According to BBC News, “Classical star” Katherine Jenkins hopes to “take up” Placido Domingo‘s “offer” to “train” her to be an “opera singer.” “Placido Domingo has offered to train me and I’ll probably go to his house when we both have the time free,” Jenkins explained. “He’s a very generous person and he’s always trying…
La Cieca has Sylvia Sass will play Maria Callas. Or, to be more specific, Sass will, after a long career built on imitating Callas, literally play the Greek diva when she acts in a French production of the Terrence McNally play Master Class.
Oddly convergent divas Meg Ryan and Renée Fleming model the New New look in faces for fall.
Three-time World’s Best-selling Canadian Female Recording Artist of the Year Céline Dion apparently has not come to her senses in the eight months that have passed since her Las Vegas farewell. As La Cieca warned you last year, the québécoise canary is planning a crossover into the cinema, specifically a biopic in which she, Céline…
La Cieca has just heard the fascinating report that Cecilia Bartoli is to star in the musical biopic The Maria Guleghina Story, playing “Young Maria.” In related news, Maria Guleghina has accepted a featured role in The Cecilia Bartoli Story as “Herself” in a sequence based on the making of the musical biopic The Maria…
Fiorenza Cossotto. Tichina Vaughn. Irina Arkhipova. Viorica Cortez. Elena Cernei. Big voices. Bigger hair.
Oh, yes, La Cieca agrees that an opera based on the life and career of Hillary Rodham Clinton sounds like a great idea. But is this really a role for David Daniels?
A few minutes ago the Met’s website was updated to reflect the key casting news that the role of Lady Macbeth will be sung by Hasmik Papian in the final three performances of Verdi’s Macbeth this season. These three dates were originally assigned to Andrea Gruber, who now officially will sing no performances at the…
Now here’s some political news La Cieca can follow with interest: Merkel surprises with daring décolleté at Oslo opera That how The Local described German Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s appearance as a special guest at Saturday night’s gala celebrating the opening of Den Norske Opera’s new auditorium. It seems Die Kanzlerin racked up a double handful…
Say what you will about Sylvie Valayre, the lady is certainly game, as can be seen both in this Regied-out scene from Nabucco: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/fJYn-D1TDw8″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] … and this production of Macbeth where (apparently) the Konzept for the Lady was “Patti LuPone meets Patti LaBelle.” [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/xj-hWDVvG9I” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
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:
Well, La Cieca must say that she thinks it’s absolutely lovely that Renée Fleming is so generous a colleague. Not only did she lend Susan Graham a dress for her hosting duties on tonight’s Live from Lincoln Center, she lent Suzy her hair as well!
Even a veteran sob sister like La Cieca cannot cover the vast field of opera all by herself, though goodness knows she does her best. But one must give credit where credit is due. As such your doyenne wants to offer her thanks to a journal which is rapidly becoming her source for the best…
From the Vienna State Opera in January 1988, the first part of the Rossini opera you, cher public, chose: Il viaggio a Reims. Among the all-star cast in this episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera:
It is La Cieca’s sad duty to publish the following example of “This Diva Looks Like That Diva.”