Sommo giubilo, Eccellenza!
Peter Gelb announces that the Met will return its 1980s glory days as a hideously overpriced theme park and David McVicar whinges about literally everything.
New York Times
“You just want to kiss yourself, you sound so great”
“Are you kidding? I’m having it put in my casket.”
Tales of the Bavarian baloney pony
In November, everyone wanted to hear more about Jonas Kaufmann‘s Johnson.
Peter Gelb admits defeat
” Mr. Gelb chuckled and said, ‘I’m not going to find out’.”
Una vittima della sventura
Remember the disastrous 2010 Traviata at the Met, “conducted” by Leonard Slatkin?
You’ve got to climb Mount Everest
In this Sunday’s New York Times, Our Own JJ (not pictured except in spirit) examines why Bellini’s Norma should be considered “the Everest of Opera.”
Ha vuote le occhiaie – ma pure (e chi il crede?!)
Today, the New York Times offers the strongest suggestion yet that Cecilia Bartoli will bring her Norma to New York sooner rather than later.
Mimecraft
Our Own JJ (not pictured) muses on the difficulty of staging Mozart’s greatest opera in his latest piece for the New York Times.
The new journalism
La Cieca wishes to extend her heartiest congratulations to that journalistic power couple the da Fonseca-Wollheim-Stephenses.
There is nothing you can take to relieve this pleasant ache
“There is a water sprite (called a merman by the Juilliard), a witch and other flora and fauna of Czech folklore.”
Fixture
“When you’re really quiet, you can hear the tinkling when they stop.”
People may say I can’t write, but no one can ever say I didn’t write
An aging eccentric—who has for decades occupied a dubious place on the fringes of New York’s musical life—today saw a lifelong dream fulfilled.
The present future
Well, when the New York Times goes into a tizzy, you know times are hard, cher public, but your doyenne is ready to ride to the rescue, hakeo don’t panic.
Not nobody, not nohow!
“Mr. Luisi won praise replacing Mr. Levine time after time, particularly in a costly version of Wagner’s Ring cycle—though, perhaps in a sign of the situation’s delicacy, the two conductors have never met in person.”
The double negative has led to proof positive
La Cieca thinks she knows who the murderer is.
The toothless tiger rules the restless jungle
It’s up to you, cher public, to try to decide for yourself what, if anything, this bizarre story in the New York Times means.
80, girls, 80
The Met’s pilot program of octogenarian outreach looks to be a smashing success.
You’re the pants on a Roxy usher
Count on the New York Times to include in a photo caption all the information you really wanted to know.
Beige like me
Leave it to the New York Times to present a hard-hitting, no-holds-barred debate on the explosive subject of race, with Anthony Tommasini and Ben Brantley boldly in agreement throughout.
The puff preliminary
Anna, Bart and Peter talk about the Met’s new season with the always engaging Michael Cooper of the New York Times.
“We’re looking at everything”
Naming rights, Sunday performances, an extension of the Met’s lobby forward into Lincoln Center Plaza . . . Peter Gelb puts all that and more on the table.
“Venez-vous me mettre en bustier, cher auteur de mes maux?”
“Few operas better represent a moment such as ours, when stability and long-held certainties are hard to come by, particularly in regard to sexuality.”
I’ll take the fall
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).