La Cieca is putting her entire nest egg into popcorn futures, since next season opera lovers will rarely emerge from their local movie palace. The Met will do an astonishing 11 HD simulcasts during the 2008-2009 season.  Monday, September 22, 2008: Opening Night Gala starring the astonishingly well-preserved Renée Fleming in fully staged performances of La Traviata (Act…

By on April 22, 2008 at 3:48 PM
65 comments

Resilient tenor Rolando Villazón makes a guest appearance on the TV talent search show “Musical Showstar 2008.” In a serious mood, RV performs “The Impossible Dream,” but then things turn very silly indeed when host Thomas Gottschalk (the Ryan Seacrest of Germany) joins the tenor for a production number from Monty Python’s Spamalot. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Xdtfqvj-Gr8″…

By on April 19, 2008 at 1:54 PM
22 comments

La Cieca did a bit of nosing around about the abrupt departure of Jeffrey Vanderveen from IMG, and this is how the story is shaping up. Vanderveen’s upcoming gig is the creation of a new division at Universal Music Group devoted to the production and promotion of Tibor Rudas style arena concerts for Universal Classics’ recording artists.…

By on March 12, 2008 at 11:47 AM
30 comments

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.

By on February 29, 2008 at 1:27 PM
116 comments

Another “Return of Villazón” sound clip from Ed Rosen‘s Premiere Opera Podcast, featuring Rolando Villazón and Sophie Koch in this extended scene from Act 3 of Werther. (Performance on January 28 in Vienna.) Werther

By on February 13, 2008 at 3:18 PM
3 comments

Well, no, of course, there’s no such thing as too many tenors, but it’s good to know we have so many high male voices around these days. One from the present (Rolando Villazon) and one from the past (Beniamino Gigli) are featured in Ed Rosen’s recently-debuted podcast, and one for the future is parterre favorite…

By on March 18, 2006 at 12:05 AM
38 comments

Rolando Villazon not apparently in his very best form but La Cieca is very impressed with a) his willingness to sing out and take chances even when he is less than 100% and b) his well-supported legato that is the basis of even his most vehement singing. Anna Netrebko found a way to interpret Gilda…

By on December 18, 2005 at 2:08 AM
24 comments

La Cieca, ear to ground as always, has picked up some reliable-sounding scuttlebutt about the incoming Peter Gelb regime at the Met. The first decade will probably be known as “All Villazon All the Time” since (per our source), Rolando Villazon has inked a pledge to sing two operas a year at the Met for…

By on November 17, 2005 at 2:46 AM
32 comments

Rolando Villazon says he’s willing to do nudity, but only if it’s called for in the story of the opera. Might La Cieca hope that such a plot-driven rationale be found to get budding hunkentenor Stephen Costello to strip off during OONY’s Guglielmo Tell this Sunday? Well, perhaps not. But (so La Cieca heard at…

By on November 09, 2005 at 4:05 PM
12 comments

UPDATE: Not only are Gli Alagni scheduled for Aida at La Scala in 2006 (as noted yesterday), La Cieca has just heard that Peter Gelb has promised them a new production of Carmen at the Met in 2009-10. And, yes, Gheorghiu is the Carmen, not the Micaela. This is all at least four years in…

By on October 21, 2005 at 3:53 PM
13 comments

Anna Netrebko is Anne Welles! Rolando Villazon is Lyon Burke! On the silver screen, every thrill, every shock of the best-selling novel by Jacqueline Susann! Uh, make that “the best-selling opera by Giuseppe Verdi…

By on August 09, 2005 at 2:29 PM
Reply