Every November I begin to regularly check out Year End Lists which collects the top 10-, 25- or even 50-lists from all over the internet. They’re great fun to peruse and agree or, more often, disagree with. In hopes of encouraging parterre box readers to concoct their own, I’ve put together:

My Dozen Divas/Divos of 2024 (in no particular order)

1. Elza van den Heever & Russell Thomas

This celestial pair soared above all in the Met’s recent revival of Die Frau ohne Schatten, one Strauss opera that continues to elude my grasp.

2. Michael Spyres

The tenor’s initial ventures into Wagner proved fantastically successful: his first Lohengrin in Strasbourg and his first Siegmund at the Bayreuth Festival. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=744aNSbscLo

3. Marie Lys, Anna Denis, Sophie Junker, Raffaella Milanesi, and Anna Bonitatibus

These five superb baroque specialists (who rarely perform in the US) were standouts during my first visit to the Halle Handel-Festspiele in May.

4. Jonathan Tetelman

The prize for the most egregious curtain call I’ve ever seen at the Met after his preening Pinkerton—his portrayal only served to make me appreciate Asmik Grigorian’s haunting Cio-Cio-San even more.

Bye, Felicia!

5. Lise Davidsen

In 2024 alone the Norwegian soprano conquered (some of) NYC with her Forza Leonora, Tosca and Wesendonck Lieder, as well as introduced her smashing Salome in Paris and act two of her Isolde in Munich.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFyz0nASOU0

6. Mikey Madison (Anora); Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths); Lêa Seydoux (The Beast); Daniel Craig (Queer) & Josh O’Connor (La Chimera & Challengers)

My five favorite movie divas/divos of this year. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GvC0-42F58

7. Elina Garanca

Her sumptuous Judith in a concert Bluebeard’s Castle with the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall reminded me how much I’ve missed her and got me praying that she shows up for Amneris in April.

8. The entire cast and chorus of the Berlin Staatsoper’s Khovanshchina

So exciting to experience Mussorgsky’s great opera again is a mostly persuasive staging by Claus Guth. I hope that the Simon McBurney version due next year in Salzburg will be one Met co-production that actually ends up in New York (unlike three recent European Handel hits)!

9. Benjamin Bernheim

The stylish French tenor memorably turned woeful Bartlett Sher productions of Roméo et Juliette (in which he was paired spectacularly with Nadine Sierra) and Les Contes d’Hoffmann into “can’t miss” Met events.

10. Gwendoline Blondeel

The Belgian’s crystalline soprano is featured in my very favorite CD of 2024: Mondonville’s Le Carnaval du Parnasse. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve listened to this delectable romp which never fails to put a smile on my face. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWCyocxtHOI

Blondeel was also part of the wonderful Vox Luminis ensemble that performed a heavenly Purcell Fairy Queen in Dortmund in June.

11. Criterion Closet cases

The premiere producer of DVDs and BluRays has expanded its fascinating series of film people snatching up copies of their favorites.

A particularly charming recent Closet case features a surprising Pamela Anderson. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyo_tJuhw8U

12. Harry Rose

Immeasurable thanks to Bonnie Prince Harry for his tireless efforts to assure that parterre box continued to flourish–and appear daily without fail–throughout 2024.