Christian Ocier
Christian Ocier emerged fully formed one eros-filled evening from the nocturnal thrum of Tristan und Isolde’s Liebesnacht. During the Tag half of his life’s equation, he doubles as a pâtissier and a nanophotonic materials science Ph.D. student, a degree which he will soon complete at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Christian’s serious love for opera was sparked during his mid-teens after listening to Carlo Maria Giulini’s 5-Act Don Carlo. Eventually, his tastes gravitated to the dramas of Wagner, Strauss, Bartok, Janacek and Berg. To him few things make Nacht more transcendent than great performances of Tristan, Die Frau Ohne Schatten or Lulu—the trifecta of operas he adores the most. His tortes, entremets, and entrées honoring great musicians include La Stemme Divine (Nina Stemme), Le Grande Lise (Lise Davidsen), and Ravioli all’Ambrogio Maestri.
Imagine my surprise then when I discovered a new recording of Tristan und Isolde released by Navona Records, a small label based in New Hampshire that primarily focuses on recitals of chamber music, solo works, and smaller ensemble pieces.
The first part of a chat with the dramatic mezzo-soprano.
Anna Netrebko’s voice to me sounds like a very expensive chocolate covered strawberry.
Lise Davidsen, who makes her role debut tonight as Leonore in Fidelio, is still very early in what appears to be a most promising career.
When I think of Nina Stemme’s voice, I think of gianduja, Armagnac soaked dark cherries, and chestnuts.
Rossini’s Semiramide is a highly original and imaginative work of theater that impresses for its creative and beautifully scored orchestration, incisive recitatives and ensembles, and theatrically intriguing characters.
The musical director of the Opera Royal de Wallonie at Liege is currently experiencing the early phase of a promising international career in music.
Following classic recordings documenting the work of Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan. Orfeo’s 150 Years Wiener Staatsoper box moves on to new releases that are seeing their first incarnation on an officially available disc.
Orfeo’s 150 Years box chronologically documents some of the finest nights of live opera from the Wiener Staatsoper in the years following its restoration in 1955.
David Alden’s acclaimed production of Leos Janácek’s Jenufa was mounted for its final performance of the season during the evening that I experienced my first opera at Santa Fe.
In this recital, the Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny and his pianist Lech Napierala present the world premiere recording of Stanislaw Baranczak‘s Podróz Zimowa (Winter’s Journey), which weds the poet’s meticulously crafted poetry to the music of Franz Schubert.
Tannhäuser pales beside the other great Wagnerian operas in the degree to which it has innovated the Regisseur’s vocabulary for set design and dramaturgy.
Riccardo Muti’s vision of Aida’s score largely emerged as one of subtlety, musicality, and restraint.
The Wiener Staatsoper commemorated its 150th anniversary with a musically sensational presentation of Richard Strauss’ Die Frau Ohne Schatten.
Lise Davidsen, the young Norwegian soprano who won the Operalia competition in 2015, makes her debut as a recording artist with the Decca label in a new recital of Wagner and Strauss arias and orchestral songs.
The opera proved somewhat puzzling—the score representing more a collage of fragmented and incidental musical ideas, and the libretto a turgid, slow-moving mass of purple prose.
Cycle II represented an embarrassment of musical riches.
Christian Thielemann is widely regarded as our time’s preeminent master of the Austro-German symphonic ensemble.
I’d like to create a pasta dish in honor of Ambrogio Maestri’s art.
Wagner’s Ring is an artistic masterpiece that is peerless in its ability to continually reveal layers of musical, theatrical, and philosophical insight
I thought it would be a great exercise for commenters to organize something of a Parterre Fachbuch.
Nina Stemme’s Elektra is familiar to me in three different incarnations.
Helga Dernesch is the singer whom I largely credit for rekindling my love for opera.
Claudio Abbado passed away on the 20th of January five years ago, just months before I began my Ph.D.
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.
