An old clip, but worth repeating: Gina Lollobrigida plays Lina Cavalieri plays Floria Tosca in La donna più bella del mondo.
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
Ya are 91 years old today!
Following up on her rant in an earlier thread, La Cieca now proposes the debate continue on the perhaps not perfectly defined issue of “composer’s intentions.” After the jump, discussion material.
Obviously, Danielle de Niese is all about the singing, or, anyway, all about the slamming bod, and then the singing. But she does talk from time to time, and when she talks, she sounds strangely familiar.
Wow, but he does this well! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/mYg9IvjVmds” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Today, September 12, thousands of protesters opposed to health care reform marched in Washington and elsewhere, carrying signs like the ones pictured above. This “9/12 Project” is brought to you in part by Americans for Prosperity, which you will all recall is headed by David H. Koch, the billionaire who is to be honored at…
La Cieca continues her salute to Kennedy Honoree Grace Bumbry with this 1973 documentary.
This is crossover that stops just short of crossdressing.
Offhand, La Cieca would never have thought of Così fan tutte done as a telenovela, but honestly? She’s seen a lot worse. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/oQwtjYkKoz0″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Ildebrando d’Arcangelo and Andrea Concetti get chummy in this scene from Don Giovanni. [via Barihunks]
La Cieca figures if Adelaida Negri can make a comeback, so can your doyenne.
La Cieca wishes her cher public a joyous and safe St. Bartholomew’s Day.
“Verismo,” Renée Fleming informs us, “means truth.” What better demonstration of this artist’s dedication to the real-life (not to say the mundane) than her apparent decision to fire her stylist and hairdresser in hopes of achieving a greater naturalism of appearance. Indeed, La Cieca would say that Fleming has succeeded: at least as documented in…
From that rarest and most coveted of all camp crossover efforts, the Sylvia Sass disco album:
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/goFTDbMyRUs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] The Gran Teatre del Liceu has posted 70 clips from a variety of their opera productions over the last decade or so. Great singing and improbable regie: who could ask for anything more?
Here’s a glimpse of Marina Poplavskaya in the Willy Decker production of La traviata, coming to the Met in 2010. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/cJSjDBSnnUw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
This is someone we need to hear more of. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/lOraQt705FY” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/zeMMG440Ce0″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
A birthday salute from Finnish firecracker Karita Mattila.
La Cieca has to admit that what she thought would be a bang-up notion turned out to be a total damp squib: the “Letter” competition failed to rouse much interest. The sole (albeit very fine) entry follows the jump.
Yesterday, a performance of Lucrezia Borgia was telecast in Europe (previously recorded during a July 6 performance). This Christof Loy production from the Bayerische Staatsoper features Edita Gruberova in her first staged Lucrezia, in the company of Pavol Breslik (Gennaro) and Alice Coote (Maffio Orsini). A selection of clips follows the jump.
La Cieca may have pointed this out before, but it’s worth pointing out again. Is this film clip the ultimate Renée Fleming experience, or what?
Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala are seen (briefly) in this clip from Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, as produced at Baden-Baden.
La Cieca is simply beside herself to announce what she is confident will be both the biggest and most exciting parterre box competition of all time. This competition is called “Reading the Letter,” and it will test that most basic of opera queen skills, i.e., pretending to be a soprano. After the jump, La Cieca…
A Baroque Valentine’s with Opera Lafayette | Feb | DC & NYC
Celebrate love in all its guises with tender ballads, amorous duets, cheeky verses, and bawdy drinking songs plus food, cocktails and wine.
STEMdiva status
Ahead of a special boozy, bawdy Valentine’s Day concert, artistic director of Opera Lafayette Patrick Quigley speaks with soprano Maya Kherani about her journey from MIT to rising American Baroque star.