Parterre Box
This summer I’m reading Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
I first read Edith Hamilton‘s classic book on Greek mythology about sixty years ago.
By Moe Rear
38 comments
This summer I’m reading a juicy diva autobiography
What better beach read than a juicy diva autobiography?
By Richard Lynn
65 comments
This summer I’m reading The Music Goes Round
The earliest days of recording told by F.W. Gaisberg, the man who recorded Patti, Melba, Moreschi, and Tamagno among many others.
By Belle Raggio
33 comments
Ah! Bella a me ritorna
Norma returns La Scala this week for the first time in nearly 40 years and parterre box marks the occasion with titular druidess Marina Rebeka singing a bit of Verdi
This summer I’m reading Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment
Not really an opera book but, c’mon, it’s Bach.
By David Phillips
39 comments
Peter Grimes
Nicky Spence sings the title role in a performance recorded earlier this spring in Cardiff
Carmen
Gäelle Arquez sings the title role in a live broadcast from Rome
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
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).