Taupe of the morning
[La Cieca welcomes the newest and most lissome member of the parterre espionage force, Mlle. La Taupe, who just last night invaded the first performance of San Francisco Opera’s La fanciulla del West.] UPDATE: The last act!
spy
Incredible, ma vero, confirms NYT
La Cieca’s faithful spies once again have done their jobs well! What you learned here a week and a half ago about refitting to the Met stage to accommodate the ginormous weight of the Lepage Ring set has finally made its way into the New York Times. Also (love him or hate him) you have […]
…the Boulder Dam look like an egg cup!
La Cieca has just heard from one of her habitually infallible moles that the refitting of the Met’s stages for the Robert Lepage Ring began today.
Once on that island
Our Own Gualtier Maldè (right) escaped today’s Armida dress rehearsal at the Met with his wits intact. He reports:
Trapped in the closet
La Cieca is informed that tomorrow’s final dress rehearsal of Hamlet is as closed as closed can be: covers, Met staff and a few handpicked guests of Peter Gelb are the only humans to be allowed in the auditorium as the Thomas is teched. It’s natural enough, since — as we all know — the […]
Hun more for the road
La Cieca has the first top-secret highly classified eyes-only report from inside the hermetically sealed Attila dress rehearsal at the Met. Our spy (possibly pictured above) speaks out — after the jump, naturally.
Gualtier tells “Tales”
So, I was asking my friends with Met Opera insider connections about the new Hoffmann production directed by Bartlett Sher. Seemingly conceived under an unlucky star, this production first lost two of its four heroines when Anna Netrebko decided not sing Olympia and Giulietta but kept Antonia and also Stella, leaving the dramaturgy somewhat lopsided.
Wagging the Tale
La Cieca’s saturation coverage of the Met’s new Contes d’Hoffmann begins officially on Monday, when one of her most reliable and most devious spies promises a report from the dress rehearsal. You, the cher public, will be expected to sound off loud and clear during the opening night chat on Thursday at 8:00 pm.
Mission: Ineffable
You mission, cher public, should you decide to accept it: Soprano Renée Fleming returns to her alma mater to give her first master class in NYC on Tuesday, October 20 from 6 – 7:30 PM at Juilliard. Ms. Fleming rarely gives master classes and this special event is a benefit for Juilliard…. Benefit tickets are […]
First fragmentary reports begin to trickle in
[SPOILER ALERT! MAY CONTAIN DETAILS YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE BEFORE YOU ATTEND THE PRODUCTION!]
Dress for success
The Met will distribute free tickets for their dress rehearsal of Tosca on Sunday, September 13 beginning at noon. La Cieca thinks you all understand how important it is that parterre.com scoop the world in reporting on this event, so she trust the cher public will do the right thing. [NYT]
the morning after
The operatives were busy over the midnight hours: “Act 3 was a mixed bag. The opening showed Villazon in much better form, with solid phrasing. The Mad Scene started out beautiful, Netrebko spinning out haunting legato. She was completely involved and engaged. Then she fell apart at the flute solo, sounding under supported and wavering […]
operatives wanted
La Cieca hears that tonight’s Lucia at the Met will be the criterion for deciding whether one or both of the leads might be replaced for the final two performances of the run including the HD telecast February 7. La Cieca, alas, cannot be in the theater tonight, drat that pesky root canal, so she […]
point counterpoint
Cher public, who else but La Cieca brings you such in-depth arts coverage that you get not one but two reports from spies at the dress rehearsal of the Met’s new La Damnation de Faust ? After the jump, eyewitness accounts of the Lepagerie from Our Own Gualtier Maldè and Sanford.Â
tune up, plug in, walk out
La Cieca hears from a spy at the Met that tenor Roberto Aronica “after belching through the first part of the Butterfly orchestra rehearsal,” retreated to the company canteen where, the tenor complains, he received “an electrical shock from the espresso machine.” We are told that the singer is spending the night in a local […]
requiem and rehearsal
La Cieca’s spy reports on the Met’s pre-season:Â
project runway
Keep watching parterre.com later this afternoon for a sneak preview of the Met’s Opening Night Renéessance.
Magic Christian
La Cieca’s spy L’Inconnu in the City of Brotherly Love (which, given the circumstances, she supposes she should specify is Philadelphia) whispers: La Cieca favorite Stephen Costello is one of the only worthwhile reasons to catch David DiChiera‘s new opera Cyrano premiering tomorrow night at the Opera Company of Philadelphia. The men truly led the […]
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
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).
