Carmen
Gäelle Arquez sings the title role in a live broadcast from Rome
Parterre Box
This summer I’m reading A Time to Sing
I did not expect Dorothy Kirsten‘s autobiography to be so rewarding a read: I did so twice.
By Niel Rishoi
243 comments
Hey now, hear what I say now
A reminder to relax and refresh this summer by sharing your innermost operatic thoughts for The Talk of the Town
Dialogues des Carmélites
A live broadcast from Venice featuring Anna Caterina Antonacci as Madame de Croissy
Girl of summer
parterre box looks forward to the official start of summer tomorrow with a wistfully pointed performance of Samuel Barber‘s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” by soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha
The Comet/Poppea
Yuval Sharon and the American Modern Opera Company meld Monteverdi and George Lewis in a live performance from Lincoln Center
This summer I’m reading The Divas by Robert Merrill
A juicy, guilty pleasure read!
By Darby Fegan
68 comments
This summer I’m reading Verdi: A novel of the opera
According to the memoirs of Alma Mahler, her third husband, Franz Werfel used to wander around the cafés of Paris with one of his chums, singing arias from obscure Verdi operas at the top of their lungs until the management would ask them to move on.
By John Yohalem
36 comments
This summer I’m reading Cavalleria rusticana
Giovanni Verga‘s short story (which he adapted as a play with Giuseppe Giacosa) provides the basis for Mascagni‘s famous opera.
By Montagu James
41 comments
This summer I’m reading Wagnerism
Alex Ross wrote an exciting, gorgeously detailed examination of, for better or worse, Ricky’s far reaching influence on music, theatre, architecture, film, literature, mental illness, Satanism, Homosexuality, and rough sex.
By James Laferla
28 comments
This summer I’m reading Galina: A Russian Story
Vishnevskaya writes rather as she sings.
By Belfagor
30 comments
Die Walküre
Antonio Pappano leads a performance recorded in London last month
Il trittico
Asmik Grigorian pulls a hat trick in Puccini‘s triple bill recorded (and reviewed) last month in Paris
This summer I’m reading Fellow Travelers
With tenth anniversary productions of Fellow Travelers, the heart wrenching gay romance opera by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce, due to grace several major U.S. companies next season, what better way to commemorate Pride Month than by reading Thomas Mallon’s 2007 historical novel on which it’s based?
By Peter Russell
65 comments
Semele
Handel‘s scintillating oratorio in a live video broadcast from Atlanta Opera
Dear in headlights
Two women singing an operatic love duet is virtually an everyday occurrence, but two men? Not so much.
This summer I’m reading The Operas of Verdi
Julian Budden‘s masterful, three-volume analysis of the entire Verdi oeuvre is fascinating reading.
By Sanford Schimel
49 comments
This summer I’m reading Divas and Scholars
Although presented as an overview of the performance of Italian opera from the first half of the 19th century, Divas and Scholars is really an impassioned defense of musicology as a discipline and of Italian opera as a subject worthy of scholarly attention.
By Alben Barg
53 comments
This summer I’m reading Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven
If you love the astonishing vocal works of J. S. Bach, John Eliott Gardiner’s 2013 book is a deeply rewarding read.
By Astyanax
27 comments
This summer I’m reading Eleanor Steber: An Autobiography
A fascinating autobiography that delivers both on the diva anecdotes and on intelligent artistic observations about the singer’s life.
By Ben Miller
39 comments
This summer I’m reading The Operetta Empire: Music Theater in Early 20th C. Vienna
Fascinating account of the role of musical theater in an uneasy context of art emerging from the conflict and resolutions of high culture and popular sentimentality in an era where elites were challenged by political instability.
By Sarah Salter
69 comments
The Queen of Spades
The final Saturday Matinee Broadcast of the 2024-25 season, live from New York
This summer I’m reading Scènes de la vie de Bohème
Man, I tried so hard to get this commissioned as a radio drama, because I want everyone to know what a ride this book is.
By Armerjacquino
108 comments