Excerpt from Madama Butterfly, 18 October 1974, San Francisco, CA. Cio-Cio-San: Renata Scotto; Suzuki: Judith Forst.
“Maria Callas arrives in San Francisco in 1958 with her toy poodle and 17 pieces of luggage,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle 50 years ago (November 24, 2008).
La Cieca extends her congratulations to her little sister Opera Chic for a namecheck in the AP story by Ronald Blum on the Met’s 2009-10 production cutbacks. According to Blum’s story, dropping Ghosts of Versailles from the Met’s repertoire will save “more than $1 million.” In the unfortunately ongoing “more bad news” section, La Cieca…
La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Dorothy Bishop returns to NYC with a revamped version of her opera/cabaret show “Viva la Diva” at Splash Bar on October 15 at 8:00 pm. As always, our own JJ directs the show. Dorothy’s Splash debut features new material, new costumes, new “Viva la Diva” dancing boys and (perhaps…
Following a performance of Lucia in San Francisco, Our Own “sassy bald” High C’s models the notorious blood-stained t-shirt for none other than Natalie Dessay.
Pamela Rosenberg, late of San Francisco Opera and currently at the Berlin Philarmonic, moves on next to the Staatsoper Unter Den Linden, La Cieca hears. The Philharmonic gig ends in 2010, so expect Rosenberg to return to the opera house immediately after.
In what may be 2008’s most stellar example of unintentional irony, the organization Opera America has elected as its new chairman … a Brit. According to musicalamerica.com, Anthony Freud, newcomer General Director and CEO of the Houston Grand Opera, will succeed Opera Theater of St. Louis General Director Charles MacKay. Opera America President Marc Scorca deemed…
[This article originally appeared in the print zine precursor to this site, one of a series of surveys of live recordings by critic Leila de Lakmé.] Leyla Gencer. The very name is exotic. She was an artist of Turkish ancestry who, during the 1950s and 60s, held her own despite the presence of Maria Callas,…
Cher public, the Met is expected to unveil the specifics of their 2008-2009 season later today. While we’re waiting for all the luscious and/or gory details, La Cieca thought it might be fun to do a quick recap of the season as is is predicted on Brad Wilber‘s MetManiac site. Brad (who historically is spot-on…
La Cieca is sure that her cher public will not want to miss Sunday morning’s (4:30 AM) screening of the camp classic Yes, Giorgio. This 1982 crossover attempt by Luciano Pavarotti (from tenor to matinee idol) must have sounded like a good idea at the time, but, fortunately for music lovers, the film flopped mightily,…
Here’s an amusing soupcon from the Bay Area Reporter (where the late lamented Tiger Hashimoto once held sway). In his “Out There” column, Roberto Friedman rips the lid off a mini-scandal at the GayVN Awards. Apparently the nominating committee for this group honoring excellence in the gay porn industry were not listening with their “soul…
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” Actually, no, Mark Twain didn’t say it. That means this public-domain quotation is available for use by Donald Runnicles, who, according to the August Opera News, is about to find out what it means: “Runnicles, of course, was not my appointment,” [David Gockley]…
David Gockley talks to a gay paper about fisting. (Well, when you’re running the San Francisco Opera, knowing these things is surely part of the job description.)
La Cieca, who only yesterday was perpendicular hanging from a cable car, has been annoying San Francisco natives this week by humming the immortal theme song of that city by the bay while strolling her streets. (That’s the Jeanette MacDonald song, not the Tony Bennett number, but that’s not the point here.) Providing a welcome…
La Cieca wishes a very happy 80th birthday to Evelyn Lear, heard recently on Unnatural Acts of Opera singing “The Boy from Ipanema.” Another sample of her vast range of artistry can be found here, in her performance of the Letter Scene from Eugene Onegin at the San Francisco Opera in October 1971.
At first glance, the photo from San Francisco Opera’s Billy Budd looks like any other opera featuring Nathan Gunn, i.e., pug nose in profile, chin a-jut, freshly waxed chest front and center. But on closer inspection, it turns out that Billy is getting a tweak from Mr. Squeak: “Warm as a sailor’s pants, gay as…
San Francisco Opera, as always right on the crest of the wave, introduced its own podcast over the weekend. Pamela Rosenberg and Donald Runnicles yak about the 2005-06 season, which will include the premiere of the new John Adams piece “Dr. Atomic,” and some musical highlights of the rest of the repertoire are included too.…
La Cieca has just been informed that the legendary team of superagents Bruce Zemsky and Alan Green have packed their bags and moved out of CAMI, presumably to start up their own management firm. Zemsky and Green handled artists ranging from Marcelo Alvarez to Mariana Zvetkova; no word yet on how many of the dozens…
This is getting ridiculous, folks. La Cieca, sitting here in New York, reported four days ago that David Gockley had accepted an offer to helm San Francisco Opera. And now she hears that Gockley broke the news to his Houston Grand Opera staff “days ago.” And still no announcement from the city by the bay!…
Breaking News! According to a source at San Francisco Opera, David Gockley has accepted the company’s offer to serve as their new General Manager — exactly as rumored and then predicted here in La Cieca’s column!
You heard it here first. In fact, you heard it here a month ago — and now the “other” media are finally picking up on the operatic story of the year. According to the Houston Chronicle, David Gockley is mulling an offer from San Francisco “to lead that city’s legendary but troubled opera company.” La…
Once Matthew Epstein has left Chicago (as reported this morning at musicalamerica.com), you can be sure he’ll have better things to do than rest on his laurels. La Cieca hears that Matthew has his eye on San Francisco Opera, succeeding Pamela Rosenberg there. But the competition for this post is fierce: front runners include Charles…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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