All in the family
Here’s a project apparently nobody has thought of and it’s a sure winner: Semiramide with Cecilia Bartoli and Franco Fagioli.
tete de peau
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard!”
La Cieca is delighted to note that the Royal Opera, Covent Garden has decided to follow the successful lead of so many American opera companies.
Ô après-midi d’amour
Starting in just half an hour, a live broadcast of Faust from De Nederlandse Opera starring Michael Fabiano and Irina Lungu.
Sinking ship
“Billy Zane, star of James Cameron’s blockbuster Titanic and Broadway’s Chicago, cast as Captain von Trapp.”
Opera pump
Happy birthday to baritone Zachary Gordin, cover boy for this year’s Barihunk Wall Calendar.
The bald mezzo-soprano
She’s been a showgirl, a bubble dancer, a drag king, and of course a maimed statue.
Regie, bangles and beads
Smartly done, cher diseur de bons mots: Monsieur Hoffmann rightly guessed last week’s puzzler to be Don Giovanni. The production by Doris Dörrie is currently playing the Staatsoper Hamburg. Elsewhere, the Regie never stops, as you will see after the jump.
Jacques, strapping
Meet Jacques Snyman of South Africa, former rugby player, current fitness model and anti-bullying activist, and possible future opera star.
The wild Juan
And now, ladies and gentlemen, Christopher Maltman (among others) in Kasper Holten‘s Juan.
Tête de Bo
Those of you escaping the summer heat this afternoon may want to gather ’round for a performance of Don Giovanni (featuring recent convert to the shaved-noggin lifestyle Bo Skovhus) live from the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, beginning at 3:30 New York time.
Buzzworthy
Mean, moody, magnificent Mariusz Kwiecien gets the Regie treatment (including a buzzcut!) for a new Don Giovanni in Munich.
tales told
This just in from the Met’s press office: “In the Met’s new staging of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Joseph Calleja will sing the title role, replacing Rolando Villazón, and Alan Held will sing the roles of the four villains, replacing René Pape.” The press release goes on to explain that Villazón plans to undergo throat […]
whoaaaaa!
La Cieca was listening to Jon Frederic West singing the Forging Song just now, you know? And she was curious about JFW’s current schedule, so she clicked on his page on the Guy Barzilay Artists Management page… and heard the Forging Song in canon!
unorthodox crossover
Opera Chic caught it first, but this video deserves to be seen again and again. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/PCn5osoQK_k” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
plus j’observe ces lieux, et plus je les admire
La Cieca admits she’s a little late to the table with this one, but here’s a German TV report on the all-new, all-nude Calixto Bieito production of Gluck’s Armide, currently playing at the Komische Oper. [NSFW, and how rarely La Cieca gets to say that!] [kml_flashembed movie=”http://tr.youtube.com/v/LINaWb2eiEo” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
it takes a villars
Heldentenordiva Jon Villars (center, in mohawk) “basically fired himself by walking off the stage” at a public dress rehearsal for the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Fidelio. According to a report in The Globe and Mail, Villars stormed off stage immediately after conductor Gregor Buhl “loudly sang out a few phrases of the tenor’s part” […]
full dorsal
A bit of Salome from the Royal Opera, with a somewhat less skittish sense of cinematography than what we got from the Met’s HD! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/nBAbXZptfIk” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Finally a chance to see Naked Busker Guy Duncan Meadows in action! (And, forgive La Cieca for saying so, but if your leading lady sounds […]
di sangue rosseggio
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.
regie you are if you think you are
No fooling the cher public this time around: most of you guessed easily that the depicted production was Die Zauberflöte, as staged in the Bundestag subway station in Berlin. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/Lf2RNksObiw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
stand and sing
La Cieca was disappointed to hear the news that the New York City Opera next season will present only a few concert performances. Well, in point of fact, she’s surprised that they’re performing at all, but the real problem is that she already had a mental picture of an NYCO Antony and Cleopatra starring Teddy […]
putting on the regie
Back the photo-only style of Regiequiz, but this production does look awfully chic, doesn’t it? Now if only someone could guess which opera it is!
lieben, hassen, hoffen, busken
La Cieca has just learned more details about the Royal Opera’s Naked Executioner Guy and she’s sure that we all want to stay right on top of the story. Naked Executioner Guys’s real name is Duncan Meadows. He is a busker who, like so many in the busking biz, does the bulk of his bulking […]
betet zum himmel, dass bald ein mann (werk)treue ihm halt’!
In a collaboration that La Cieca is delighted to describe as a “tête-à -tête-de-peau,” musical director Enrique Mazzola and director Calixto Bieito rehearse Der Fliegende Holländer for Stuttgart.
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).
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!
