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.
People these days often exclaim “…..is everything!” but often it feels like gross hyperbole. But surely anyone who has seen Mark Morris’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato since it premiered in 1989 would agree that it is indeed everything!
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I was reminded at the Met’s season premiere of Eugene Onegin Friday night always to expect the unexpected.
For those who complain (not entirely unfairly) that Handel operas are “just a string of da capo arias,” I sometimes mutter to myself, “Have they ever tried Rameau?”
Gabriela Benacková, one of Trove Thursday’s favorite sopranos, turns 75 tomorrow, so we celebrate with two rare complete Verdi portrayals.
Trove Thursday welcomes the return to the Met of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin on March 25 with a collection of important moments from the opera.
While it must be admitted that Elza van den Heever doesn’t have an ideally warm and agile Handel voice, she evidenced fierce control over her instrument and skillfully built a powerful portrait of the courageous Rodelida fighting for her survival.
Jaromir Weinberger’s Svanda dudák is rarely performed at all and more often than not in German rather than its original Czech, so Trove Thursday inevitably offers Schwanda der Dudelsackpfeifer from Dresden with Marjorie Owens, Tichina Vaughn, Christoph Pohl and Ladislav Elgr.
The Met’s new Don Carlos has prompted a lot of discussion lately about opera-in-translation, so Trove Thursday this week offers two works unexpectedly performed in French: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snegourotchka and Weber’s Euryanthe.
When was the last time the Metropolitan Opera mounted a new production that was musically outstanding yet the direction and/or design mostly sucked?
Jordi Savall and William Christie, 80 and 77 respectively, stand as the two senior masters whose recordings and appearances have done the most over the past decades to build a healthy local enthusiasm for pre-Classical music.
Trove Thursday offers Shostakovich’s 1962 Katerina Izmailova with Australian soprano Marie Collier as its anti-heroine and Jon Vickers as her lover.
Minutes into “An die Nacht,” the first song Friday night, I realized how much I’d missed being enveloped in that seductive Straussian combination of a soprano (or two or three) rising higher and higher over a surging orchestra.
Next Wednesday is the composer’s 337th birthday, so Trove Thursday previews this spring’s most enticing Handel performance with two very different live versions of his delightful Serse,.
Trove Thursday offers a 1994 “pirate” of Ariadne auf Naxos featuring Gabriela Benacková and Natalie Dessay, along with another Viennese diva pairing: Benacková and Sena Jurinac in the second act of Janacek’s Jenufa.
Don Carlos is my favorite Verdi opera, and I’m always in favor of including the most music. But it can be a dizzying task to keep track of all the options.
Today is Mozart’s 266th birthday and I had already planned a Trove Thursday celebration when I learned that Maria Ewing had died on January 9.
Teresa Zylis-Gara died in late August at 91 and Trove Thursday offers the Polish soprano in a wide-ranging collection of live material showcasing her great versatility.
Trove Thursday offers a nearly forgotten 19th century opera with a most marvelous name: Le Roi d’Ys by Éduoard Lalo featuring a superb French cast led by Alain Vanzo, Andrea Guiot, Jane Rhodes and Robert Massard.
Despite having lost its announced Cherubino, conductor and Count (the latter in the midst of rehearsals), the season premiere of Le Nozze di Figaro Saturday afternoon proved to be one of the most enjoyable Met Mozart performances I’ve attended in ages.
Trove Thursday begins 2022 with a favorite magical opera tinkered with by another great composer: Weber’s Der Freischütz in Berlioz’s French version conducted by Christoph Eschenbach with the great José van Dam as Gaspard!
Un ballo in maschera—but instead of a tragedy, an opera buffa—and in Danish?
For Christmas 2021 Trove Thursday welcomes The Three Wise Cis-Men each bearing a broadcast of my favorite sacred work by Mozart, the “Great” Mass in C minor, featuring a sterling American soprano: Kathleen Battle, Arleen Augér and Lisette Oropesa.
A good time seemed to be had by all though I don’t recall seeing a single child in attendance.
Since my previous CD round-up review the onslaught of solo recital disks of 18th century (and sometimes also 17th) vocal music has continued unabated.
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