Looking for a little weekend entertainment? You could shell out $20 to watch thespian Nicholas Cage ride across an IMAX screen in a reprisal of his breakout role as a beleaguered bounty hunter in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 3D. Or, you can hang onto that Jackson 'til next fall, when the Metropolitan Opera introduces a new seat pricing system that will increase the price of premium seats while bringing down the price of cheaper seats to just twenty bucks a pop. more ›

Oh sure, science hasn't quite been able to create real life Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles yet, but they've made amazing strides in creating other hybrid animals, such as Zebroids (horse/zebra), Ligers (lion/tigers) and Wholphins (whale/dolphin). Judging by the awesome video below, it seems a new hybrid is already in existence: The Opizzera (opera singer/pizza slinger). more ›

In a strange turn of events, a mezzo-soprano who moonlights as a wildlife rehabilitator has absconded with Fred, a pigeon that had become a favorite source of amusement for police assigned to the 9/11 Memorial. Earlier this month Jennifer Dudley, a singer at the Met and City Opera, read about Fred in the New York Post, which reported that officers had been formally reprimanded for goofing around with the bird. After hearing reports that Fred had gone from landing on officers' shoulders to defecating on them, Dudley became concerned about Fred's state of mind, and spent ten days trying to catch the pigeon. more ›

During the performance of Faust at the Metropolitan Opera last night, mezzo soprano Wendy White fell eight feet off the stage. The NY Times reports, "Members of the audience said that during Act III, as Ms. White, in the role of Marthe, was walking onto a platform from a staircase behind René Pape, who was playing Méphistophélès, a clattering sound was heard and she disappeared from view." more ›

Tenor singer Salvatore Licitra, who made a splash at the Metropolitan Opera by filling in for Luciano Pavarotti, has died in Italy following a severe motorscooter accident last month. The death was announced on Licitra's website, which said that Licitra has been in a coma since sustaining severe head and chest injuries during an August 27th accident in Sicily. He was 43. more ›

New York City Opera announced yesterday that it will move out of Lincoln Center and plan a smaller season of new operas this fall. According to the NY Times, the City Opera will stage five operas and three concerts at various (though not-yet named) venues, "just two years after a $107 million renovation at its Lincoln Center home." more ›

We admit we have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to opera. Oh sure, we perk up when we hear about bedbugs invading Lincoln Center, or the Metropolitan Opera Idol contest, but those reports are few and far between. But when opera singers start battling age-old stereotypes about their profession and delivering babies minutes before they perform at the Met, we have to tip our hats to these belting jacks-of-all-trades. more ›

The public gets a chance to watch the "most prestigious voice competition in North America" this Sunday with the Metropolitan Opera's National Council Auditions Grand Finals Concert. Tickets are still available for the 3 p.m. event which features eight aspiring opera singers—selected from nearly 1500 who were heard during auditions across the U.S. and Canada—performing with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra—and in front of "opera company executives, artist managers, music critics, and other opinion-makers of the music world." more ›

A concert pianist who claims she was manhandled and unfairly arrested last year while attending a performance at The Metropolitan Opera is suing the NYPD over the "brutal police conduct" and "excessive force." Julliard graduate and opera lover Aviva Aranovich claims that Officer Fernando Grace forcibly removed her from The Met during the premiere of "Hamlet" over a misunderstanding with her ticket. "He grabbed her like you would grab a toy from your little brother and pulled her down the stairs. She fell down the stairs and hit her head - hard," said her lawyer Mark Marino. more ›

9/11 has been covered in pretty much any medium you can think of (poetry, movies, books, paintings, etc.). And now it gets the operatic treatment. The San Francisco Opera today announced the cast for "Heart of a Soldier," an opera from composer Christopher Theofanidis with a libretto by Donna DiNovelli. The new work, which is based on the book of the same name, tells the story of Rick Rescorla, the head of security for Morgan Stanley who died shepherding people to safety during the attack. It will premiere on September 10. And the more we think about it the more opera actually seems like a pretty natural fit for a story that still looms so large in the public's mind. more ›

Last night, the Metropolitan Opera premiered its lavish new production of Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold (the first opera from the four-opera cycle The Ring). The $16 million production features a specially-designed set that worked well—up until the very end. more ›

A generous donor has taken big steps to close the Metropolitan Opera’s $4 million budget gap, cutting the operahouse a check for $30 million. The donation—which sets a record as the most generous in the Met’s history—comes from Ann Ziff, widow of publishing exec William Ziff and daughter to soprano Harriet Henders. It couldn’t come a at a better time, since the concert hall was beginning to look a bit desperate—implementing high-tech, though questionably appealing, measures like beaming its performances into movie theaters worldwide. Ziff told the Times she’ll forgive the Met its little experiments. “Whether I like a new production or not, I don’t feel is important,” she said. “To get these new audiences, we need to try new things.” Now if only someone would extend the same generosity towards the MTA. more ›

Opera singer Gabriela Pochinki, whose loud cellphone speakerphone conversation at an Upper West Side restaurant led to a row last week, is relieved that she can avoid jail if she stays out of trouble. So now she's telling the Post and the Daily News why she got so carried away on the phone (hint, it was because of Michael Jackson!). more ›

The Argentinian opera star who was nearly arrested after throwing a tantrum at an Upper West Side restaurant had her day in court yesterday. Soprano Gabriela Pochinki had been carrying on a noisy cell phone conversation via speakerphone at restaurant Nice Matin when a manager asked her to pipe down. When Pochinki blew her off, the manager asked her to leave—four times, and then Pochinki allegedly flew into a rage, shoved her, and refused to pay her bill. more ›

A sexy South American opera singer who behaved like a real diva in an Upper West Side restaurant is due in court today to face charges of trespassing, theft of service, and disorderly conduct. It all started when diners at restaurant Nice Matin complained that soprano Gabriela Pochinki was carrying on a noisy cell phone conversation via speakerphone. And when a manager had the nerve to tell Pochinki—a Fulbright scholar who was the toast of Vienna for her portrayal of Maria in West Side Story—to pipe down, she got quite an earful! more ›

The Met opened its season last night with Puccini's Tosca, by risk-taking Swiss-born director Luc Bondy. But opera is no place for risks, and according to the Times, the well-heeled audience booed the hell out of Bondy when he emerged at curtain call. The message from the Met audience was clear: Mess with our favorite classics again, and we will cut you up like Gilda in Rigoletto. more ›

While Barack Obama hasn't visited New York since becoming President, First Lady Michelle Obama has returned time and again. She was just on Sesame Street earlier this month, and now she's back with a few cultural stops on her schedule today. "This visit is crafted, according to East Wing guidance, to allow Mrs. Obama to continue to demonstrate her interest in and support for the arts by attending the ribbon cutting for the Metropolitan Museum of Art American Wing. In the evening she will attend the American Ballet Opening Spring Gala at the Metropolitan Opera House." Doesn't sound like she'll be visiting the portrait of her at the New Museum, but expect high security in those other areas today and tonight! [via Mrs. O] more ›

Ever thought about what your bus driver, or the people on your bus for that matter, do when they're not on the job? The NY Times has a story about one bus driver, Christopher Dolan, who has been driving for the city for 27 years and belts out operas on his route. That certainly makes the 2 bucks easier to hand over. more ›

Is it possible for a show to be simultaneously entertaining and annoying? Such is the paradox presented by Elizabeth Swados and Erin Courtney's propulsive opera Kasper Hauser at the Flea Theater. The performances by this talented young cast are uniformly excellent, the staging is mesmerizing, the music is fun and engrossing, and yet... at the nexus of all this dazzling theatricality is the title character, a pigeon toed half-wit with a tendency to drool and babble incoherently. He's sitting onstage as one enters the theater, manically rolling a toy horse back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. The performance was delayed on the night I attended, and after about 15 minutes I began fantasizing about jumping onstage and stomping the squeaky-wheeled toy to bits. That irritation never really abated, though it was balanced out by Swados's stellar score and dynamic direction. more ›

Sometimes budget cuts fall in the forest, so while you are all worked up about the plants and animals on Paterson's chopping block, we're betting you turned a deaf ear to the opera's budget drama. The NY Times reports that "the Metropolitan Opera has been bludgeoned by the recession and now faces a 'disaster scenario' unless the company finds major cost cuts, including concessions from its powerful unions." more ›

After 60 years on the Bowery, the fat lady has sung for the Amato Opera; it will close at the end of May. The Times reports that Anthony Amato, the company’s 88-year-old founder, broke the news to his company before Saturday night’s performance of The Merry Widow. Curbed did some digging and found that Amato sold the building to Croman Real Estate last month for $3.7 million, or $681 per square-foot. Steve Croman, the new owner, has been previously blasted by the Village Voice as one of the city's worst landlords, and it's doubtful that opera will still resonate from the old tenement theater after this season ends, with The Marriage of Figaro. The news comes despite a vow from Amato's niece to run the opera when he'd had enough. Last January Vanishing New York checked out an Amato production of La Boheme and prophesied, "Go and enjoy, before it's too late." more ›

Hipster haven Williamsburg is about to get a new venue, but it won't be for the skinny jean set...unless they ironically attend? Oh, who can keep up anymore! This is pretty interesting news though, Opera Oggi New York will be reopening MacCaddin Memorial Hall Theater at 288 Berry Street (between South 2nd and South 3rd Streets). The 600 seat theater has a "50 foot proscenium arch raked stage and a balcony, plenty of fly space with classic brick and wood and plaster construction has been found." Rehearsals are already underway, with performances of L'Oracolo by Leone on November 6th and 7th. More details here. [via Williamsburg is Dead] more ›

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Each summer the Met offers a free outdoor performance, and the one-night-only event is going down in Prospect Park later this evening. Two of the opera world's biggest stars, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna, will be belting out duets as Ion Marin conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. more ›

Annie Proulx's 1997 short story that became 2005's big screen breakout Brokeback Mountain, is finding its way to the stage. It's being reported that The New York City Opera wants to adapt the story, and Charles Wuorinen has been tapped to compose the operatic incarnation.

The opera is scheduled to premiere in spring 2013, City Opera said Sunday. It will be City Opera's second Wuorinen premiere, following Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which was based on a Salman Rushdie novel and opened in October 2004. more ›