Rainbow high
Our Own JJ emerges from estivation to look forward, Erda-like, toward “the” event of the fall season, plus six more must-sees.
Metropolitan Opera
The mothership and mecca of opera in America—and home base for Parterre Box.
October song
Readers of parterre.com are, La Cieca calculates, about six weeks ahead of the curve, so your doyenne figures you are ready to hear what will likely be a major scoop in the New York Times a few days prior to Halloween. It’s about the technical rehearsals for the Met’s season opener Das Rheingold, and what is […]
Person to person
Finally, the background to the story that rocked the operatic world earlier this summer. Peter Stein withdrew from the Met’s Boris Godunov “because he felt offended by his treatment at the United States Consulate in Berlin when he applied for a work visa and by a lack of sympathy from Peter Gelb, the Met’s general […]
Back in business?
La Cieca’s spy tells her that Maestro Levine returned to the Met today for a coaching session with the cast of Das Rheingold.
Turn Lepage
La Cieca has managed to obtain a few minutes of video, pirated at great personal risk, from a dress rehearsal of the Met’s new production of Das Rheingold.
Early to bed
La Cieca is told that at least three productions at the Met this year will be shorn of an accustomed intermission: Simon Boccanegra, The Queen of Spades and La traviata will all be done in “two-act” versions, each with but a single interval.
Old school
Of course opera fans all owe Agnes Varis a lot, what with the Met rush tickets and all that, plus La Cieca, being a lady of a certain age herself, should be the last one to talk. But she can’t help hearing this quote from Varis in the foghorn rasp of Miss Blankenship: “The opera’s […]
Funny valentine
This just in from the Met press office: “Andrea Bocelli will make his solo recital debut at the Metropolitan Opera House on Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. The performance will feature the celebrated Italian tenor singing a program of arias by Handel, and lieder and art songs by Beethoven, Wagner, Liszt, Richard Strauss, […]
Noch einmal!
Richard Strauss’s brilliantly disturbing Elektra was first performed at the Dresden State Opera in 1909, and arrived in America in 1910 at the Manhattan Opera House. A second American premiere, this time in the original German, was in Philadelphia in 1931 with – and this will kill you – Nelson Eddy as Orestes. Along with […]
Two by two
As part of the massive CD/DVD release celebrating the 40th Anniversary of James Levine at the Met, “In Concert at the Met, 1982-83” offers generous excerpts from three memorable Gala Concerts: from February 1982, Troyanos-Domingo-Levine; from March 1982, Price-Horne-Levine; and from January 1983, Domingo-Milnes-Levine. I had the pleasure of being in the house for each […]
Che sera, Sarah
La Cieca has just heard (from no less a source than Sarah Billinghurst herself!) a tidbit that will no doubt interest Daniel Stephen Johnson among many others. It seems that the Met will produce Prince Igor in 2013 with Valery Gergiev (naturally) conducting and Dmitri Tcherniakov directing. The Prince himself will be Ildar Abdrazakov.
Put a Ring on it
With over 2,600 votes cast over the course of last week, you, the cher public have spoken about which operas in the Met’s repertoire will be de rigueur, can’t miss, where-the-elite-meet Sternstunden, and which productions promise no more than a great big snooze. The top ten Met offerings will be Die Walküre, Das Rheingold, Le […]
Jimmiography
In celebration of James Levine‘s 40th anniversary at the Met, the company is releasing two massive collections of previously (mostly) unavailable material conducted by the maestro. Highlights include video performances of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride (Teresa Stratas, Nicolai Gedda, Jon Vickers, Martti Talvela), and Der Rosenkavalier (Kiri Te Kanawa, Tatiana Troyanos, Judith Blegen, Luciano Pavarotti, […]
Future schlock
“Let’s say that the Metropolitan Opera wants to broadcast all of its operas in 3-D. They might not want to do that over the public Internet. Who knows what other technologies might bring us?” As seen here, a possible marketing campaign for Les Contes d’Hoffmann. [New York Observer]
Future conditional
Can you believe it’s less than two weeks before individual tickets go on sale for the Met’s 2010-2011 season? And you know that that means! It’s the time of year when La Cieca invites the cher public, for the sake of less well-informed opera fans (which, relative to you, of course, means just about everyone!) […]
Gingerbread housing shortage
La Cieca hears that the Met has just freed up about 60 storage containers in their production storage facility in New Jersey, disposing of 14 old productions including such venerable classics as the Robert O’Hearn Hansel and Gretel, the Beni Montresor Gioconda and the Franco Zeffirelli Falstaff.
Park and bark
“Though the new sound system couldn’t make Central Park’s SummerStage sound like a concert hall, the first of the Metropolitan Opera’s Summer Recital Series made sweet dinner music Monday for 3,800 listeners and their picnics.” [New York Post]
Why is a raven like a writing desk?
No, there never was an answer to that celebrated Lewis Carroll conundrum, but its inexplicability pales into insignificance next to the query sent in by loyal reader S.A.: why is Jack Black covering Bryn Terfel in the Met’s Ring?
Greater performances?
Our sometime correspondent Seth Colter Walls sees in new PBS leadership a chance for a wider reach for “the splashiest happenings in America’s resurgent classical-music culture.” [Newsweek]
Peter’s principles
Once again it takes an out-of-towner to write sensibly about Peter Gelb and the Met, though the “out of town” here refers only to geography: Anne Midgette is at heart and soul a New York newshen. [The Classical Beat]
Of maestro and men
A member of the cher public reminds La Cieca, “How soon do we start wondering who will conduct the new Rheingold at the Met? I thought I would see Jimmy at Tanglewood next week for the Mahler 2nd, but Mikey Twinkle-Toes will be in charge that evening.” La Cieca’s answer: it’s never too soon to […]
Second Rance
Lucio Gallo‘s name has quietly been substituted for that of Juha Uusitalo in the Met’s 2010-2011 performances of La fanciulla del West.
Money pit
The good news is that the Met reduced its operating deficit for 2008-2009 to $1.3 million, down from $12.2 million a year earlier. The bad news is the company’s assets fell by $72.6 million (down to $422.7 million) primarily because of investment losses. In other news, the Met paid James Levine a bit more than […]
Hands on
Departing Wiener Staatsoper General Director Ioan Holender has signed a two-year agreement to act as consultant to the Met. La Cieca speculates: is he replacing the less than effectual Eva Wagner-Pasquier? [Die Presse]
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).
