Our Own JJ (not pictured) just came running into the parterre offices wild-eyed with excitement. And no wonder, because the news, once we got him to spit it out, is that he has been credentialed to cover the Bayreuth Festival this summer, reporting for the New York Post on the new Ring, Lohengrin and Der Fliegende Holländer.
“The spring season at the Met is as changeable as March weather in New York: crisp and brilliant for a day or two, and then suddenly as dismal as Thursday night’s Faust.” [New York Post]
“Short as Roman emperor Eliogabalo’s reign was, the world sighed in relief when it was over. I felt the same way about Gotham Chamber Opera’s performance Friday of Francesco Cavalli’s Eliogabalo. It was a shocker in exactly the wrong sense—an inept presentation from a company with a reputation for wit and refinement.” [New York Post]
Thursday’s Met performance of the Verdi tearjerker featured a major find: Diana Damrau, who, in her first outing as Violetta, mesmerized with her gleaming soprano and ferocious acting.
It’s not often operagoers leave humming the scenery, but that was the case Monday, when the Met hauled out Riccardo Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini from the vault.
With Wednesday’s stellar staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, the New York Philharmonic joyously put the ‘music’ back into the Broadway musical.
The Met’s performance of Don Carlo Friday night was a tragedy, but not for the reason Verdi intended.
Cher Public