Those of you who have been following the AGMA/NYCO rowdydow may be interested to hear that the labor union is also in touch with its members in regard to attempts at cost-cutting at the Met. La Cieca has learned from an AGMA member that Peter Gelb has recently written a letter to Met artists asking…
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La Cieca has managed to get her hands on some top-secret rehearsal footage of Robert Lepage‘s Ring production. No wonder Peter Gelb wants to keep this under wraps!
Peter Gelb has just announced that, due to the indisposition of Natalie Dessay, the role of Amina in La sonnambula will be sung tonight by Rolando Villazon. (Thanks to Opera Chic!)
Tony Tommasini weighs in on the Met’s Sonnambula.
La Cieca hears that Sondra Radvanovsky is not, in fact, making her Met farewell this year, but will return to the company in future seasons. Your doyenne is not sure what lesson to take away from this experience: either that whining to the media prematurely makes you look like a fool later on, or else…
La Cieca’s take on the Met’s new productions for 09-10: unless the Mary Zimmerman Armida turns into something very elaborate indeed, it looks like a return to the dreaded “empty box” syndrome of the 1990s. All the new productions are stripped down unit sets, even the Hoffmann. Not that there is anything fundamentally wrong with…
In the spirit of the equal time for all impresarios, La Cieca will note that both of New York’s operatic honchos will be making public appearances this week. Tomorrow (February 10)the Met’s Peter Gelb will do his annual season announcment pitch to the media, an event La Cieca will liveblog (connectivity permitting) for your information…
A new feature just introduced on the Met’s website allows customers to view and select exact seats available for a given performance. It’s handy for those of us in the audience who prefer a certain row or area, but another less obvious benefit is that the online maps offer a snapshot of how ticket sales…
Is there a grassroots “Draft Placido Domingo” movement afoot, or is there genuine hostility to Peter Gelb somewhere in the Met administration? Page Six goes on the rant today, with quotes from a source who is already mourning the demise of that Franco Zeffirelli Tosca, nine months before it’s officially out of the repertoire.
Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb warns of a “disaster scenario” unless all staff and unions agree to pay cuts of 10% next season. [via NYT]
Wunderfrau Waltraud Meier sings Isolde at the Met tomorrow night, replacing the ailing Katarina Dalayman. Peter Seiffert will go on as Tristan.
“In response to the recession, the Metropolitan Opera’s Board of Directors has decided to subsidize some of the best seats for weekend evening performances for the duration of the opera season. Approximately 16,000 prime seats in the Orchestra and Grand Tier, ranging in price from $295 to $140, will be available for $25 through a…
Well, the first thing La Cieca will say about the Met’s 125th Anniversary Gala is that for all its sprawling splendor it doesn’t look quite what you’d call entertaining. Or rather let’s say it looks as if it won’t sound very entertaining. The visual element — you know, computer-animated Marc Chagall murals and Waltraud Meier…
As of this writing, Ben Heppner is still scheduled to go on tonight in the Met’s Queen of Spades, an event advertised on the company’s site with, under the circumstances, a rather unfortunate tag line:
A tipster writes: Word is: The artistic administraion of the Met, always concerned about maintaining the highest possible levels of intenational artistic experience for their paying audience, are allowing Marcello Giordani to decide, after his Berlioz matinee, whether or not he wants sing the 8pm Butterfly.
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.”…
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]
La Cieca has managed to obtain a few fragments of the camera rehearsal for Saturday afternoon’s Salome HD telecast. Note the cutting-edge video techniques employed to distract the (presumably) pre-adolescent audience from Karita’s Kooter of Kontroversy. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/UdWjLz5NY-E” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
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…
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.
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…
What the Met’s opening night was like for those who (unlike your plebian doyenne) enjoy celebrity status.
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