It takes an Ercole Farnese to recognize Verdi done the Regie way, and he was exactly right that the opera in last week’s quiz was Un ballo in maschera. He did miss the mark on the character depicted: the heavily made-up figure in the sunglasses and plumed hat was not Ulrica but Riccardo (Wookyung Kim).…

As several of you were sharp-eyed enough to notice (and sharp-tongued enough to mention), our previous Regie quiz was in fact a repeat, and La Cieca is sorry to say it looks like a production that hardly deserved a reprise: Rossini’s Semiramide directed by Nigel Lowery. A new and different challenge to your sleuthing skills…

Some good guesses, but, no, last week’s Regie quiz was neither Ariadne auf Naxos nor Auntie Mame, but rather that faded valentine that the occasional opera buff years to see revived: Thomas’ Mignon. (That blonde was, obviously Titania.) The staging was done for the Buxton Festival by Annilese Miskimmon. And and now for something completely…

It was E-news, as quick and accurate as the name would imply, who first zoomed in on last week’s Regie quiz. The piece depicted was indeed I due Figaro, one of those “other” Figaro operas, this one by Saverio Mercadante, as performed at the Salzburg Pfingstfestspiele in a production by Emilio Sagi.  

By popular demand, the return of the Regie quiz. La Cieca will not ask you to identify the above photo because the identity of the opera is so obvious. Instead, use your reasoning powers on the photos after ths jump. As always, cher public, if you actually recognize the production, stay quiet while others guess!

This week it was operalover9001 (so many of you!) who managed to narrow down the repertoire to a handful of titles, of which The Rape of Lucretia turned out to be accurate. After all, how many operas are there that feature Nathan Gunn taking a massage in leather pants? (I said how many are there,…

In a whole month of guessing at our most recent Regie quiz, only Melot’s Younger Brother and PirateJenny were able to narrow in on what is after all a very fringey part of the opera repertoire: Graun’s Montezuma, with a libretto by Frederick the Great. (The work was directed for the Edinburgh International Festival by…