Gabrielle Ferrari

Gabrielle Ferrari is a PhD student at Columbia University researching gender and sexuality in British music, twentieth-century opera, and classical music and popular culture. She has degrees in music and English literature from Southern Methodist University and her Masters in Historical Musicology from Columbia University. If she isn't watching opera, writing about an opera, or reading about an opera, she's probably singing opera. When she's feeling a little bit wild, she dabbles in oratorio and musical theater.


Destiny’s child Destiny’s child

While you may need to bring along your Dramamine, the Met’s new production of La forza del destino, does—eventually—spin fast enough to achieve escape velocity.

on February 28, 2024 at 9:00 AM
London calling London calling

I watched the finals for this year’s George and Nora London Foundation competition and would like to offer, if not a traditional review, a brief roundup of who I found exceptionally watchable and whom I think you, dear parterre boxers, should watch out for in the next few years.

on February 21, 2024 at 10:00 AM
Star vehicles Star vehicles

This Carmen, in other words, was somewhat less radical than its initial image suggested.

on January 03, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Nighthawks Nighthawks

Edward Hopper’s paintings from the 1930s and 1940s are simply lousy with windows.

on November 21, 2023 at 9:00 AM
Double take Double take

German opera-director Claus Guth has reimagined Schwanengesang as a series of scarred soldier’s visions in Doppelgänger, showing this week in at the Park Avenue Armory.

on September 26, 2023 at 10:00 AM
Free Byrd Free Byrd

Death of Classical, under the direction of founder Andrew Ousley, is interested in enlivening the classical music genre by organizing events in Green-Wood Cemetery, usually with a focus on food and drink.

on June 13, 2023 at 2:33 PM
Calling all fairies! Calling all fairies!

Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, presented at Carnegie Hall this past Wednesday by MasterVoices, is a charming rom-com that pits the feminine world of nature against masculine government with unabashedly silly and utterly delightful results.

on May 06, 2023 at 2:53 PM
“You must change your life” “You must change your life”

This was a wonderful concert because MIchael Tilson Thomas approached every moment of it with an air of expansiveness and gratitude.

on March 13, 2023 at 3:52 PM
The final strangeness The final strangeness

What’s the status of the American Dream nowadays? Did it ever really exist? If it’s dead, why isn’t it gone?

on February 19, 2023 at 11:23 AM
She dreamed a dream She dreamed a dream

Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin, and Moss Hart’s 1941 musical Lady in the Dark is a psychoanalytical romantic comedy. It simultaneously mocks and takes seriously the power of looking inward  to understand oneself, a process which can be silly, frustrating and life-changing in turn.

on February 01, 2023 at 12:15 PM
How stable everything appears How stable everything appears

Plink. A marble drops into a bowl. A brief yelp from glass, and a dozen, a hundred, a thousand years pass. Eventually the bowl is full of marbles, each one a tiny globe.

on January 09, 2023 at 5:37 AM
Disorientation Disorientation

Teatro Nuovo took a big risk in a bad way on Wednesday with its revival of Rossini’s Maometto II.

on November 05, 2022 at 12:00 PM
The clue whose meaning we avoid The clue whose meaning we avoid

We watch Peter Grimes being made into a deviant— a process that can take place through the mechanism of the law, but often happens outside of it through social processes.

on October 17, 2022 at 3:23 PM
Take the long way Rome Take the long way Rome

David McVicar’s 2017 production of Tosca returned to the Met on Tuesday night, with an able and watchable, if not transcendent cast.

on October 06, 2022 at 8:20 PM
So damn bored So damn bored

It’s nasty world, Shostakovich seems to say, where life alternates between boring and terrifying.

on September 30, 2022 at 1:38 PM
A different type of self-consciousness altogether A different type of self-consciousness altogether

Emily D’Angelo, in a moment of subversion, sang the entire program wearing casual trousers, a vest, and chunky combat boots, her cropped hair slightly mussed, and wearing only light make-up.

on September 20, 2022 at 12:42 PM
Sister tract Sister tract

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is perfect figure for an opera; known, but not known enough, especially in English-speaking countries, with a life that involved plenty of love, poetry and tragedy.

on August 24, 2022 at 2:51 PM
Varying the song Varying the song

The opera The Rake’s Progress, as many people know already, was inspired by a series of engravings and paintings of the same name by William Hogarth, showing the decline of a young man into depravity and insanity.

on May 31, 2022 at 2:19 PM
Reviving a pharaoh Reviving a pharaoh

The Met brought back 2019 smash Akhnaten last night, with nearly the exact same cast and creative team, and with nearly the same knockout effect of three years ago.

on May 20, 2022 at 1:26 PM
Strangeness of the body Strangeness of the body

On this past, rainy Thursday, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s delivered a really rather extraordinary performance of the St. Matthew Passion.  To me, this evening was a fascinating exploration of work.

on April 12, 2022 at 10:00 AM
Baby got backup Baby got backup

Michel van der Aa’s new opera UPLOAD at the Park Avenue Armory explores the various ethical issues surrounding AI while coming back to a set of classic philosophical questions about free will, pain and the nature of the soul.

on March 23, 2022 at 12:28 PM
From A to Z From A to Z

Has there ever been a more perfect opera to watch after a breakup than Ariadne auf Naxos?

on March 18, 2022 at 8:22 AM
Crazy business this Crazy business this

Despite a star-studded cast, last night’s Anyone Can Whistle at Carnegie Hall ultimately failed to take flight.

on March 11, 2022 at 5:32 PM
Turandot doesn’t exist Turandot doesn’t exist

It’s back to business as usual at the Met, for better and for worse.

on October 14, 2021 at 8:00 AM
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