Through her elaborate network of spies, moles and informants, La Cieca has managed to obtain a photo from Francesca Zambello‘s production of Tobias Picker‘s new American Tragedy, opening Friday night at the Met. For an advance sneak preview of the opera, click here.
STEMdiva status
Ahead of a special boozy, bawdy Valentine’s Day concert, artistic director of Opera Lafayette Patrick Quigley speaks with soprano Maya Kherani about her journey from MIT to rising American Baroque star.
La Cieca has just heard that the “flying bed”effect in the Met’s new production of Romeo et Juliette malfunctioned last night, sending Natalie Dessay tumbling six feet onto a hard platform and leaving Ramon Vargas dangling. The bed is suspended from “invisible” wires and appears to float in a starry sky, a tableau that opens…
La Cieca, ear to ground as always, has picked up some reliable-sounding scuttlebutt about the incoming Peter Gelb regime at the Met. The first decade will probably be known as “All Villazon All the Time” since (per our source), Rolando Villazon has inked a pledge to sing two operas a year at the Met for…
Natalie Dessay is out of tonight’s prima of Romeo et Juliette at the Met; Maureen O’Flynn sings (and, incidentally, will go into the annals as the “creator” of the role in this particular production). Dessay is still on the roster for Thursday’s performance.
Rolando Villazon says he’s willing to do nudity, but only if it’s called for in the story of the opera. Might La Cieca hope that such a plot-driven rationale be found to get budding hunkentenor Stephen Costello to strip off during OONY’s Guglielmo Tell this Sunday? Well, perhaps not. But (so La Cieca heard at…
La Cieca is feeling more and more doyenne-y by the day as she sees so many young bloggers sprouting up like so many tender little, uh, sprouts. Off to a rousing start is wellsung.blogspot.com, written by two little gay boys (or gay-vague boys) named Jonathan and Alex. La Cieca assumes they’re gay because they write…
A reliable source informs La Cieca that Jossie Perez will now sing no performances of the Met’s Romeo et Juliette. At the moment, she’s still listed on the Met’s web site for seven of the season’s scheduled 11 performances, but that may be just until her sub has signed on the dotted line. As reported…
Last week, as you’ll recall, our Unnatural Opera was Die Frau Ohne Schatten, one of the most grandiose and over-the-top works ever to grace the stage. La Cieca thought her public’s palate could stand a little cleansing, so this time around we will hear a more intimate work, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. This performance is from…
La Cieca has just heard that Jossie Perez has been canned from the prima of the Met’s new production of Romeo et Juliette. A source at the company says that the mezzo was protested by maestro Bertrand de Billy. The plum of singing the trouser role of Stephano on the opening night goes to Joyce…
“Newcomers to opera sometimes don’t get the appeal of a dramatic form with so few surprises. Audiences know how Tosca ends before the performance even begins. Earlier this month, though, two operas provided some measure of suspense.” JJ’s latest reviews in Gay City News.
UPDATE: Not only are Gli Alagni scheduled for Aida at La Scala in 2006 (as noted yesterday), La Cieca has just heard that Peter Gelb has promised them a new production of Carmen at the Met in 2009-10. And, yes, Gheorghiu is the Carmen, not the Micaela. This is all at least four years in…
The next time you roll your eyes at an operatic plot complication involving mistaken identity, just consider this: Mirella Freni‘s cancellation of her gala peformance of Fedora at the Washington National Opera last month was apparently due to a bungled phone message. According to a WNO insider, La Freni telephoned the company’s main office to…
“It’s always a treat to start the season with a pleasant surprise, and an exciting new dramatic soprano is one of the nicest discoveries of all—particularly when she heads up one of the strongest ensemble casts the Metropolitan Opera has fielded in years.” That’s our editor James beginning his 2005-06 season as a reviewer in…
Ever feel a pang of nostalgia for the good old days when people dressed for the opera? For a quick cure, here’s a link you should keep bookmarked. It’s the “Look Book” section of New York magazine, featuring photos of some of the attendees of the opening night at the Met. By the looks of…
Cher public, those of you who have written to La Cieca wondering at the frequency Anthony Tommasini uses the word “strapping” to describe opera singers of the male persuasion — well, wonder no more. According to the New York Times archives, Tony has flogged his favorite modifer no fewer than 44 times in the past…
After what an insider described as a “messy” dress rehearsal that included several cracked high notes (due to allergies? or nerves?), Olga Borodina may or may not be singing the prima of Cenerentola at the Met tomorrow night. On dit that Joyce di Donato has been rushed through the staging in preparation for a last-minute…
Sister Sieglinde summarizes the roiling controversy so far in her Diary, and the most recent whisper La Cieca has heard is, “if that rock promoter wanted Avril Lavigne, he should have hired Avril Lavigne; Aprile is an opera singer.” Among the rumors La Cieca doesn’t believe: Millo is afraid to sing high notes. [Duh, she…
Starting tonight on “Unnatural Acts of Opera,” something of a departure, in more ways that one. To begin with, it’s La Cieca’s first snippet show, featuring individual scenes and arias instead of the more familiar whole acts. The other strange part about this show is that it features the type of singer La Cieca doesn’t…
“Tell me, Roberto, does this costume make my manly butt look big?” Speaking of which, has Anthony Tommasini started writing under an assumed name?
Just when La Cieca thought there could be no more opera this late in the summer, suddenly she finds out that something called REPO! The Genetic Opera opens tonight for a limited run at the Wings Theater on Christopher Street. The piece is described so: “a futuristic rock musical, Repo! takes place during an epidemic…
The notorious 1969 Met broadcast of Lucia di Lammermoor, featuring Anna Moffo in, uh, unusual voice, will be webcast by Concertzender this afternoon beginning at 1 PM EDT. Sorry for the late notice, but this is worth at least a partial listen. For those of you who keep up with these things, Nicolai Gedda and…
Vivaldi’s Motezuma, the opera that refuses to die, will grace the boards after all, says an article by Paul Moor at Musicalamerica.com. A court in Duesseldorf has held that the Altstadtherbst Festival in that city may stage the piece, regardless of a previous injunction against performances filed by the “copyright owner,” the Berliner Sing-Akademie. (The…
“While humor and story telling can warm any occasion, a good scoop spreads through a room like an illicit and irresistible drug, passed along in nods and crooked smiles, in discreet walks out to the balcony, the corridor, the powder room.” La Cieca is delighted to learn that gossip is the new meth, at least…
It occurred to La Cieca that she might be well advised to listen (with her mind and with her ears?) listen to the music files she’s posting into her podcast “Unnatural Acts of Opera.” Not that there are technical problems with the source materials, oh, no, never that, but rather she thought she could start…
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
A Baroque Valentine’s with Opera Lafayette | Feb | DC & NYC
Celebrate love in all its guises with tender ballads, amorous duets, cheeky verses, and bawdy drinking songs plus food, cocktails and wine.