With the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2008-2009 season barely a month away, La Cieca is already half-drunk with the sheer glamour of it all. Not only will this first night boast a bouquet of bonbons from Renée Fleming‘s greatest rôles (and, frankly, aren’t they all?), but the musical experience will be enhanced by…
My dears, you only thought the whingeing about the Met ticket exchange line was over. Now that the shell-shocked and frostbitten survivors of the Gelb Gulag have dragged themselves back to their rent-controlled flats on upper Columbus Avenue, the next stage of the protest against the Met’s barbaric practices can begin. As in every violent…
Now, never let it be said that La Cieca was in any way opposed to glamour, and you know very well that is a fervent believer in dear Pablo Picasso‘s maxim that “art is a lie that makes us realize truth.” But, on the other hand, there’s this month’s cover of Opera News.
La Cieca has just learned that veteran soprano and beloved camp diva Katia Ricciarelli is treading the boards again, this time not in opera houses but rather on whatever it is they call the Italian version of the Straw Hat Circuit. The bionda bombshell is currently touring in a play with music by by Peter…
La Cieca has just learned that Salvatore Licitra has withdrawn “for personal reasons” from the Met’s new Trovatore, which opens February 16, 2009. Marcelo Ãlvarez will be Manrico instead, which means he (Ãlvarez) will cancel Adriana Lecouvreur, which opens on February 6. The replacement Maurizio will be announced at a later date once the hysterical…
Some of the starry roster for the Rudolf Bing Farewell Gala accept the plaudits cher public. Ah, 1972, when opera and hair were at their respective peaks of style! Introducing the cavalcade of curtain calls is La Cieca’s role model Risë Stevens. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/2m6M9rPgAbs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
La Cieca is warning you she’s going to get meta for a while here, so if it’s opera (or even hunks) you’re interested in, you might want to skim or just skip this posting altogether. Anyway, your doyenne has noticed lately on another blog or two where she is a commenter a phenomenon she is…
It seems the revolution has already begun at the Metropolitan Opera. This bit of disgruntled graffiti left over from Monday’s subscription exchange massacre reads, “Oh, really?? Thanks for nothing!! An Angry Subscriber!!”
The current issue of The Advocate includes an interview with adorable 27-year-old bedhead Nico Muhly about his next composition project, an opera “based on a true Internet romance/friendship between two teenage boys that ended in one of the two stabbing the other to death.” Muhly’s “teen gay Internet sex drama,” to a libretto by Craig Lucas,…
According to Variety, America’s Soprano Renée Fleming is poised to conquer new worlds of entertainment. Not content to rest on her laurels as diva, scent entrepreneur, dessert namesake and single working mother, Fleming has signed with talent agency Paradigm who promise to “scout out opportunities in thesping, endorsement, publishing and digital media” for the artist “with the…
Today’s NYT includes an overview of the kvetchfest that was yesterday’s first day of subscription ticket exchanges at the Met. La Cieca thinks it’s just so quaint that every public event in New York eventually degenerates into threats of coup d’état (“I was thinking of figuring out a way to organize this group to take…
La Cieca has just learned that Anna Netrebko, who is currently awaiting the September arrival of her first child, has withdrawn from her scheduled Met performances as Mimì on December 29, 2008 and January 3 matinee, 6, and 10, 2009. According to a press release from the met, the soprano “has decided that she will need a…
“The truth is, most operas are dirtier than Amy Winehouse’s beehive, riper than a full-on effing rant by Gordon Ramsay and more violent than a Tarantino bloodfest.” La Cieca gives Brit tabloid The Sun top marks for self-mockery in their promotion for Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera. The paper has reserved the entire September 8 performance of…
You know, it’s funny. Just this morning La Cieca was thinking, “Is it just me, or can I actually feel the days growing shorter now that midsummer is past?” At first your doyenne attributed the feeling to encroaching middle age; after all, middle age is her scapegoat for everything wrong these days. But in fact,…
The ideal match of subject matter to critic: the role debut of Teddy Tahu Rhodes in Billy Budd, as reviewed by Anthony Tommasini. (“On being pressed into service, Billy is made a foretop man, and repeatedly throughout the performance Mr. Rhodes climbs up and down rigging with abandon, sometimes using only his arms.”)
La Cieca hears that the “all 20th century” concept of the first Gerard Mortier season at NYCO may be subject to modification. According to an impeccably reliable source, the first season will include a rarely-seen French Grand Opera and an evening centered around pieces of Verdi done with a double chorus – one all African-American,…
Well, cher public, La Cieca thinks it’s safe to say that April 19, 2007 will stand in history as Andrea Gruber‘s Metropolitan Opera farewell. The soprano’s dates for Cavalleria Rusticana, her only appearances scheduled for the 2008-2009 season, have now been reassigned to Waltraud Meier and Ildikó Komlósi.
At long last, scent-lovers who want a perfume container that looks like the powder room chez Alberto Vilar will get their wish. The packaging for “La Voce Renée Fleming” has been unveiled!
As if the aural presence of The Beautiful Voice were not enough to justify five-figure ticket prices, the Metropolitan Opera’s opening night on Monday, September 22 will feature four couture creations to bedeck Renée Fleming in her gala program. Fashion legends John Galliano, Christian Lacroix, and Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel will design costumes for the star soprano’s…
While your doyenne is busy this weekend with “Viva la Diva!” you, cher public, may want to spend a few suspenseful moments perusing the latest iteration of Brad Wilber‘s MetFutures, hosted for the summer at Sieglinde’s Diaries.
What looks to be the Next Big Thing coming from the Met: offering their audio and video content for download a la iTunes. La Cieca is not clear on the details of this new program, but a job listing has just gone up on metopera.org for a Digital Producer who will be responsible for the web…
Happy birthday to indefatigable maestro James Levine, who is 65 today!
Those muckraking scamps over at Opera News are at it again, quoting a in their June issue a particularly inflammatory passage from the mad gay diaries of mad gay Cecil Beaton. Dear Cecil, you will recall, designed the Met’s celebrated 1961 production of Turandot that starred Birgit Nilsson. It seems that mere critical and popular…
Cher public, La Cieca can hardly believe that the musical event of the season has slipped her mind until just this very minute. She is talking, of course, about the concert tonight in Prospect Park by (in alphabetical order) Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu. The Thirteen/WNET website helpfully notes that “Gheorghiu and Alagna aren’t strangers…
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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