Parterre Box
A performance recorded earlier this month at the Salzburg Easter Festival.
This to me is everything that makes Donizetti the great dramatist of the bel canto era.
When a revival of Handel‘s Ariodante in Boston coincides with the HD relay of the Met’s current revival of Le nozze di Figaro, parterre box can’t help but share a bit of Olga Kulchynska, the Met’s Susanna, singing the florid “Volate amori.”
The brave and beautiful Maartje Offers – best known from the potted Ring – lends her charismatic voice to Donizetti here.
Maybe this is an obvious choice, but this is the sort of performance that every opera queen dreams of attending: an unknown work being performed by a cast of largely unknown singers.
“Strauss makes me feel loved and like I am part of a world that is supernatural and extremely special,” says Elza van den Heever, the Met’s upcoming Salome, in a new feature at the Observer by parterre‘s very own Christopher Corwin.
A live broadcast from New York
Corinne Winters dons the habit in a live broadcast of a unique double bill from Rome
Donizetti’s never been a desert island composer of mine, but he comes close when I hear Edita Gruberova in her prime.
Assuming someone else will pick Leyla Gencer‘s legendary “Vil bastarda”, I’ll go with another clip featuring robust audience participation.
The Greatest Thing Ever (AKA Lisette Oropesa) in a stunning mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor with the excellent Artur Rucinski and Roberto Tagliavini in an extremely effective production by David Alden at the Teatro Real in Madrid.
For me, Donizetti’s operas are all about the mad scenes.
A broadcast from 1975 celebrates 50 years since the Met debut of Beverly Sills
Late Callas singing Maria from “Figlia del Reggimento” a role she wisely never attempted on stage.
parterre box offers a Good Friday pick-me-up: elusive chanteuse Juliana Grigoryan in perhaps her most canceled role, the soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem
Who knew that rehearing a performance you believed had become nothing more than a cherished memory would have such healing properties during a time of bereavement?
Jessica Pratt sings the title role in a live broadcast from Trieste
The ham in this pandemic-era let’s-put-on-a-show Elisir duet (from the Met at Home broadcast) may make the performance more sooey than sui generis. But I find it irresistible.
Well, it’s a clip from Mary Zimmermann‘s production of Lucia di Lammermoor… wait, wait, come back!
The German Heldentenor died yesterday at his home in Austria.
A live broadcast from New York
Does anyone remember Beverly Sills as the three Donizetti queens at NYCO? This made a huge impression on me.
The Met’s 2022 Lucia was divisive, to say the least, but it was the first time Lucia truly resonated with me.
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
