The mothership and mecca of opera in America—and home base for Parterre Box.
This afternoon, after breaking the tragic news that Baltimore Opera seems to be on its last legs, Opera Chic added the startling tidbit that even the mighty Met is planning major cutbacks for next year. The blog says (with no source offered) that the company “is about to excise four [productions?] from their 2009-10 season.” […]
A jump-in a due in tonight’s Met Butterfly, as Maria Gavrilova and Marcello Giordani substitute for Patricia Racette and Roberto Aronica . Earlier today at the production presentation and first rehearsal for Thaïs, Olga Makarina played the titular hooker — while Renée Fleming played hooky.
Cher public, who else but La Cieca brings you such in-depth arts coverage that you get not one but two reports from spies at the dress rehearsal of the Met’s new La Damnation de Faust ? After the jump, eyewitness accounts of the Lepagerie from Our Own Gualtier Maldè and Sanford.Â
A new spy debuts in La Cieca’s service, reporting from the first night of WNO’s Lucrezia Borgia: Overall, I thought the opera was worth the price of attendance. The costumes of the main characters looked like something from Star Trek. Renée Fleming‘s hair looked like Tina Turner circa 1984. Fleming was impressive, especially in many […]
Washington National Opera has posted a preview clip of their Lucrezia Borgia (opening on Saturday), and La Cieca predicts they have a hit on their hands. Renée Fleming, though she looks far too young to have a grown son, seems to be singing in a more straighforward and honest way. Hunkentenor Vittorio Grigolo charms even […]
Un petit oiseau (dans la charmille) has just whispered to La Cieca that mythic diva Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh will emerge briefly from semi-retirement on Halloween night as a surprise guest during the Sirius broadcast of La traviata from the Met. To avoid any confusion, La Cieca should note that “La Dementia” will not be singing […]
A bit of Salome from the Royal Opera, with a somewhat less skittish sense of cinematography than what we got from the Met’s HD! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/nBAbXZptfIk” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Finally a chance to see Naked Busker Guy Duncan Meadows in action! (And, forgive La Cieca for saying so, but if your leading lady sounds […]
The Metropolitan Opera led all U.S. arts organizations in fundraising from private sources with $128.1 million in 2007, according to a survey of 400 nonprofits by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. [via Bloomberg]
Our Own JJ (right) reviews the Met’s revivals of Don Giovanni and Salome in Gay City News.
Got to give credit to Bryn Terfel: he’s now canceling a whole season in advance. The bass-baritone scrapped his spring 2009 appearance in the Met’s L’elisir d’amore several months ago, and now he’s pulled out of the company’s 2009 opening night, a new production of Tosca that now stars Karita Mattila and Marcelo Alvarez. The […]
La Cieca hears from a spy at the Met that tenor Roberto Aronica “after belching through the first part of the Butterfly orchestra rehearsal,” retreated to the company canteen where, the tenor complains, he received “an electrical shock from the espresso machine.” We are told that the singer is spending the night in a local […]
La Cieca thinks that President Bush or anyway Senator McCain should hire Peter Gelb as, at the very least, director of communications. A brutally honest yet constructive reaction to the current economic debacle can be found in an internal email from the Met’s chief to his staff. FInnish minge glimpses are not the only area in […]
Although the staging of the Met’s Saturday afternoon’s production of Salome will remain unchanged (i.e., Karita Mattila intends to jam out with her clam out) the HD cameras will demurely divert their lenses at the climactic moment of the Dance of the Seven Veils. According to Culture Monster, instead of the Full Mattila, the video […]
A reporter/graduate student who recently interviewed La Cieca is asking if any of you cher public would be willing to answer a few questions for an article he’s writing on the impact of the Met’s HD broadcasts on “opera queens outside of larger cities.” So, any of you rural or otherwise bucolic parterre.com readers who […]
Sharing the stage another diva in one’s identical fach always puts a girl on her mettle, La Cieca has always said, and no better proof of that just-invented shibboleth is there than this week’s edition of Unnatural Acts of Opera. Grace Bumbry and Shirley Verrett grace the stage of Carnegie Hall on January 31, 1982, […]
La Cieca has just learned that half a million dollars’ worth of the Met’s prime orchestra tickets (usually $175 – $220) for Doctor Atomic will be made available to the public at $30.
During an intermission at the Metropolitan Opera’s opening night gala (was that only last week?), Susan Graham interviews Ramón Vargas and Renée Fleming. Miss Fleming’s wig, we are told, is made of yak hair, but what’s Susie’s excuse?
The bitchiness of queens of long ago still echoes through Founders Hall at the Met. Among the expertly restored artist photographs, programs and media clippings featured in the exhibit “Nights at the Opera: 125 Years,” the clear standout for outrageousness is an original poster for the Old Met’s closing night gala, defaced (or, perhaps we […]
Fracked-up femmes Patricia Racette, Susan Graham and Deborah Voigt strike a manly pose backstage at the Met before their appearance in the Placido Domingo anniversary shindig on Sunday. (Photo: Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera)
Sopranos Deborah Voigt and Patricia Racette and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham made their drag king debut on Sunday night, and for once the gender confusion has nothing to do with Rufus Wainwright. The trio of songstresses donned tuxes for a spoof of the Three Tenors at a gala honoring Placido Domingo‘s 40th anniversary at the Met. […]
What the Met’s opening night was like for those who (unlike your plebian doyenne) enjoy celebrity status.
“Oh, Mary, was I wasted last night! After a few ‘Rene Flemings’ I was so polluted that I mistook Rufus Wainwright for a girl! Hey, wait a minute. There’s no alcohol in this drink…” [The Martha Blog]
In what La Cieca believes is the gayest photograph ever taken, Rufus Wainwright strikes a pose with Faye Dunaway on the red carpet at the Met’s opening night. More heart-warming news from Women’s Wear Daily: Oscar de la Renta will not, after all, boycott the Met as he previously threatened. The designer had complained to […]
I was there in the house and it was a good night. I still think that Mattila and the production were fresher in 2004 with a wider range of colors and dynamics. However, she didn’t sound frayed or at the end of her rope. Some of the louder high notes can get a blanched quality […]
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).
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