Christopher Corwin began writing for parterre box in 2011 under the pen name “DeCaffarrelli.” His work has also appeared in Musical America, San Francisco Classical Voice and BAMNotes. Like many, he came to opera via the Saturday Met Opera broadcasts which he began listening to at age 11. His particular enthusiasm is 17th and 18th century opera. Since 2015 he has curated the weekly podcast Trove Thursday on parterre box presenting live recordings.
Christopher Corwin
Those anxiously anticipating two sleepwalking Annas during the Met’s opening weeks need wait no longer: “Trove Thursday” offers Bellini’s La Sonnambula with Anna Moffo (San Francisco 1960) or Anna Netrebko (Vienna 2006). Read more »
Since it premiered seven years ago, the Suzanne Andrade/Barrie Kosky animated production of Die Zauberflöte has proved wildly popular and has been remounted all over the world. Why then, during its New York City premiere Wednesday night for the opening of the Mostly Mozart Festival, did I mostly want to close my eyes and just listen? Read more »
Alisa Jordheim and Oliver Sewell in “La Gazza Ladra.”
Can a work with pages and pages of indisputably great music fail to add up to a successful opera? I puzzled over that Sunday during the four hours of Teatro Nuovo’s essential concert staging of Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra at SUNY Purchase. Luckily this perplexing yet enthralling semiseria will be repeated in Manhattan on Thursday at the Rose Theater and no one interested in bel canto should miss it. Read more »
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As Tanglewood prepares to present the Verdi Messa da Requiem this Saturday al fresco, “Trove Thursday” turns to the “other” coast for a double dose of this piece performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic: one outdoors with Teresa Stratas, Lili Chookasian, Richard Verreau and Ezio Flagello led by Zubin Mehta, while Carlo Maria Giulini conducts an indoor performance with Renata Scotto, Lucia Valentini-Terrani, Veriano Luchetti and Martti Talvela. Read more »
Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt in a 1967 Vienna broadcast appropriately featuring three American stars: John Alexander, Marilyn Zschau, and George London.
“Trove Thursday” turns to an opera by a gay American composer prior to Sunday’s Stonewall 50 commemoration: Samuel Barber’s gothic melodrama Vanessa starring the great Carol Vaness.
Trove Thursday presents La Périchole featuring Frederica von Stade’s only performance of the title role in a rare NYC concert version narrated by the inimitable Madeline Kahn.
Elina Garanca was radiantly present at Carnegie Hall Friday night performing a ravishingly somber Rückert-Lieder with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the MET Orchestra.
Cher Public