Another one bites the dust
Next music director at the Metropolitan Opera? Well, it’s sure not going to be Yannick Nézet-Séguin. [NYT]
Metropolitan Opera
The mothership and mecca of opera in America—and home base for Parterre Box.
Slatkin’s Folie de Regisseur
Leonard Slatkin explains to the Detroit Free Press that everything was going great guns with the Met Traviata rehearsals until he played stage director, telling Alfredo (James Valenti) to take visual focus in the final seconds of the opera.
2010 season officially begins
Carlos Álvarez has withdrawn from the Metropolitan Opera’s January 2011 performances of Rigoletto. Veteran Verdian Leo Nucci will take on the title role for these five performances, including the Saturday broadcast.
…the Boulder Dam look like an egg cup!
La Cieca has just heard from one of her habitually infallible moles that the refitting of the Met’s stages for the Robert Lepage Ring began today.
Fair and balanced
On the other hand, only moments ago La Cieca got a call from member of the cher public who gushed, “I just heard the greatest ‘Egli vede ch’io piango!’ ever!”
Rear view
“The Met at this point is not a place where even a talented opera director can make good, strong work, let alone a place where a director inexperienced with the genre — as so many of Mr. Gelb’s favored artists are — can be guided toward an understanding of it.” Gadfly-at-large Zachary Woolfe takes “A […]
To maestro with love
Our own JJ reviews the Met’s Lulu. [NYP]
What does a Principal Guest Conductor do?
La Cieca’s question here is exactly what we should be expecting Fabio Luisi to do as a “Guest” at the Met over the next few years? Will he get his own projects, or is going be end up relegated to being Jimmy’s standby (Der Levinespringer)?
Run on the Banks
Per the Met’s press office: “In this evening’s performance of Rossini’s Armida, Barry Banks will sing the role of Gernando, replacing José Manuel Zapata, who is ill. Banks will also sing the role of Carlo, which he was already scheduled to perform.”
Microbrow
“I agree that Gelb has had problems actually identifying what’s going to make a successful production. But I submit that the real problem is exactly the same problem the Met had under Gelb’s predecessor, Joe Volpe: not that the company engages unusual directors, but that it doesn’t let them actually do what they’re good at. […]
The Answer to the Great Question
Robert Tuggle, Director of Archives for the Metropolitan Opera, has announced a migration of the company’s supremely useful online database to a new software system. He’s looking for ideas for “new features that might improve on a system that we are already pleased with.”
Forced perspective
As we approach the end of the first all-Peter Gelb season at the Met, there’s already a certain amount of editorial judgment on the General Manager’s “aesthetic agenda.” That’s only fair, of course: judgement is what critics do.
Three for the show
Luc Bondy’s Tosca returned to the Met on Wednesday night with an entirely new set of principals and conductor. The new trio of principal singers, all making local role debuts, could not redirect and redesign the production but they could allow their individual talents to outshine their surroundings.
The lady of the camellias vanishes
La Cieca just heard that Angela Gheorghiu has canceled tonight’s performance of Traviata at the Met. Hei-Kyung Hong goes on.
German, te togli al campy…
1817 was a fertile and diverse time for 26 year old Gioachino Rossini. It opened with his last true opera buffa, La Cenerentola, continued with his most important semiseria, La gazza ladra, and ended with two operas, which, although both nominally belonging to the seria genre, could not be more different from each other.
D’amore al dolce chat
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).
Tweeter than roses
Armida in just three hours, and, ironically (given the dramatic weight of this bel canto role) a certain soprano just can’t stop twittering!
Tales of the Bizarro Met
Far over on the Upper West Side of Manhattan exists an amazing marvel of the cosmos… the Metropolitan Opera. It is where the opera Tosca is being “prepared” for performance only few days from now.
That Touch of Munk
Getting the “screaming heads” treatment on CNBC is not good news for Peter Gelb.
Once on that island
Our Own Gualtier Maldè (right) escaped today’s Armida dress rehearsal at the Met with his wits intact. He reports:
Questo popoloso deserto che appellano Gerusalemme
See those little blue circles? Do you know what they represent? The answer is after the jump.
We are listening
UPDATE: The Traviata chat is beginning in preparation for the 8:00 start time of tonight’s performance.
Off the beat
La Cieca has just heard that Leonard Slatkin has been removed from further performances of Traviata at the Met.
Alla cantata ancor manca la diva
Patricia Racette will sing the title role in Puccini’s Tosca on April 14, 17, 20, and 24 matinee, replacing Karita Mattila, “who is ill” — this just in from the Met’s press office.
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).
