More light entertainment from the First Annual Pitchy Awards: the prancing panniers of Max Emanuel Cencic. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/5awkNNA7XFM” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
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.
For Cassandra and others of the cher public who seem to be interested in the topic: here’s some operatic stage direction that’s a little more advanced than we tend to get here in New York. Discuss.
Miraculous Mariella Devia sings “Casta diva” at a New Year’s Day concert at La Fenice. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/1rEx2M5zRX0″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Mariella Devia at amazon.com
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These videos showed up first on Opera Chic but were posted by babyfairy.
A snippet from “The View” documents the immaculate jawline and unfortunate Keely Smith diction of The Diva of the Future. In keeping with the season, she sings the classic “Awl be whom faw Krismuss.”
Something about the role of Maddalena in Rigoletto seems to bring out the most extreme behavior in mezzo-sopranos, whether it’s the Brainfart of Herta Glaz or the celebrated Woman on the Verge of a Wardrobe Misfunction corsetry of Isola Jones. But the award for Most Hairpieces Ever Worn at the Same Time must surely go…
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Two people who probably should be discouraged from owning firearms, Thomas Hampson and Kathleen Battle, belt out a number from Irving Berlin‘s Annie Get Your Gun. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/HUSpNlhq6cQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Diva Angela Gheorghiu, due onstage at the Met next week for a new production of La rondine, is seen heard here as a remarkably complete package at the age of only 20. The video is dated 1986, four years before the soprano’s professional opera debut. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/8aBVrSgwp9o” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
A different look at Thaïs, this time from the Teatro Regio di Torino. Thaïs: Barbara Frittoli; Athanaël: Lado Ataneli; Nicias: Alessandro Liberatore. Teatro Regio di Torino. Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda. Stage direction, design and choreography by Stefano Poda.
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rcmu5du2jkw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] The troubled NYCO tries a new approach.
La Cieca knows that one should not judge any work by the odd snippet, but she’s going to go out on a limb here and predict that Frédéric Chaslin‘s Wuthering Heights will be the next big camp opera in the “Technicolor Twaddle” tradition of The Ghosts of Versailles and The First Emperor. Update: the videos…
The season at La Scala continues under the guidance of Daniele Gatti.
Extended clips of the La Scala Don Carlo as telecast on Sunday night — after the jump.
Glimpses of last night’s Don Carlo prima at La Scala:
Next week in New York will be notable for more than just Renée Fleming‘s first local whack at Thaïs. In fact, the night of Wednesday December 10 promises the convergence of two of La Cieca’s favorite demoiselles of dementia, Jessye Normous and Dorothy Bishop performing within minute and blocks of each other. La Bishop’s show,…
Doyenne of operatic tradition Montserrat Caballé offers her opinions on the art of her compatriot Calixto Bieito. (And what a very fair and balanced attitude the lady has!) [kml_flashembed movie=”http://de.youtube.com/v/IzYXu68wKfo” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] And La Cieca herself heard from an old. old, old friend who has sung a leading role in one of Bieito’s…
[probably NSFW!] [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/tVOvQuy2IIk” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
The genre-defying art of Florence Foster Jenkins is reborn in her namesake, Katherine. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/XFVhHL75PQg” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Some of you cher public will no doubt see the pendulum as swinging too far in the other direction, but La Cieca finds this particularly convincing and exciting deptiction of the relationship between Don Giovanni and Leporello a refreshing change of pace after the listless staging of Mozart’s masterpiece currently in the Met’s repertory. The…
La Cieca hears that the “TBA” Donna Elvira at the Met for the December run of performances will be Dorothea Röschmann (left) previously heard at the house as Susanna, Pamina and Ilia. She replaces the previously announced Petra Maria Schnitzer (not pictured).Â
Another astonishing discovery on YouTube, pointed out by a very cher member of the cher public. Courtesy of tenore23, here is Aprile Millo singing “Tu che le vanita” at the Arena di Verona. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/hmDguWslDUs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Anna Netrebko has her work cut out for her…
