Michael Steinberg

Michael P. Steinberg teaches European History and Music at Brown University. He is the author of The Problem with Wagner (2018) and served as dramaturg on Guy Cassiers’s Ring for La Scala and Berlin (2010-13). He thanks Harry Rose and Montagu James for good suggestions for my Forza piece!

Sing out, <em>Louise</em> Sing out, <em>Louise</em>

Christof Loy‘s Louise in Aix-en-Provence scratches at the urban– and operatic– unconscious

By August 15, 2025 at 9:00 AM
22 comments
Up stares, down stares Up stares, down stares

Ahead of tomorrow’s Live in HD, Michael Steinberg talks Leonore, Salome, and the “endemic misogyny” of Claus Guth‘s new production

By May 16, 2025 at 10:00 AM
19 comments
A Requiem for the Country? A Requiem for the Country?

Michael Steinberg on Riccardo Muti, fascism, and who speaks through the collective voice of the Verdi Requiem.

By November 05, 2024 at 10:00 AM
12 comments
Unconscious coupling Unconscious coupling

Pelléas and Mélisande are not transparent to themselves. Which means: they each have an unconscious.

By July 29, 2024 at 9:00 AM
18 comments
The commendatore effect The commendatore effect

In an ingenious stroke of double casting, the Met’s new Forza del destino brings back the Marquis of Calatrava—father of the heroine Leonora, unintentionally killed in the opening scene by a bullet from her lover’s pistol—as Padre Guardiano, Father Superior of the monastery that will take her under its protection as a hermit in Act 2.

By March 08, 2024 at 9:00 AM
15 comments