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
A double-barreled “Trove Thursday” birthday salute to Renée Fleming who turns 60 today: Boieldieu’s La Dame Blanche and Rossini’s Armida, both with Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall, plus a rare Fleming-Mozart bonus! Read more »
“Astonishingly convincing” Caitlin Hulcup.
While most of his 40 plus operas await even a single local hearing, Handel’s Radamisto returned to New York for the third time in six years when Opera Lafayette deftly performed this early masterpiece at the Kaye Playhouse Thursday evening in Seán Curran’s spare yet wonderfully effective production. 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 »
March will come in with a lion when the occasionally ferocious William Christie returns to the Brooklyn Academy of Music with two exquisite Rameau operas. In preparation “Trove Thursday” offers a broadcast of what may be the only French baroque tragédie en musique that he and his Les Arts Florissants performed but didn’t get to record: Alcyone by Marin Marais. Read more »
A beautiful concert of 18th century sacred music arrived at Weill Recital Hall performed by the soulful Polish Wunderkind Jakub Jósef Orlinski.
I was shocked to realize I hadn’t seen Don Giovanni at the Met since Michael Grandage’s stultifying production opened in 2011.
For the conclusion of its tribute to the late Montserrat Caballé, “Trove Thursday” offers Dvorak’s Armida.
Iolanta was crowned on Thursday evening by Sonya Yoncheva’s haunting portrayal of the blind title character.
A 1985 broadcast of Don Giovanni featuring Cheryl Studer, Gundula Janowitz (as Elvira!), Krisztina Laki, Gösta Winbergh, Hermann Prey (in a rare outing as the Don) and Malcolm King conducted by Jeffrey Tate.
Cher Public