Goddess in three persons
Patrick Mack looks back on “a great, nay, historic evening,” Renata Scotto‘s 1981 performance of Il trittico, now newly available on Met Opera on Demand.
renata scotto
Thoughts on Andrea Chénier: the others
There were, of course, other Chénier recordings beyond the truly great ones…
Come to the record store in old Peking
In the lead up to LA Opera’s mounting of Turandot on May 18th (hooray!) I thought I’d touch on some of my favorite recordings and new re-masters I’ve discovered. I have them all.
Renata Scotto 1934-2023
The Italian soprano, pedagogue and mentor has died. She was 89.
Act two
Chris’s Cache sends Renata Scotto a valentine ahead of her 89th birthday next week with rare in-house recordings of eight (!) mid-career performances spanning 1971-1977.
More than a diva
Happy 87th birthday soprano Renata Scotto.
Thank you for the music
Trove Thursday celebrates early St. Cecilia’s Day—November 22—with a 1976 performance of Licino Refice’s Cecilia starring Renata Scotto as the patron saint of music and musicians.
La Vestale
“Several prima donnas have sought to resurrect La Vestale, including Renata Scotto.”
Conception
Your doyenne’s origin myth must always be understood to begin with the bite of a radioactive soprano way back in 1976.
“Distinctly an individual”
On this day in 1965 soprano Renata Scotto made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Cio-Cio-San.
Tongue tied
“Trove Thursday”’s latest folie de grandeur is an overflowing three-part explosion of post-war divas in live performances of unexpected arias always in the “wrong language.”
Incalculable theatricality
Happy 84th birthday to the diva of divas, Renata Scotto!
Geh such dir die Stars vom vergangenen Jahr!
Tristan has been the season-launching opera three times before now, but good luck finding someone to provide a firsthand account of the last time.
Now I suddenly feel as if I’ve taken all my clothes off
Can it really be 40 (Four, oh!) years since La Cieca was born?
Stubble in paradise
Tenor Michael Fabiano reportedly tore the place down tonight at WQXR’s Greene Space.
Open mike night
Some very clever casting indeed in this week’s “Dream Team” competition.
Dream team
In honor of WQXR’s salute to the Richard Tucker Music Foundation next week—featuring Tucker honoree Michael Fabiano and hosted by legendary Renata Scotto—La Cieca invites the cher public to compete for free tickets to the mini-concert.
Less than Zarah
In a slight detour from the usual all-opera-all-the-time format of parterre box, the queer opera zine, issue #44 centers on Ben Letzler‘s superb appreciation of film and cabaret diva Zarah Leander.
Drama queen
The very first words in this issue are “Renata Scotto will return to the American operatic stage in the 2001 season!”
Bass-barihunk
“Richard Bernstein is a very good-looking guy, even with his clothes on.”
That kind of diva
In Vintage Issue #32: How that opening night of Lohengrin might have gone; La Cieca on La Gran Scena…
Once in half a lifetime
Then and now: the “Dio ti giocondi, o sposo” duet from Otello.
Scotto talks
Parterre’s tutelary diva shares espresso and cookies with parterre’s fave scribe Zachary Woolfe in preparation for the gala Met Legends event honoring her next Sunday.
This beaver looks like that beaver
Separated at birth: “Tu che di gel” goddess Renata Scotto and “Too much hair gel” oddness Johnny Weir. This is also holiday-themed breaking news because Johnny has now officially donned his gay apparel. [After Elton]
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).