As Strephon so tactfully intimated, last week’s Regie quiz did indeed represent a “domestic and intimate” production of Verdi’s Luisa Miller, as staged by Stephen Medcalf for the Buxton Festival. (The performance of the name part by Susannah Glanville sent veteran operagoers’ tongues to wagging “Not since Fretwell!”)
I guess we all should have seen this one coming.
Okay, so here’s that Luc Bondy production of Tosca again, this time as seen at the Bayerische Staatsoper earlier this summer, with the “original cast” of Karita Mattila and the singer who did all the rehearsals in New York until the last week, Juha Uusitalo. They rehearsed again for the co-production in Munich for festival performances and […]
More of you than La Cieca can mention managed to unveil the solution to last week’s Regie quiz: it was indeed Don Giovanni, as presented at Oper Köln and helmed by Uwe Eric Laufenberg. (A video on the Oper Köln website offers further visuals.) And now… something a little less extravagant?
OpinionatedNeophyte was certainly heading in the right direction when he (she?) guessed our previous Regie quiz suggested Médée. That Greek sorceress was indeed in attendance, but maestro Cherubini had nothing to do with it, because the opera in question was Mayr’s Medea in Corinto. The director was Hans Neuenfels, at the Bayerische Staatsoper. And that […]
The inimitable Hans Lick has done it again, and before you exclaim “Done what again? Doesn’t he know the meaning of the word probation?” let La Cieca hasten to add that what he’s done is to guess last week’s Regie quiz, and right on the nose he was with Idomeneo. (This Katie Mitchell production for […]
Mlle. La Taupe continues to report from San Francisco’s Die Walküre: “I neglected to comment about the photos of the fallen heroes, posted upon the jungle gym-like structures on the Walkuerenstein. To be noted as they are photos of fallen soldiers in recent American wars. Pictures are shown by courtesy of and with permission from […]
That trio of delicious candy-covered ladies tempted you to all sorts of wrong guesses, cher public, but nobody could figure out their relationship to each other, which would surely have given the game away. They’re cousins, you see, and the work in which they appear is Offenbach’s La Périchole as presented at the Komische Oper […]
No luck with last week’s Regie quiz, cher public? In fact, nobody guessed the answer, perhaps because La Cieca didn’t include a photo of the title character of the opera. Check after the jump for said photo.
Who could be more qualified than Loge to declare, “It just seems to be screaming Walküre to me.” The production doing all that screaming was by Barrie Kosky for the Staatsoper Hannover. La Cieca trusts you too, cher public, will scream — this time with delight — when you divine which opera is represented after […]
It truly is a red-letter day when La Cieca manages to propose a Regie quiz that fails to elicit from you clever pusses even a single correct guess. Last week’s opera was something of a double whammy, as it consisted of a modern piece produced in a non-traditional manner. Enough suspense: the work was Henze’s […]
Finally, finally La Cieca devised a Regie quiz that really put the cher public on their mettle, and in fact, the only one of you even to narrow in on the right answer was 79CXR, whose wild guesses included a direct hit. The opera was Handel’s Hercules, as directed for the Luzerner Theater by Dominique […]
When invited to participate in a discourse on artistic standards (hello, internet!), it’s easy — pleasurable, even — for an aesthete to bray about “the fall.” Where are the true heldentenors? Your kingdom for a Callas! (Or a Stratas, or a Rysanek!) And might the public, at long last, deserve a stable of directors who […]
His Regie recognition is as fleet as his singing: it took iltenoredigrazia only six minutes to guess correctly that Elektra was the opera depicted in our most recent quiz. La Cieca invites him (and the rest of you, of course) to lock horns with a more knotty puzzler, after the jump.
Before the Los Angeles Ring cycle has even begun, two of the leading singers have thrown director Achim Freyer under the bus. Particular non-collegial is leather-larynxed heldentenor John Treleaven, who blames his crappy singing on the production, but the mot du jour is: “Domingo was out of town and unavailable to answer questions.” [Los Angeles […]
Well done, Jim: the opera in question was indeed Fidelio, and La Cieca has no idea what that horse is all about either. Better you should ask Benedikt von Peter, who directed it for the Komische Oper Berlin. And while you’re at it, maybe he’ll offer a guess or two what’s going on after the […]
Color La Cieca impressed! Friendly Fritz guessed correctly that the opera depicted in last week’s Regie quiz was Franz Schreker‘s Die Gezeichneten — as produced at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo by Graham Vick. Following the jump, a glimpse of what that production looked like in action.
Congratulate yourselves, cher public, as another parterre turn of phrase has entered the general lexicon.
In the well-reasoned words of Strephon, “Perruques and puffs. Rococo frou-frou seen through a 19th Century sensibility” must indicate Mignon. Director Jean-Louis Benoit staged the sentimental classic in sets by Laurent Peduzzi and costumes by Thibaut Welchlin at the Opéra Comique.
As we approach the end of the first all-Peter Gelb season at the Met, there’s already a certain amount of editorial judgment on the General Manager’s “aesthetic agenda.” That’s only fair, of course: judgement is what critics do.
Even with two weeks to guess, cher public, you were stumped by our most recent Regie quiz. (Hurrah for La Cieca!) However, you did manage to have some interesting conversations along the way, so it wasn’t a total wash.
“Lights are brighter; the elegantly gowned Tosca no longer plops down on a filthy church floor — and police chief Scarpia’s Act 2 hooker four-way stops short of oral action.” [NYP]
Luc Bondy’s Tosca returned to the Met on Wednesday night with an entirely new set of principals and conductor. The new trio of principal singers, all making local role debuts, could not redirect and redesign the production but they could allow their individual talents to outshine their surroundings.
With all due respect to our charming new commenter Nina Munk, the difference between the Met and the Bavarian State Opera is not something that can be measured in dollars or euros. It’s more about aesthetic sensibility.
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).
Exclusive opera reviews, commentary, and top reads
delivered to your email weekly…ish.
