Olga Borodina goes on tonight in Aida at the Met, subbing for an ailing Dolora Zajick. It’s on Sirius, for those of you who feel like chatting.
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First was littoraldrift, but funniest was Krunoslav in our most recent and (as one might say) entry-level Regie quiz, the answer to which was rather too obviously Falstaff. So, on to something more challenging this week, after the jump.
The Metropolitan Opera commission Daedalus by Osvaldo Golijov seems to have slipped through the cracks, for now at least. According to the virtually always accurate Met Futures by Brad Wilber, the premiere of the work, planned for the 2011-2012 season, is not going to take place.
“She was pretty but blank onstage back then, but Tuesday night’s opening performance found her too far the other direction, transforming the ironic, moody aristocrat into a Lifetime movie drama queen.” [NYP]
[La Cieca is delighted to introduce a new reviewer, @scazzasofija.] I found Rosenkavalier (Met, Oct. 13) to be mostly sublime. My quibbles come from a preference for Kleiber’s tempos. I found that de Waart was waving his arms as fast as he could for the beginning, but I think the prelude and up until the…
I’m not sure who I find more annoying – the partisans who vigorously defend Luc Bondy‘s production of Tosca at the Met or those who decry it. As Bondy’s production replaces one of the Met’s signature offerings, both groups have seized on this event as a watershed event in the history of opera in America…
The New York Times rolls out the red carpet for the Met’s revival of Der Rosenkavalier in a majorly major way today: chitchat with Renée Fleming, what Boris Goldovsky used to call “a musical and dramatic analysis,” plus, in what surely must be a first in media access, exclusive streaming content culled from yesterday’s dress…
The subject of the controversy: that most insidious and invasive attack on American culture since fluoridation or women’s suffrage, operatic stage direction. The conspirators: the ilk of Peter Gelb, Patrice Chéreau, Luc Bondy and Bartlett Sher, “instigated” by Paul Holdengräber. The meeting place: that hotbed of radical thought the New York Public Library (Fifth Avenue at…
How exactly is a reporter for Bloomberg News supposed to take sides in a controversy between Peter Gelb and Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees? Philip Boroff must feel like Mime, waiting for Fafner to kill Siegfried, Siegfried to kill Fafner, or, ideally, a bit of both. (And how on point…
La Cieca has managed to obtain this exclusive snippet from the camera rehearsal for Saturday afternoon’s Met HD telecast. Note the “Hitchcock” influence in the cinematography. (Extra points for the first member of the cher public to detect La Cieca’s cameo appearance!)
La Cieca is idly wondering how James Levine‘s back is feeling this morning, after yesterday’s flareup that left him unable to conduct Tosca at the Met last night. Rather an important question, too, since he’s scheduled for that high-profile Stravinsky-Mozart concert with the Boston Symphony tonight. In the absence of any hard evidence, your doyenne…
UPDATE: James Levine‘s on-again, off-again back problem is on again. He’s out of tonight’s Tosca, Joseph Colaneri deputizing. Carlo Guelfi sings Scarpia tonight because of the continuing indisposition of George Gagnidze. Meanwhile, James Levine‘s back seems to be feeling better.
Our JJ‘s review of the Met’s revival of Le nozze di Figaro didn’t make it into today’s New York Post for reasons that you should be able to figure out once you’ve read the piece. At the suggestion of his editor, La Cieca is publishing it here.
Unlike the directors of some recent Metropolitan Opera stagings, Julie Taymor received an enthusiastic ovation when her production of Mozart’s “Zauberflöte” had its debut at the house in 2004. If the Metropolitan Opera continues on its current path, Jonathan Miller’s 1998 production of Mozart’s “Nozze di Figaro” will be succeeded either by a version couched…
This is it, cher public, the big night… and you’ve found the place to be. The traditional (that word again!) yakfest during the Met’s opening night festivities will take place here at parterre.com from 6:00 pm until the curtain falls. Members of the public attending the event proper or the various HD relays are invited…
See the new posting that will appear at 5:45 pm entitled “Overture! Light the Lights!” — this will be your official one-stop location for tonight’s chat during the Met’s Tosca.
In response to readers’ requests, here’s the 2009-2010 Met Sirius/XM broadcast schedule, in printable form.
Presenting just for you, cher public, the complete Sirius/XM Metropolitan Opera broadcast schedule for 2009-1010. Performances on dates highlighted in bold will also be streamed via RealNetworks from the Met’s website. Season premieres are marked with (P). Obviously you are going to want to chat about some of these broadcasts, so let La Cieca know in…
Members of the cher public (pictured) will, La Cieca hopes, be happy to hear that the annual Opening Night Chat will transpire here at parterre.com once more on September 21. Discussion of the Met’s Tosca and (more to the point) whether Margaret Juntwait will be able to corral Blythe Danner into another gabfest will begin…
As your doyenne hinted previously, the Met just has announced that bass-baritone Juha Uusitalo “has withdrawn due to illness” from the opening night production of Tosca on September 21. George Gagnidze will perform the role of Scarpia on opening night and in further performances through October 14. Those of you who can’t be in the…
Yes, it does indeed appear that bass-baritone’s Met career has reached its finish. Could his replacement be that superstar who previously… uh, changed his mind on the deal? [That last part obviously no longer applies – LC.]
Brainstorming advertising slogans for the new Tosca at the Met: “Puccini’s Shocker, Shabbier Than Ever!” “Now with Three Times the Penetration!” “O Scarpia, Second to the Right and Straight on ‘Til Morning!”
La Cieca is just guessing here (with some prompting from Zachary Woolfe) but she thinks she has divined the coup de théâtre climaxing the Met’s new production of Tosca. They shoot Mario, etc. etc., and then Karita Mattila runs crazily off the stage as the guards come rushing on. They search all about but cannot find…
Our Own JJ (not pictured) nominates the can’t-miss operatic and vocal events of the autumn of 2009. [NYP]
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