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
“Trove Thursday” drafts a 1960s All-Star team for Verdi’s Il Trovatore broadcast from the Teatro Colón with Leontyne Price, Fiorenza Cossotto, Carlo Bergonzi, Piero Cappuccilli and, of course, Ivo Vinco. Read more »
As we await Saturday’s Das Rheingold and the return of the Robert Lepage Ring to the Met with both dread and anticipation, “Trove Thursday” leaps to the end of the cycle with a slightly abridged Götterdämmerung (three hours or so) featuring Amy Shuard as Brünnhilde, a heroic but lesser-known Wagnerian of the 60s and early 70s. Read more »
Director Ivo van Hove, in collaboration with Flemish opera company Muziektheater Transparant, brings his trademark physicality and stripped-down aesthetic to bear on Leoš Janáček‘s “pathbreaking, emotionally raw song cycle” (The New York Times) Diary of One Who Disappeared. Featuring bravura performances by tenor Andrew Dickinson and mezzo-soprano Marie Hamard and additional music by composer Annelies Van Parys, BAM presents the US Premiere of this contemporary update April 4—6 at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House.
In 1917, Czech composer Janáček became obsessed with a married woman 40 years his junior. In the throes of despair, he penned more than 700 love letters and a haunting 22-part song cycle, about a village boy who falls in love with a Romany girl. Van Hove’s contemporary reimagining of Janáček’s Diary of One Who Disappeared paints a deeply affecting portrait of identity, infatuation, and ultimately, alienation. Read more »
If being stuck in an emergency room past 1:30 AM wasn’t bad enough, my injury happened heading home from the most disappointing performance in 30 otherwise glorious years of William Christie and Les Arts Florissants visiting New York City. Read more »
Sondra Radvanovsky returned for her 29th Met Aïda Thursday night (but only her second Aïda.)
Although Gustav Mahler never wrote an opera, his colossal Eighth Symphony “The Symphony of a Thousand” may give us some glimpses of what a Mahler opera might have sounded like
Since 1985, from the Chicago Symphony at Carnegie Hall to the Welsh National Opera visiting BAM and from Chicago Lyric to New York City Opera to the Met, I’ve never encountered a bad Falstaff—or one that didn’t astound and delight me.
“Trove Thursday” this week features the earliest of the fat-knight operas: Antonio Salieri’s 1799 Falstaff.
A double-barreled “Trove Thursday” birthday salute to Renée Fleming who turns 60 today.
Cher Public