Lots of interesting guesses, but the previous Regiequiz seems to have stumped our panel. The opera depicted is one that has become something of a favorite of revisionist directors, La Juive. You can see some of the more interesting bits of the staging in context in this video from the Staatsoper Stuttgart:  [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/xEnPr8jbjb0″ width=”425″…

on March 26, 2008 at 11:08 PM

La Cieca just taken a look at a detailed schedule of Met performances for next season, and so she’s only just become aware of the following very interesting couple of weeks around the holidays:

on March 26, 2008 at 5:18 PM

A loyal member of the cher public noticed this howler by Need You Ask in the online NYT earlier today: Unfortunately for La Cieca (and, well, yes, for anyone else with journalistic standards — so sue me!) the Times has already managed to do one of their “Ministry of Truth” numbers on the offending paragraph…

on March 26, 2008 at 1:50 PM

It’s Janice Baird as Isolde tonight, opposite (still) Ben Heppner. This is getting to be like a freaking mathematical exercise.

on March 25, 2008 at 3:23 PM

So La Cieca’s Met spy tells her that Angela Gheorghiu sauntered into a rehearsal for the Café Momus scene 45 minutes late after what must have been a leisurely lunch, then proceeded to offer “suggestions” improving upon the Franco Zeffirelli staging of the scene. La Cieca would say that given the diva’s track record, the…

on March 25, 2008 at 11:39 AM

It looks like Gary Lehman will finally get a chance to use the full extent of his acting abilities when (inevitably) he takes over the final two performances of Tristan und Isolde next week. In honor of Gary’s return to the cast, the Met is splurging on an actual rehearsal for the maverick renegade heldentenor…

on March 21, 2008 at 1:48 PM

This season’s revival of Tristan und Isolde at the Met has led a number of you to wonder, “what the hell is Jane Eaglen up to these days?” 

on March 21, 2008 at 11:32 AM

UPDATED at 5:10 PM: La Cieca hears confirms that soprano Angela Meade will make her Metropolitan Opera debut tomorrow night as Elvira in Ernani, replacing Sondra Radvanovksy, who is ill.

on March 20, 2008 at 2:50 PM

Our own JJ recounts how “John Doyle‘s new staging of Britten’s Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera sinks without a trace” in the current issue of Gay City News.

on March 20, 2008 at 2:05 PM

La Cieca has just heard a whisper that the Met’s new Robert LePage Ring cycle for the Met (beginning in 2010-2011) is already in the midst of a major cast change: Christine Brewer looks likely to be the new Brünnhilde instead of the previously announced Deborah Voigt. UPDATE: Now La Cieca has also heard another…

on March 19, 2008 at 8:00 PM

This last-minute jump-in moves forward Robert Dean Smith‘s Met debut by two seasons. His official bow will be in a revival of Die Frau ohne Schatten in December 2009.

on March 19, 2008 at 3:25 PM
on March 19, 2008 at 1:28 PM

Little Stevie reports on last night’s “danger carpet” incident during the Met’s Tristan:

on March 19, 2008 at 10:11 AM

The most official-looking word La Cieca can find on Saturday afternoon’s Tristan HD adventure is here — and so, it seems, she was half right: Robert Dean Smith will sing the one performance, but only the one. Now, this was just an instinct before the online evidence was presented to her, but your doyenne was…

on March 18, 2008 at 7:02 PM

It used to be that us li’l online scribblers tried our best to imitate big-time print writers like James McCourt or Ethan Mordden. But now it seems, everyone wants to be bloggy. And since you asked, yes, La Cieca does have an example. Here’s Justin Davidson doing his best impression of Opera Chic!

on March 18, 2008 at 5:16 PM

Director of the Met and ENO Madama Butterfly (and librettist of the Met’s Osvaldo Golijovcommission) is dead at 54. Further details are not available at this time.

on March 18, 2008 at 10:08 AM

Cher public, La Cieca hopes you will join her tonight for a live chat during the Sirius and RealNetworks transmission of the Metropolitan Opera’s Ernani. Since the opera begins at 8:00, the chat room will open at 7:45.

on March 17, 2008 at 7:00 PM

Though La Cieca must say she can’t quite figure out whether the critic liked Gary Lehman‘s performance or not… “. . . Lehman has navigated quite well to date through persistently volatile and challenging financial markets, the sharp market wide decline in valuations across numerous asset classes, tight global liquidity conditions, and the strong headwinds…

on March 17, 2008 at 1:55 PM

As we know, the “Wall of LGBT Role Models” has been deleted from John Doyle‘s staging of Peter Grimes at the Met. In fact, there were a number of other explicit gay references in the production that were omitted or toned down after the dress rehearsal. For example, here’s a rejected costume for Anthony Dean…

on March 15, 2008 at 4:02 PM

Okay, since when did Thomas Hampson turn into Sean Connery?

on March 15, 2008 at 2:52 PM

Our Own JJ was at the Met last night (and part of this morning) to review Tristan und Isolde for Gay City News. As such he witnessed the rather astonishing series of events that Atomic Wings told you about earlier. La Cieca cannot of course ask JJ to comment on the specifics of the performance…

on March 15, 2008 at 1:53 AM

As your doyenne predicted yesterday, tenor Gary Lehman will sing tomorrow night’s Met performance of Tristan und Isolde, making his company and role debuts!  La Cieca hears from an authoritative source that Lehman will also Robert Dean Smith will be released from concerts in Milan and Luxembourg so he can sing the role opposite Deborah…

on March 13, 2008 at 4:32 PM

parterre mascot Izzy Anderson returns with yet another bash at “La donna e mobile.” Video impresario Wenarto obviously is working his connections like mad since he has managed to film this scene on the Act 2 set from the Met’s Tristan.

on March 13, 2008 at 10:29 AM

La Cieca hears that the Met is skedding tenor (erstwhile baritone) Gary Lehman for a Tristan staging rehearsal tomorrow. As La Cieca understands it, Lehman is a formal cover for the role (after John Mac Master) and so . . . well, just about anything may happen on Friday night.  And thereafter, actually.

on March 12, 2008 at 7:34 PM