Condescending to opera lovers across America — and cheating both Bartlett Sher and Squirrel out of the simple joys of partial nudity — the Met has decided to censor the December 19th High Def broadcast of Les Contes d’Hoffmann!
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In the wake of a New York Times exposé of Milwaukee’s Skylight Opera Theatre’s welter of “demonstrations, petitions, mass resignations of performers, subscriber revolt and Facebook vitriol interpreted by management as violent threats,” Playbill News reports this morning that Eric Dillner, the “vilified” managing director of the company, has resigned. According to a story this…
Your dithery doyenne sometimes gets so bogged down in local drama such as the continuing story that is NYCO that she overlooks the occasional outlying scandale. Such is the case with what she will henceforth call The Mishegas in Milwaukee. This brouhaha over the direction of the Skylight Opera has (per La Cieca’s informant) escalated…
IMG Artists Chairman Barrett Wissman has pleaded guilty to securities fraud, according to today’s New York Times. Wissman purchased IMG Artists from IMG in 2003 for $7.5 million. IMG Artists’ list of international clients has included Itzhak Perlman, Hilary Hahn, Joshua Bell, Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson, James Galway, KODO, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, Murray Perahia, Antonio…
These videos showed up first on Opera Chic but were posted by babyfairy.
Followers of the cultural scene on the Left Coast will be interested to see that Michael Capasso (of Dicapo gala notoriety) is apparently involved in the production of A Christmas Carol at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. Although the graphic promises “John Goodman, Jane Leeves, Jane Seymour, with Christopher Lloyd . . . and…
As commenter paddypig points out, something fishy seems to be going on with the Puccini 150th Anniversary Gala presented by Dicapo Opera Theatre, scheduled for this Monday night. As of this evening, the company’s website still advertises “Daniela Dessi, Fabio Armiliato, Francisco Casanova, Aprile Millo, Francesca Patané and others” even though certainly Millo is not…
Extended clips of the La Scala Don Carlo as telecast on Sunday night — after the jump.
Glimpses of last night’s Don Carlo prima at La Scala:
Maestro Daniele Gatti enters the pit at La Scala for the second act of Don Carlo.
La Cieca has just heard that as of this afternoon, La Scala has dismissed Giuseppe Filianoti from their opening night new production of Don Carlos (scheduled for a worldwide telecast Sunday) and replaced him for the entire run of performances with American tenor Stuart Neill. Per La Cieca’s source, at the Thursday open dress rehearsal…
Artistic adminstrators at the Met and around the world are gnashing their teeth and tearing their hair this afternoon at Bryn Terfel‘s bombshell announcement that he will retire from opera “within three years.” The biggest local impact will be felt in the Met’s glossy new Ring cycle, in which (according to Brad Wilber) Terfel was slated…
Not Tosca, of course, cher public — La Cieca could never say that about her dear, dear Tosca. But it does seem both shabby and shocking that the combined forces of The New York Philharmonic and Charles Zachary Bornstein, the Philharmonic’s Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence would not at the very least ask for a retake of…
La Cieca has to say that the funniest health code violation story she’s read in, well, days and days is the AP item entitled “NYC Health Department: Mice at Met Opera.” The hilarity begins in the very lede of the piece, which reads On-stage villains aren’t the only vermin at the Metropolitan Opera. Just as…
“She asked one time, they said no. She asked a second time – no. At the third time she said Vafanculo [literally, “go f*** yourselfâ€]. You know how many times you sing La Bohème without rehearsal in the world? Roberto “Oil on Troubled Waters” Alagna continues his unique relationship with the media in an interview…
Musical America reports this morning that Jeffrey Vanderveen has resigned from his post as Senior Vice President/Director, Vocal Divison at IMG Artists. At IMG Vanderveen repped such superstars as Anna Netrebko, Thomas Hampson, Sam Ramey and Denyce Graves. [via wqxr.com]
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: March 9, 3:30 PM: After only 30 hours and on only the third try (or perhaps fourth, depending on how often you refresh the page), the New York Times has managed to report accurately the personnel and repertoire of a single selection at a concert that took place three days ago:Â
Well, it looks like yet another cliche turns out to be true: there really is no such thing as bad publicity. La Cieca hears that since his arrest two nights ago for DWI, Jerry Hadley has been fielding calls and emails from practically everyone he ever met in the business — most of them asking…
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