Well, actually, yes, now you do. The New York Times is no longer the only major metropolitan daily whose music critic drools all over opera singers of the masculine persuasion. La Cieca is delighted to introduce the verbal stylings of David Mermelstein, who apparently is that gay man who has heretofore been trapped inside the…
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The Met’s second season of “Live in HD†continues on Saturday, March 15 at 1:30 pm/est with the new production of Britten’s Peter Grimes. Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey sings the title role, Patricia Racette is the kindhearted Ellen Orford, and Anthony Michaels-Moore is Balstrode. Donald Runnicles conducts. Intermission features include live interviews hosted by star…
A loyal reader writes: I wanted to let you know that the Tristan prima was a disaster. Only because of the Tristan (which, I guess we can’t relegate to a minor consideration), since it was otherwise mostly okay — if you can accept zero visual dramatic sense in the whole expedition. (As an extreme illustration of this…
La Cieca just heard that Ben Heppner has canceled the first night of the Met’s revival of Tristan und Isolde. John Mac Master will sing opposite Deborah Voigt.
Better to say “greatest misses,” La Cieca thinks, though even that phrase is flawed by a nearly Hollandaise level of inaccuracy. The errors and gaffes of the flannel-eared Times critic are surely too many and too egregious for one writer to anthologize; certainly they seem to have overwhelmed the Newspaper of Record’s squadrons of copy…
Sarah Jessica Parker takes a spill at the Metropolitan Opera yesterday during a photo shoot with Annie Liebovitz for Vogue.
Those early birds among you who were counting on getting a “preview” of this season’s Met Tristan tomorrow morning at the dress rehearsal will, as it turns out, will have to settle for only “und Isolde.” La Cieca has just been informed that Ben Heppner is sitting out the Generalprobe, with cover John Mac Master…
La Cieca hears that tonight’s performance of La traviata at the Met will be dedicated to the memory of Jerry Hadley. Sadly, operatic legends have been (to put it bluntly) dying in such droves lately that the dedications are falling farther and farther behind. For example, the New York Times has reported that the Met…
La Cieca has just exited the season preview for the Met’s 08-09 season (no, she was not thrown out, she left of her own volition) and here’s what’s up.
Cher public, the Met is expected to unveil the specifics of their 2008-2009 season later today. While we’re waiting for all the luscious and/or gory details, La Cieca thought it might be fun to do a quick recap of the season as is is predicted on Brad Wilber‘s MetManiac site. Brad (who historically is spot-on…
With his usual impeccable taste, Ed Rosen has posted five selections of prime Giuseppe di Stefano on his Premiere Opera Podcast page. Investigative Operachic follows reactions in the Italian media. Opera News has republished a profile of the tenor from 2000 with some representative di Stefano anecdotes. And here di Stefano appears on Il Musichiere,…
La Cieca hears from several authoritative sources that Diana Damrau will sing the autumn revival of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met, replacing the gravid Anna Netrebko.
“Obama, tall and handsome and blessed with a weighty baritone…” Newsweek Salon, always on the lookout for a story with a hook, posits that “there is something in the very essence of Obama’s voice — its tone, its timbre, its resonance” that inspires trust.
Our Own Sanford reports from this afternoon’s National Council Grand Finals Concert at the Met. First things first: No hunkentenors, but Edward Parks is a barihunk, and Christopher Magiera is almost a barihunk. Now to the important stuff. There were nine singers in the final, and I would say that 10 of them deserved to…
La Cieca has just learned more details about the Royal Opera’s Naked Executioner Guy and she’s sure that we all want to stay right on top of the story. Naked Executioner Guys’s real name is Duncan Meadows. He is a busker who, like so many in the busking biz, does the bulk of his bulking…
So La Cieca thinks it’s time to declare this officially: Kiri te Kanawa has become a mean old bat. The downbeat diva, most recently in the headlines for her controversial anti-panty policy, has gone and dished Hayley Westenra, who apparently is a New Zealand popera singer. (Well, to be perfectly fair, “apparently” isn’t so accurate…
Your doyenne is always diffident about asking you for financial aid, cher public, but recently a few of you inquired how you can help out. It’s easy, actually: using PayPal, you can donate as much (or as little) as you choose (or do not choose) using any major credit card. (For more information on PayPal…
As a followup to Karita Mattila‘s banana-themed halftime show during Manon Lescaut, La Cieca salutes bass-baritone Paul Whelan. The Armani-clad singer credits a favorite potassium-rich fruit (sometimes called “nature’s amphetamine”) for his well-publicized “rescue” of the English National Opera’s recent Lucy of the Lammermoors (or whatever it is they call it in English). Of course,…
La Cieca has just heard that Nancy Fabiola Herrera will sing the title role of Carmen tonight at the Met, replacing the ailing Olga Borodina.
La Cieca is happy to report that you, cher public, have made the Amazon Associates Program a rousing success, generating considerable income for the improvement and expansion of parterre.com. Over the past four months, you have purchased literally hundreds of items, of which the most popular can be seen right after the jump:
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