Secret origin
On this, the occasion of her 37th birthday [see below], La Cieca is happy to repeat the story of how she came to be born (as first told in the pages of parterre box, issue #28.
la scotto
Scotto sings again
The tutelary goddess of parterre.com performs a few phrases of La bohème — in 2010.
“Live” at last!
La Cieca is delighted to note that two of the best-remembered and most-coveted “Live from the Met” telecasts have at last been made available on DVD. Otello (25 September 1978) and Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci (5 April 1978) are now available at the Met Opera Shop and online at www.metoperashop.org, “as well as through other outlets.” La […]
the art of the doyenne
La Cieca continues her salute to the diamond birthday of Renata Scotto with a new episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera. The podcast features the first act of La sonnambula as performed at the Teatro la Fenice on May 26, 1961. La sonnambula, act 1 Renata Scotto (Amina), Alfredo Kraus (Elivino), Ivo Vinco (Rodolfo), Rosa […]
happy 75th birthday, renata scotto
Excerpt from Madama Butterfly, 18 October 1974, San Francisco, CA. Cio-Cio-San: Renata Scotto; Suzuki: Judith Forst.
snow job?
As commenter paddypig points out, something fishy seems to be going on with the Puccini 150th Anniversary Gala presented by Dicapo Opera Theatre, scheduled for this Monday night. As of this evening, the company’s website still advertises “Daniela Dessi, Fabio Armiliato, Francisco Casanova, Aprile Millo, Francesca Patané and others” even though certainly Millo is not […]
once more she opens the door
Three-time World’s Best-selling Canadian Female Recording Artist of the Year Céline Dion apparently has not come to her senses in the eight months that have passed since her Las Vegas farewell. As La Cieca warned you last year, the québécoise canary is planning a crossover into the cinema, specifically a biopic in which she, Céline […]
we’ll always have paris
The legendary “Tokyo Traviata,” one of the most often pirated opera videos, has finally been released in an authorized version by VAI. Featuring the golden-age cast of Renata Scotto, Jose Carreras and Sesto Bruscantini, the DVD boasts beautifully restored video and broadcast-quality audio — by far the cleanest version of this telecast La Cieca has […]
mud will be flung…
… 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 […]
Charfreitagszauberin
For Good Friday, a decidedly non-traditional Parsifal Act Two. Renata Scotto sings her only performance ever of Kundry in this April 14, 1995 performance featured on Unnatural Acts of Opera.
Unnatural acts of poison
So here we are at the final act of Giordano’s Fedora, and all those nasty little secrets everyone’s been telling throughout the opera are about to be exposed! Marcella Pobbe stars as the mysterious Princess Fedora Romazoff in a performance from the Teatro La Fenice, February 9, 1968. And as a bonus, YouTube video of […]
A soupcon here, a soupcon there…
La Cieca hears that one of our most popular and beloved mezzo-sopranos is going to drop the “mezzo” part and push up into a higher Fach. Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if this American artist were to show such poor judgment? A quick look-in at Academy Records this evening revealed a tantalizing assortment of CDs […]
The Pleasant Peasant
Last week, as you’ll recall, our Unnatural Opera was Die Frau Ohne Schatten, one of the most grandiose and over-the-top works ever to grace the stage. La Cieca thought her public’s palate could stand a little cleansing, so this time around we will hear a more intimate work, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. This performance is from […]
Kiss Yesterday Goodbye
Have the years flown that fast? Well, you tell La Cieca. She just this past weekend realized that it’s been 25 years since Beverly Sills retired from singing. To put that in persepctive, the duration of her retirement (1980 – 2005) is now exactly equal to the duration of her New York City Opera career […]
Master class
In response to the recent lively(ish) discussion about the suitability of Maria Guleghina to the rigors of the role of Elena in I vespri siciliani, La Cieca has decided that she should demonstrate how this music should be sung. No, actually La Cieca is not going to sing it herself; rather, she will present Renata […]
Digital Dementia
La Cieca notices that those lovely people over at Berkshire Record Outlet are offering what might fairly be called a plethora of opera performances on DVD, for just $8.99 a pop. Particularly drool-inducing selections include La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein (Regine Crespin), Lakme (Joan Sutherland), Carmen (Denyce Graves, Roberto Alagna), Un ballo in maschera (Carlo Bergonzi, […]
Unnatural Acts with an Apple
The reviews for Apple’s iTunes 4.9 are mixed but the consensus is “thumbs up.” La Cieca downloaded and installed the new version last night; very smooth. The interface with podcasts is something less than lavish, the one part of the application that feels “freeware.” But La Cieca realizes there are a lot of people out […]
"Singing is difficult"
… so says soprano/mentor Renata Scotto, in a charming interview in the NY Times about her singing academy in Westchester. And, of course, there’s a lot more wisdom where that came from. Matthew Gurewitsch is the attentive interviewer. Now Playing at the D.M.V.: Renata Scotto.
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
