Reviewing some old files while restoring the parterre mainframe’s hard drive, La Cieca ran across some predictions made in 2006 of what the current Met season would consist of. The details after the jump.
By La Cieca
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“Sony Classical is proud to announce the signing of an exclusive recording contract with Plácido Domingo. This new agreement brings the legendary singer back to the company where his unparalleled recording career started in the late 1960s. Sony Classical’s catalog boasts many of his milestone recordings, and the renewed collaboration between Mr. Domingo and the…
By La Cieca
Though Brad Wilber‘s lamented site is no more, opera gossip refuses to die. For example, La Cieca has just heard that for an upcoming opening night at the Metropolitan Opera a beloved and (that word again!) charismatic tenor will return to the house after a six season absence. So now you know more or less …
By La Cieca
The controversy over the demise of Brad Wilber‘s Met Futures site goes mainstream, thanks to (who else?) Zachary Woolfe.
By La Cieca
After 15 years of astoundingly accurate forecasts of future Met seasons, the invaluable resource by Brad Wilber has been, apparently, permanently expunged from the internet. Those of you who, like La Cieca, will cherish the last bits of wisdom from this site may want to download and save this PDF of the most recent cached…
By La Cieca
So what does it mean when the owner of Anna Netrebko‘s fan blog says, “An ‘a-priori’ important press conference will be held in Munich on Monday 17. May 2011… We are looking forward to hearing what are the news….”?
By La Cieca
“Adams : Nixon in China. Théâtre du Châtelet – du 10 au 18 avril 2012. Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. Mise en scène par Chen Shi-Zheng avec June Anderson (Pat Nixon) et Sumi Jo (Madame Mao)” [ODB Opéra]
By La Cieca
This just in from the Met press office: “On the advice of his doctors, James Levine will reduce his conducting dates at the Met for the rest of the current season while he continues to recover from recent procedures to alleviate back pain. His planned performances of Das Rheingold on March 30 and April 2 will…
By La Cieca
“Margaret, what is it Big Daddy always says when he’s disgusted?” asks the immortal Big Momma in dear Tennessee Williams‘ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which Maggie answers, “He says bull when he’s disgusted.” Well, your own Big Momma (i.e., La Cieca has been speaking to a Met insider (pictured) about certain recent headline-grabbing…
By La Cieca
The team that made the Met’s 2009 production of From the House of the Dead one of the undisputed highlights of the Peter Gelb era will return five years from now to create a Richard Strauss tragedy. According to Helsingin Sanomat, director Patrice Chéreau and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen will collaborate on a new production of…
By La Cieca
As perhaps you may have heard hinted hereabouts, “Gary Lehman and Stephen Gould will sing the role of Siegfried in the Met’s 2011-12 season performances of Wagner’s Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, replacing Ben Heppner who has retired the role from his repertory.” That’s according to a release from the Met’s press office less than an hour…
By La Cieca
La Cieca hears that the continuation of the Ring cycle at the Met next season will go on without the participation of Ben Heppner. We’ll have more details next week when the Met makes their season announcement, but La Cieca’s impression is that the two Siegfrieds are at the moment some combination of Gary Lehman…
By La Cieca
All this talk about girls and ladies prompted La Cieca to turn (not for the first time!) to Brad Wilber’s Met Futures Page, freshly updated just a couple of days ago. So detailed and fascinating is Brad’s vision of the future that La Cieca is inspired to invite the cher public to play a little…
By La Cieca
La Cieca (pictured) is going to go out on a limb here, cher public, based on bits and pieces of gossip, a hard fact or two, and her own occasionally flawed powers of ratiocination. Her prediction: James Levine will retire as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, effective at the end of the 2011-2012 season.…
By La Cieca
Not to scoop Brad Wilber (if such a thing were possible!) but La Cieca has just heard that the much-discussed opening night of the Met’s 2012-13 season has been settled. Starring in a new Bartlett Sher production of L’elisir d’amore will be Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecien, with Dulcamara and conductor TBA.
By La Cieca
After six months of professional silence, Natalie Dessay will return to the stage on Monday in Giulio Cesare at the Palais Garnier. A hint of what the Handel may sound like will be found after the jump.
By La Cieca
So the gossip La Cieca has been picking up is that at some point there were plans at the Met to open the 2012-13 season with Eugene Onegin featuring Mariusz Kwiecien, Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani. The soprano and baritone were also booked to open the 2013-2014 season with new production of La bohème. Then…
By La Cieca
As we all already know (those of us addicted to Brad Wilber‘s Met Futures, and who among us is not?) the Metropolitan Opera already has plans to produce two operas of Donizetti’s so-called “Tudor Trilogy.” Anna Bolena opens the 2011-2012 season featuring Anna Netrebko (left) and Maria Stuarda follows on the following season starring Joyce…
By La Cieca
The updates on Brad Wilber‘s new Met Futures page are arriving almost daily now, with perhaps the most startling recent news the “removal” of Juan Diego Flórez from a projected new production of I puritani in April 2014. But there’s more to it, after the jump.
By La Cieca
Cosmologist Stephen Hawking may be the next “documentary” character to take operatic life on the stage of the Met. According to Le Devoir, director Robert Lepage, composer Osvaldo Golijov and librettist Alberto Manguel are rumored to be collaborating on an opera for the Met’s 2015-16 season based on Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.
By La Cieca
La Cieca is delighted to note that old, old, old friend Brad Wilber (pictured) has relocated to his own niche of the internet. His Met Futures Page (the Necronomicon of opera queenery) may now be found, with the most recent and delicious updates, at bradwilber.com/metfuture.
By La Cieca
It’s too bad bookmakers don’t offer odds on the casting predicted on Bradley Wilber’s Met Futures Page. Because, if they did, it would be hilarious to see just how long the odds would be against a 2011-2012 “NABUCCO with Maria Guleghina.” Or do you think there is any less likely casting anywhere in the latest…
By La Cieca
La Cieca has heard that, not to be outdone by Peter Gelb‘s discovery of hot young directors like Luc Bondy and Patrice Chéreau, NYCO’s George Steel is boldly leaping forward into the 20th century by signing up Peter Sellars for a series of productions. In other music news, everyone down at Danceteria is just wild…
By La Cieca
