Yet another new role for Anna Netrebko on the horizon: in a press conference yesterday in Mexico, the soprano announced she plans to sing Adriana Lecouvreur.
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.
James Levine turns 72 this year. Even though his health has improved considerably in the past year and he may continue to conduct for a decade or more, it seems inevitable that he will step down as the Met’s Music Director sometime in the next few years to assume the role of Conductor Laureate.
Mariusz Trelinski will direct Tristan und Isolde for Metropolitan Opera in a production that will premiere there on opening night 2016.
The San Francisco Opera has just done the big reveal for 2015-2016 and here’s what we have in store.
Fall 2015 is the target date for an as yet untitled one-woman show based on the life of Kathleen Battle, scheduled to star Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o.
Maestro Christian Thielemann has made his choice for Lohengrin casting in Dresden and, later, Bayreuth: “Anna Netrebko als Elsa und Piotr Beczala in der Titelpartie.”
“Ms. Netrebko, 43, spoke about her willingness to take risks…”
Given Anna Netrebko‘s continuing success at the Met in Macbeth (as evidenced by an mid-scene “brava” in last night’s Sirius broadcast), it’s time to think about the future—specifically her local assignments for next season.
This past week of contract negotiations at the Metropolitan Opera has been notable for the absence of any new PowerPoint presentations or fustian proclamations.
La Cieca hears that the Met’s planned production of West Side Story in the 2017-2018 season has been shelved.
Short answer: yes. But let’s begin by dismissing the a blatant canard. One thing that the Metropolitan Opera does not need to do is to scale back the number of performances in a season.
The Met’s financial challenges are not meteorological, demographic, or cyclical; they are structural.
Our Own JJ (not pictured) offers his recommendations for 10 opera and classical music events worth hearing this spring.
Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager… has engaged Mr. Domingo to sing Don Carlo in Ernani next season, Simon Boccanegra the following season and Nabucco in 2016-17.”
The highlight of the Bayerische Staatsoper’s 2014-2015 season is a new production of Manon Lescaut featuring Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann, directed by Claus Guth.
AGMA’s Alan Gordon warns his membership of a possible lockout by the Met if contract negotiations break down this summer.
Goddess Anna Caterina Antonacci takes the “Sophia Loren” starring role in La Ciociara, a new work premiering at San Francisco Opera in June, 2015.
La Cieca has it on very good authority that the 2014-2015 Met season will include a revival of Verdi’s Macbeth featuring Anna Netrebko.
La Cieca is happy to present the following readymade blind item.
La Cieca hears that soprano Pretty Yende, a standout Met debutante last season in Le Comte Ory, has signed with the company for for four roles over the next three years: Pamina and Lucia in 2014-2015, Adina in 2015-2016 and Rosina in 2016-2017.
Utterly scientific polls follow the jump.
La Cieca has been wining, dining and otherwise wooing her Met connection (pictured above) and he (or is it she?) has come across with some tidbits about upcoming seasons at Casa Gelb.
Stefan Herheim‘s production of Die Meistersinger is set on the surface of Hans Sachs’ writing table!
Peter Gelb says the Ring will definitely not return, as originally planned, in 2017, and where has La Cieca heard that before?
