Timor di me? Security!
“Anna Netrebko (Leonora) is seen during the Il Trovatore photo rehearsal on August 4, 2014 in Salzburg, Austria.”
Regie
Gee, our old Chagalls hang great
It’s time to bring out the canard again, this time a whole row of them in fact.
Dead European white males once again in jeopardy
Our old friend Heather Mac Donald (not pictured) is back, ostensibly to mourn the loss of ‘Petrarchan intimacy with the past’ in the study of the humanities, but, reliably enough, she can’t help taking a swipe at Regietheater while she’s at it.
Come to the unstable
How, then, to explain the perplexing performance last Friday night of Falstaff, Mr. Levine’s first new production since his return?
Blonde, bombshell
So we may all be on the same page as we discuss, following the jump is the video of the December 7 Traviata from La Scala.
The mystery of Stefan’s “Vêpres”
The much-anticipated Stefan Herheim production of Les Vêpres Siciliennes opened last night at the Royal Opera, and the New York Times‘ Zachary Woolfe was something less than completely bowled over.
Bo, concept
The surprises, and puzzles, of Dmitri Tcherniakov‘s production of Don Giovanni in this DVD of a performance at the Aix-en-Provence festival begin before a note has been played or the curtain has risen.
Von Kopf bis Fuss
La Cieca is happy to present the following readymade blind item.
Pushkin comes to shove
Onegin, which opens the Met’s season on Monday, has taken an unusually precipitous tumble…
No one who speaks German could be an evil man
If Frank Castorf‘s work on Der Ring des Nibelungen at Bayreuth accomplishes nothing else, it should serve as a sort of loud disorganized reminder of the dangers of indulging in the intentional fallacy.
What a day for an auto-da-fé
Teresa Berganza is the latest superannuated superstar to jump on the “I hate regie” bandwagon.
Ring? What ring?
All right, I admit it; I finally broke down and read the program notes for the Ring in the Bayreuth program book.
High concept
Well, my dears, if you thought Frank Castorf‘s Ring or Stefan Herheim‘s Meistersinger were outré, then wait until you get a load of the radical take on Don Carlos by Peter Stein for the Salzburg Festival!
Get your kicks on Route Sechsundsechzig
Revealed: first images of Frank Castorf‘s production of the Ring, launching Friday at Bayreuth.
Nacht und Träume
We waited eagerly to hear the Munich-born Jonas Kaufmann make his role debut as Manrico at the Bavarian State Opera as well the German-Greek soprano Anja Harteros take on Leonora’s bravura difficult arias.
She sang a mouthful
Soprano Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs sings the final scene from Salome in the Stefan Herheim production for Den Norske Opera.
Clichés Grip City
La Cieca supposes she shouldn’t complain: the more time Lorin Maazel spends on Facebook, the less time he spends conducting Don Carlo.
O Engländer! Seid ihr nicht Toren…
As she herself points out, Zerbinetta is perhaps the first woman besides “the inimitable Heather MacDonald” to write a serious critique of Calixto Bieito‘s production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
Spanish panic
Here’s a glimpse of the Regie route Anna Netrebko and Placido Domingo will go in November when they make their role debuts in Il trovatore at the Berlin Staatsoper.
The Grand “Gatsby”
La Cieca doesn’t branch out into The Film very often (even though she is quite the ardent cinephile) but the recent release—or, at any rate, the reaction to the recent release—of Baz Luhrmann‘s film of The Great Gatsby served to crystallize a few ideas bubbling about in your doyenne’s brain.
Ancient German virtue of bravery gone missing
In a press release, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein at Düsseldorf has announced the cancellation of its controversial new production of Tannhäuser.
Cover to cover
La Cieca (pictured) is thrilled to announce the debut of a new online book club hosted by Norman Lebrecht of “Slipped Disc” fame.
Spin cycle
Your Wagnerian alternatives for today’s chat in La Casa della Cieca…
A Waltz Dream
Two time Oscar winner and Quentin Tarantino muse Christoph Waltz is branching out into opera direction.
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
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).
