parterre box

Bess, is you our woman now?

lacieca — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:39:00 +0000

Or, to put it another way, could this soprano be what the Met needs for Roberto Devereux?

While you ponder the future, you can enjoy the past: the final act of Verdi’s Macbeth is now on Unnatural Acts of Opera.

A fine kettle

lacieca — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:47:00 +0000

OperaChic caught the story first, and now it’s even made the AP: Juan Diego Flórez has canceled Chicago (and anything else on the agenda for the next six weeks or so) due to a throat infection from a swallowed fishbone.

Joyce DiDonato in Maria Stuarda

lacieca — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:31:00 +0000

La DiDonato is joined here by Gabriele Fontana and Eric Cutler in this 2005 video.

Body Neo-Nazis

lacieca — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:29:00 +0000

So, if you’re wondering why Jerry Springer: the Opera is called “the opera” –

30-day flu grips music industry!

lacieca — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:00:00 +0000

UPDATE: La Cieca has heard from more than one reliable source that Juan Diego Flórez is yet another victim of whatever it is that’s mowing down all the Almavivas. The tenor, she hears, has canceled Barbiere di Siviglia at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Word on the street is that John Osborn will be released from L’elisir d’amore at Palm Beach so he may sing the Rossini in Chicago, with performances beginning February 11 opposite Joyce DiDonato and Nathan Gunn. LOC subscribers (already reeling over having Angela Gheorghiu, Barbara Frittoli, Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Peter Mattei, Bernadette Manca di Nissa and Ambrogio Maestri yoinked from this season’s roster) should gird themselves for a belated press release sometime today.

From the Met’s press office: “José Manuel Zapata will sing the role of Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia on Thursday, February 21 at 8 p.m., Monday, February 25 at 8 p.m., and Friday, February 29 at 8 p.m. He replaces Michael Schade, who is indisposed.” [emphasis added]

What do you think you are? A pair of queens?

lacieca — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 03:05:00 +0000

The Met officially announced today that the company will stage Anna Bolena for Anna Netrebko for the opening night of the 2011-2012 season (old news to you, cher public!) and, the following season, Maria Stuarda for Joyce DiDonato.

The company has no current plans to produce Roberto Devereux. In what La Cieca is choosing to consider a stinging slap in the face to — well, at least one soprano — Peter Gelb explained, “The problem is casting ….There’s no singer around today who can sing [Elisabetta].”

And you may make what you will of la Netrebko’s statement about the Bolena: “Fortunately, it’s far enough in the future that I’ll have time to learn it really well.”

Frocked up

lacieca — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 03:00:00 +0000

UPDATED: Now with even more operatic tackiness!

A sampling of Diva Dress Disasters submitted by the cher public.Seen worse disasters? Email La Cieca!

Cessa di più eseguire?

lacieca — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 01:26:00 +0000

La Cieca hears that, beginning tonight, Jose Manuel Zapata will omit Almaviva’s final aria from the remaining performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia this season at the Met.

"Shirtless Teddy Tahu Rhodes Doing Push Ups"

lacieca — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:59:00 +0000

Oh, what more delightful headline can be imagined? Well, perhaps “Florida free-fall sends Giuliani from hero to zero” — that’s great news too. But back to important matters. Did La Cieca mention that for his current stint in Dead Man Walking The Teddster has shaved his head?

Singing, actress

lacieca — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:41:00 +0000

For those of you who were stumped by Lady Number Six, here’s the mysterious dame herself, Galina Vishnevskaya, in a more accustomed version of Lady Macbeth, the 1966 film by Mikhail Shapiro of Katerina Izmailova.

The great diva returned to the screen only last year in Alexandra (directed by Alexander Sokurov), playing an elderly woman who makes the trek to Chechnya to visit her grandson, who has been stationed there as a soldier for seven years.