cieca hears that tenor Yonghoon Lee will sing the title role of Verdi’s Don Carlo during the Met’s tour to Japan, replacing Jonas Kaufmann who will be sick or something. (Photo: Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera)

on May 12, 2011 at 10:53 AM

UPDATE: La Cieca has just heard from Ernesto Palacio, manager for Elina Garanca, who confirms that the mezzo-soprano is pregnant. EARLIER: The news has just broken that Elina Garanca “is expecting a baby at the end of October…. Garanca and her British-born husband, conductor Karel Mark Chichon, had informed their friends of the good news…

on May 06, 2011 at 12:56 PM

UPDATE: The Met’s press office states, “At the beginning of Act III (‘The Ride of the Valkyries’ scene) of last evening’s performance of Die Walküre, one of the planks that comprise the set descended to the stage floor rather than stopping opposite the stage apron. As a result, the artist singing Siegrune, mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti,…

on April 29, 2011 at 8:30 AM