Unbreak my harp
A performance of Rossini’s Otello ossia Il Moro di Venezia from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, featuring Mariella Devia, Bruce Ford and Juan Diego Florez.
Christopher Corwin
Christopher Corwin began writing for parterre box in 2011 under the pen name “DeCaffarrelli.” His work has also appeared in , The New York Times, Musical America, The Observer, 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.
Emperor concerto
The fifth annual edition of Trove Thursday’s “Handel for my Birthday” actually falls on the very day this year, and there are few broadcasts I love more than the 1972 BBC Tamerlano starring the greatest Janet Baker along with Norma Burrowes, Patricia Kern, Maureen Lehane and Alexander Young.
Riddle me this
Turandot finally arrives on Trove Thursday, but it’s the setting by Ferruccio Busoni which predates by a decade the one by that other Italian guy, and it’s paired today with Arlecchino, the composer’s other commedia dell’arte-influenced short opera.
No country for gold men
Trove Thursday offers two very different live recordings of Halévy’s grand opera La Juive.
A wig and a prayer
A snarky commentator might dub last night at the Met “Boris of the divo hair flip” but that would do a disservice to a serious, often effective performance of the challenging original version of Mussorgsky’s masterpiece.
I’m a Slav 4 U
Trove Thursday joins with those who prayed for opera to reopen worldwide for two broadcasts—more than fifty years apart–of Janacek’s stunning Glagolitic Mass, one conducted by Robert Shaw featuring Martina Arroyo, the other with Asmik Grigorian (pictured) led by rising American Karina Canellakis.
Divas by the dozen
Anticipating Chicago’s prima donna-debut weekend and with apologies to Dorothy Bishop (not pictured), Trove Thursday mounts its own “Dozen Divas Show.”
Tauride zone
This week Trove Thursday presents Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride in three stirring broadcasts starring Rita Gorr, Gré Brouwenstijn and Sena Jurinac
By Porpora demand
Important European revivals this season would like to return Nicola Porpora to the remarkable prominence he held during the first half of the 18th century. Trove Thursday argues his case with a “pirate” recording of Polifemo featuring Franco Fagioli in a star performance along with Xavier Sabata (pictured), Laura Aikin, Mary-Ellen Nesi and Christian Senn.
Get ready for the judgment day
In anticipation of the Met’s reopening performance on September 11, another serving of pandemic-hoarding arrives on Trove Thursday with 10 rare live performances of the Verdi Requiem’s concluding “Libera me.”
Uninvited ghost
Trove Thursday sends best wishes to Michael Tilson Thomas, currently recovering from a recent surgery to remove a brain tumor, and presents him in a broadcast leading the UK premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mlada with Makvala Kasrashvili, Felicity Palmer, Jon Frederic West and Sergei Leiferkus.
And five for Mahler
Trove Thursday returns to vocal works of Gustav Mahler!
Fun and games
As Tokyo’s games wind down, Trove Thursday’s are just beginning with settings of L’Olimpiade, an important Metastasio libretto, by Giovanni Pergolesi and Domenico Cimarosa, both featuring gold-medal mezzo Anna Bonitatibus.
Round Table discussion
Like many composers of his generation, Ernest Chausson was enthralled by Wagner and he too turned to legend for his only opera, one that would consume him for final decade of his brief life.
The 50-Year-Old Virgin
Joan of Arc inspired many splendid works of art including Tchaikovsky’s Orleanskaya Deva which Trove Thursday presents today in a 1975 broadcast featuring the great Russian mezzo Irina Arkhipova and her husband tenor Vladislav Piavko.
Rossini al fresco
Last night, for the first time in nearly a year and a half, opera returned to Lincoln Center.
Sworded lives
Trove Thursday previews Bard Summerscape’s upcoming production of Ernest Chausson’s Le Roi Arthus with a recent Paris broadcast conducted by Philippe Jordan featuring the doomed love triangle portrayed by Sophie Koch, Roberto Alagna and Thomas Hampson.
Color Me Barbiere
Live opera returns to Lincoln Center when Teatro Nuovo presents Il Barbiere di Siviglia on July 27 and 28.
The queen’s gambit
Lately I’ve been loving listening to Régine Crespin, prompting Trove Thursday to celebrate the great French soprano with private in-house recordings of two of her important non-Met North American appearances.
The March King
Celebrating Independence Day didn’t seem like a great idea in recent years, but for hope-filled 2021 Trove Thursday offers El Capitan, John Philip Sousa’s best-known operetta.
“Jonathan loved him as his own soul”
Trove Thursday celebrates Pride with a Bible-based homoerotic sort-of opera not by the guy who wrote “Depuis le jour”: Charpentier’s David et Jonathas with Mark Padmore, Laurent Naouri and Jaël Azzaretti led by Emmanuelle Haïm.
Love letters
March 2, 2020 – June 18, 2021: Those 15 months were the longest I’ve gone without attending a live opera performance since high school.
Two by two
Were Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne 20th century opera’s ultimate same-sex pairing?
Desperate housewife
As New Yorkers swelter in the Fahrenheit 90s. Trove Thursday escapes to wintry Vienna 1920s for Richard Strauss’s Intermezzo (in English) sumptuously conducted by Julius Rudel and starring the incomparable Elisabeth Söderström as the delicious, exasperating wife of Alan Titus.
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
