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La Cieca hears that John Relyea has been named the recipient of the fourth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera. The bass was presented with the accolade in his dressing room last night before his performance of Rossini’s La Cenerentola.
Gutsy Gary Lehman just jumped into the Met’s Walküre in mid-performance, subbing for an ailing Plácido Domingo. La Cieca’s spy on the scene reports that Domingo sang the line “Tief in des Busens Berge glimmt nur noch lichtlose Glut” and exited stage left. Adrianne Pieczonka then entered from right with her line “Schläfst du, Gast?” […]
Scott Cantrell has a brand new metaphor, and he’s not going to let it slip through his fingers. “Daniel Okulitch is hardly the libretto’s ‘scrawny little S.O.B.’ But, with a warmly oiled bass-baritone, he captures Joseph’s tenderness toward his mother as surely as his hostility and fear.” “Nathan Gunn is the cast’s standout, an Alec […]
“Instead of pondering moral issues, the audience marvels that styrofoam can be made to look so much like granite.” Our Own JJ reviews the Met’s Ring in the New York Post. For the convenience of the cher public, La Cieca will point out that the Post has a section for comments following the review.
Following is the schedule for the Sunday afternoon/evening listening/viewing marathon. Chat away in the comments section, cher public!
Cue up your MetPlayer for a 3:00 pm start for La sonnambula (Broadcast March 30, 1963). You are invited to discuss this performance in the comments section below.
Something to enjoy during the between Cav/Pag and the 3:00 pm kickoff time for Sonnambulathis afternoon. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ro6kC07cDn0″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Resilient soprano Christine Brewer has made a quick recovery from her knee injury, La Cieca hears. The soprano, missed so sorely this season in the Met’s Ring, will return to the stage tomorrow night for a performance of the Verdi Requiem with the Santa Fe Symphony. Ms. Brewer is jumping in (if that is the […]
The Met’s season premiere of La Cenerentola. Discuss. Listen at 8:00 pm on Sirius or RealNetworks.
Cher public, here’s the schedule for group listening/viewing of the MetPlayer on Saturday and Sunday:
Now, cher public, you have the chance to vote which of your nominated performances will be included in the upcoming MetPlayer weekend listening (and viewing party). You may cast your ballot right after the jump.
Rolando Villazón “should be well enough to return to the stage by the end of the year” after having surgery “to remove a cyst on his larynx” according to his concert management. Among the engagements Villazón is expected to cancel are Werther in Vienna and Munich, Nemorino in Los Angeles and Paris, and a new […]
As if we ever “came to order” around here! But anyway, La Cieca is throwing the floor open for a Listening and Viewing Orgy next weekend, when the MetPlayer will offer a three-day free preview. MetPlayer offers streaming of over 200 Met broadcasts and telecasts from 1937 to the present, including 20 in HD. The […]
And now, the last installment of the Met’s broadcast Ring: Götterdämmerung. Listen at noon EDT on Sirius, RealNetworks or your favorite internet radio station. Online: the libretto and the vocal score. Discuss. And don’t forget to check out La Cieca’s Amazon Deal of the Day: Hans Knappertsbusch conducts Der Ring Des Nibelungen (Bayreuth 1956), prices […]
Life sometimes does imitate art, or anyway bad art. La Cieca notes in today’s New York Post a story about a wedding interrupted when the bridegroom’s boss suddenly shouted that she had slept with the groom. As any hack librettist will tell you, this is a great excuse for the big third-act concertato.
The New York Times, the Metropolitan Opera, and Comedy Central! Genius!
La Cieca hears vague rumors from here and there that there something major is going to happen with New York CIty Opera this week, possibly as early as today. According to an insider over the weekend “wagons [were] circling,” perhaps in reaction to the admission that the company has spent down over 2/3 of its endowment in […]
La Cieca just returned from the HD of The Audition, a documentary about the 2007 Met National Council Auditions. The film puts her in an optimistic mood about the future of opera performance, or at any rate opera performers. Focus is on three young tenors who (spoiler) all end up winning the competition.
The Met broadcasts Wagner’s Siegfried this afternoon. Discuss. Listen at noon EDT on Sirius or RealNetworks or your favorite internet radio station. Online: the libretto and the vocal score. And check out La Cieca’s Amazon Deal of the Day: the complete 1953 Bayreuth Ring conducted by Clemens Krauss, priced as low as $39.87!
To the Met this evening, where Željko LuÄić jumps in as Rigoletto opposite Diana Damrau and Joseph Calleja.
Nicole Cabell sings Adina at the Met tonight, replacing Angela Gheorghiu. (Those of you keeping score at home will note that of the quartet of singers originally announced for this performance, only Franco Vassallo remains.)
Dolora Zajick will sing the role of Azucena in the Met’s Il Trovatore on April 21, 25, 29, and May 2, replacing Luciana D’Intino who is ill. Mzia Nioradze will sign the final performance on May 8.
Why did Mary Dunleavy spend most of her day Saturday at the Met rehearsing and having a costume fitting for L’elsir d’amore? Is Angela Gheorghiu sick? Is Nicole Cabell sick? Is AG about to walk out of a performance or two because of the recent tenor switcheroo? Is NC fired?
New Kid on the Plaza Drammy writes: April 9, 2009. A traditional Otto Schenk production featuring Diana Damrau as Gilda and who cares but.. Frizza conducting, Viktoria Vizin as Maddalena, Calleja as the Duke, Frontali as Rigoletto, Aceto as Sparafucile. Stellar performances from the entire cast, excepting poor Mr Frontali. The set was phenomenal – […]
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).
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!
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