Simple, if not always grand.
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.
An old clip, from 2005 in fact, but oddly prescient, perhaps. Who knew that Les vêpres siciliennes could sound so much like Verismo? Not the Greatest of E’s (Don’t thank La Cieca; this stunner was sent in by Our Own Kernita Makilla.)
Following the jump, snippets of all the tracks on the new “Verismo” album, as performed by America’s Soprano.
Of course, there were also setbacks along the road to success. During a performance of “La Traviata” in Genoa conducted by Bonynge, the audience roundly booed tenor Lamberto Furlan to the point that the conductor and his wife, who had personally picked Furlan for the role, left the stage and refused to complete the performance.…
A preview of sorts of next season’s Met production of Armida. This is Herself, as heard last week in Prague.
La Cieca is simply beside herself to announce what she is confident will be both the biggest and most exciting parterre box competition of all time. This competition is called “Reading the Letter,” and it will test that most basic of opera queen skills, i.e., pretending to be a soprano. After the jump, La Cieca…
What a gorgeous performance of “Vissi d’arte!” And was La Cieca surprised when she learned the name of the artist!
Is it for the sake of gay pride in San Francisco, or it is the relief of getting that massive whonking tiara off her pretty noggin? Either way, Anna Netrebko is singing Traviata better now than she was in April. (Sound clip after the jump.)
“You will forgive me my poor dramatic skills. I have only been performing the role of Violetta for six years!”
Yuriy Mynenko represents Ukraine in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competion — though probably not with this particular selection!
La Cieca is always impressed when a veteran artist chooses, instead of resting on her considerable laurels, to expand upon her knowledge of the art of song. This is especially true when a true diva chooses to study at the knee of another diva, even though the latter diva is younger in years than the…
La Cieca just listened to this new recording of Alcina starring Joyce DiDonato and Maite Beaumont. She’s not going to speak up immediately about her reactions, but will open the floor to discussion. (If you can’t see the amazon mp3 player above, please click here.)
In honor of her one-third of a century, La Cieca has at long last returned to the Sunnyside Studios to record not one but two episodes of Unnatural Acts of Opera. Finally, cher public, you can hear the last two acts of a legendary performance of Jenufa from Opera Orchestra of New York, on March…
La Cieca was born exactly 33 years ago today.
Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of American dramatic soprano and pedagogue Margaret Harshaw. Margaret Harshaw as Brünnhilde Götterdämmerung – Immolation Scene. George Szell, conductor, Cleveland Orchestra. Recorded November 1, 1956 in Severance Hall, Cleveland.
For those of you who care to continue the fracas, here’s more of Anna Netrebko‘s recent Violetta. Madamigella Valery? Vladimir Stoyanov is the Germont and Marco Armiliato conducts.
From a performance on April 26, Anna Netrebko does a few “traditional” things with Violetta’s first act scena. (Piotr Beczala later gets in on the fun as well.) Ah quel amor…
An all-star “Walkürenritt” from 2003, featuring Alessandra Marc (Gerhilde), Eva Marton (Helmwige), Karan Armstrong (Waltraute), Agnes Baltsa (Schwertleite), Anna Tomowa-Sintow (Ortlinde), Gwyneth Jones (Siegrune/Rossweisse) and Jochen Kowalski (Grimgerde). Golden Girls
Though La Cieca will not go as far as Mary Garden (who once proclaimed, “Whenever Parsifal is performed, it is Good Friday!”) she does have a soft spot in her heart for Wagner’s final work and its message of compassion and reconciliation. And so, on this Good Friday evening, here is an aircheck of a…
At long last, a new episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera, featuring the classic Janacek team of Leonie Rysanek and Gabriela Benackova. Jenufa, Act 1
La Cieca presents the second act of La sonnambula on Unnatural Acts of Opera. La sonnambula, Act 2 After the act, a taste of Renata Scotto‘s Norma.
La Cieca continues her salute to the diamond birthday of Renata Scotto with a new episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera. The podcast features the first act of La sonnambula as performed at the Teatro la Fenice on May 26, 1961. La sonnambula, act 1 Renata Scotto (Amina), Alfredo Kraus (Elivino), Ivo Vinco (Rodolfo), Rosa…
A preview the new Decca recording of La sonnambula with Cecilia Bartoli and Juan Diego Flórez. Comments? Amazon.com Widgets
Excerpt from Madama Butterfly, 18 October 1974, San Francisco, CA. Cio-Cio-San: Renata Scotto; Suzuki: Judith Forst.
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.
