“Renée Fleming‘s thrilling new album ‘Dark Hope’ (Decca) debuts at #151 today on the Billboard Top 200 chart, with the highest first-week sales of the superstar soprano’s storied career…. The debut follows a performance by Fleming of Muse’s ‘Endlessly’ last week on Good Morning America, and major print and online coverage including two arts cover…
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
Zack Woolfe, shirtless, and Seth Colter Walls take the High Line when deconstructing Dark Hope. [The Awl]
The music video we have all been waiting for.
The greatest week in the history of show business begins today in preparation for the Drop of That Album here in the USA, at this writing barely 15 hours away. In support of this release, Renée Fleming is making a whirlwind tour of personal appearances, including a command performance last night before President and Mrs.…
Market forces at work in a London music shop.
This cheerful mug is an image from the trailer for La Scoopenda‘s laff-riot CD I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell or whatever it’s called. Video (which incidentally serves as an elegant proof of Dr. Repertoire’s Seventh Rule for Stage Directors) after the jump.
… and the hope gets darker and darker as La Scoopenda performs Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah.”
Internationally acclaimed dance club pop sensation Renée Fleming returns to her roots (she often sang opera during her college days) for this afternoon’s Met broadcast of Rossini’s Armida.
What could be more exclusive than this? La Cieca offers you a sneak preview of Renée Fleming‘s MTV-style video for “Endlessly!”
“Her new cerise dress has been a failure, and makes her look tawdry and wan… She frowns a little — not in anger, but as a brave child frowns when he is trying not to cry. In all that expanse no human eye is looking at her, and she may frown unrebuked…”
La Cieca will not be near a keyboard (or for that matter a theoboro) this evening, but please don’t let that stop you, cher public, from chatting during the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Rossini’s Armida, starring Renée Fleming (not pictured).
Armida in just three hours, and, ironically (given the dramatic weight of this bel canto role) a certain soprano just can’t stop twittering!
Our Own Gualtier Maldè (right) escaped today’s Armida dress rehearsal at the Met with his wits intact. He reports:
See those little blue circles? Do you know what they represent? The answer is after the jump.
On this beautiful spring morning, La Cieca is delighted to announce to her cher public that she has uncovered yet another exclusive scoop. For you listening enjoyment on this last day of March, we present the next single to drop from the most talked-about operatic disc since Karita Mattila‘s!
La Cieca breathlessly offers you a sneak preview of one of this spring’s most eagerly awaited CDs.
Today’s gossip riddle: what does the Met’s upcoming Mary Zimmerman production of Rossini’s Armida have in common with the above-referenced classic of cheesy 1950s science fiction?
“On her new album, Dark Hope, opera star Renee Fleming takes a ‘visit to a new, parallel universe.’ … Dark Hope finds ‘The People’s Diva’ covering songs by Muse, Arcade Fire, The Mars Volta, Death Cab For Cutie, Leonard Cohen, Band Of Horses, and more.”
She Who Has More Sobriquets Than Changes of Facial Expression continues her second half-century.
“People approach me now and say things like, ‘We loved your hair last week, but the jacket the week before was even better’.” [Wicked Local Norwell]
Like Liza Minnelli at the Palace or Nomi Malone in Goddess, Renée Fleming‘s Thaïs is better understood as diva event than Gesamtkunstwerk. It’s an opportunity to watch a star lady do her voodoo in a work that exists largely to showcase her glamour and appeal.
La Cieca welcomes cher plebians and cher patricians alike to a chat during this afternoon’s Met broadcast of Simon Boccanegra. The performance begins at 1:00 PM.
Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky offer an object lesson in the traditional old school performance practice of “lurch and flail” operatic acting.
Welcome, cher public, to discussion for this afternoon’s Met broadcast of Der Rosenkavalier. The performance begins at 1:00 PM.
