The “the ‘most authentic aspect of Lepage’s production is the overall failure of its illusionist agenda.”
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.
Robert Lepage promises a more “urban” take on the work.
So finally we can see what the Robert Lepage Ring would have looked like if only the Machine hadn’t been totally fucked.
Peter Gelb says the Ring will definitely not return, as originally planned, in 2017, and where has La Cieca heard that before?
The next scheduled appearance of the Met’s Ring production has been canceled, as irrevocably as these things can ever be.
La Cieca is always delighted when Met stars “cross over” into more popular genres of entertainment.
“I’m analytical, not wild,” Ms. Garanca told an interviewer in 2009.
A member of the cher public who braved this afternoon’s performance of Das Rheingold at the Met reports that the Machine jammed halfway through the transition between scenes two and three.
Last night, La Cieca finally got around to watching that documentary about the rocky road to the new Ring at the Met, and she has a thought or two about this whole brouhaha.
And finally, we come to the last night of our Ring-watching experience, cher public.
Ring mania continues tonight at 9 pm with Siegfried on PBS.
Welcome, cher public, to the second night of the week’s Wagnerama.
Welcome, cher public, to the first night of our Ring-watching experience
The Robert Lepage production of the Ring cycle will be shown complete (including the now de rigueur fifth part of the pentalogy, Wagner’s Dream) September 11-14 on PBS
“The Met’s new Ring is the most frustrating opera production I have ever had to grapple with.”
Zachary Woolfe went to Las Vegas and all we got was a thoughtful analysis of why Robert Lepage was never a good fit for the Ring.
A sharp-eyed spy at tonight’s performance of Die Walküre at the Met notes that, while there were no malfunctions of the Machine per se, there was an unexpected projection toward the middle of the third act.
A phrase no one ever thought to see in print…
The Machine malfunctioned tonight in Siegfried at the Met, only one performance behind schedule. La Cieca is told that the final transition to the “Valkyrie Rock” could not be completed. “Just as Siegfried was starting his climb, multiple planks thudded into ‘down’ position. Lots of shouting into walkie-talkies. The set never moved again,” a witness…
Those lucky few of you who manage to scare up tickets to the Met’s second Ring cycle of the spring ($3,500 top) will no doubt want to start crossing your fingers now that nothing goes wrong with “The Machine” at the “prologue-evening” Das Rheingold April 26.
UPDATE: The Met’s press office states, “At the beginning of Act III (‘The Ride of the Valkyries’ scene) of last evening’s performance of Die Walküre, one of the planks that comprise the set descended to the stage floor rather than stopping opposite the stage apron. As a result, the artist singing Siegrune, mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti,…
You really didn’t think your doyenne would let a top-secret dress rehearsal at the Met slip away without getting an exclusive on-the-scene report for you, the cher public? Now, did you? Well, if you did, you’re wrong, because La Cieca’s mole (pictured) has filed the following report:
