The celebrated opera director and filmmaker died today of lung cancer in Paris. He was 68.
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
“New York City Opera, created 70 years ago as the ‘people’s opera,’ expects to file for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 2 and either liquidate in court or be sold to another institution, its lawyer said.”
And we have a Mot du Jour!
“New York City Opera… will be forced to cancel most of its current season and all of its next season if it fails to raise $20 million by year’s end, company officials say.”
La Cieca is most unhappy indeed to hear that coloraturafan, the undisputed monarch of opera on YouTube, has had his “fourth or fifth” account on the service deleted.
The American contralto, who created the title role in Menotti’s The Medium and introduced the song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” died May 18. She was 92.
In a press release, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein at Düsseldorf has announced the cancellation of its controversial new production of Tannhäuser.
The silver-voiced teen star of film musicals of the 1930s and 1940s died earlier this week.
The glamorous and beloved mezzo-soprano died yesterday. She was 99.
Michael Capasso, General Director of the Dicapo Opera Theatre has announced that Dicapo will be going on hiatus for a period of six months.
“New York City Opera, seeking to shed decades’ worth of old sets, costumes and props, has decided to auction off most of the material next month, the company’s general manager and artistic director, George Steel, said on Wednesday.”
More bad news.
“I am thrilled that operatic superstar Denyce Graves will join the cast of The Mikado, singing the role of Katisha.”
Based on reliable reports about reshuffling of the Met’s repertoire for the 2013-14 season, the only reasonable conclusion is that James Levine will never return to conduct with the company.
American soprano Evelyn Lear died quietly earlier this evening at at Brooke Grove nursing center in Sandy Spring, Maryland. She was 86.
According to a statement issued this morning, Opera Boston is ceasing operations as of January 1. [Boston.com]
Mercedes and Sid Bass, the A-list society and philanthropy couple who in 2006 gave the Met $25 million dollars—the largest single unrestricted gift paid at one time from an individual in the company’s then 123-year history—announced their divorce yesterday, ending 23 years of marriage.
Avid scoopster Dan Wakin just couldn’t wait until next Tuesday like the rest of us, and so he’s spilled enough details about NYCO’s “next” season to make it bleeding obvious 2011-12 will also be the last. A “new” “production” of La traviata by the undead Dr. Jonathan Miller and the U.S. premiere of the dreck Prima…
NYCO’s director of artistic planning Ed Yim is leaving the company to to serve as a consultant at the New York Philharmonic. [NYT]
UPDATE: A full story of NYCO’s woes, including distressing quotes from George Steel is now online at the New York Times.
Heads are about to roll at New York City Opera, probably including George Steel‘s—though given the troupe’s bizarro history for the past few years, who can say? This is in the wake of a letter leaked to the Wall Street Journal from singers and production staff of the embattled company, which includes this chilling statement:…
Those of you who have been wondering why the announcement of the New York City Opera’s 2011-2012 seems to be almost a month overdue may not take much consolation in the rumor La Cieca has just heard. According to a reliable source, the company will “probably” not offer a fall season (“due to no money,…
UPDATE: It’s official. EARLIER: La Cieca hears from a generally reliable source that James Levine has resigned from his post as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Expect an official announcement later today.
The definitive evidence that the Met was far too wildly optimistic when scheduling Armida.
