Dear in headlights
Two women singing an operatic love duet is virtually an everyday occurrence, but two men? Not so much.
Parterre Box
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
Masc et femme fatale
parterre box celebrates the beginning of Pride Month with a throwback to one of the queerer events in recent operatic memory: a bit of Carmen starring Jamie Barton and Stephanie Blythe!
This summer I’m reading How Sondheim Can Change Your Life
Not about opera per se, Sweeney Todd notwithstanding, but I’m looking forward to reading the poignant and touching ode to Sondheim’s oeuvre by Richard Schoch.
By Leyla Gender-Bender
17 comments
This summer I’m reading The Uncle from Rome
Joseph Caldwell produced this charming tale from a year spent in Italy on the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
By John Yohalem
22 comments
This summer I’m reading poetry by Muriel Rukeyser
I think most of us have come around to recognizing John Adams‘s Doctor Atomic the masterpiece that it is.
By Harry Rose
33 comments
Antony and Cleopatra
The final live weeknight broadcast of the 2024-25 season from New York
This summer I’m reading Dom Carlos
A bleak and somber version of the familiar story by Saint-Réal, mixing facts with fiction, making it even more tragical than the Verdi opera.
By Remko Jas
33 comments
This summer I’m reading The White Hotel
Because D.M. Thomas‘s book was a famous book back in its day — I read it in the mid-eighties, yet have forgotten 90% of what it’s all about.
By Camille
95 comments
This summer I’m reading Fifty Five Years in Five Acts
Astrid Varnay‘s autobiography. Entertaining, cogent. Shows wit and character. Much more than “I sang, I got applause, and everyone loved me.”
By Scott Grunow
37 comments
Did somebody say something?
Act now to join the starry ranks of The Talk of the Town contributors for a new quarter of à propos chitter chatter!
Werther
Benjamin Bernheim sings the title role opposite Marina Viotti in a performance from Paris recorded last month
Armerjacquino says you must watch The White Lotus
I’m bending the rules a little here, and not only substituting TV for film, but turning the category on its head by doing Movies At The Opera rather than the other way round.
By Armerjacquino
38 comments
Il fascino immortale
Corinne Winters is back at the Met and back in the pages of parterre box, which inclines us to share a bit of Winters in Jenufa
Il trovatore
A live performance streamed from the Wiener Staatsoper.
Montagu James says you must watch Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now (1979) uses Richard Wagner‘s “Ride of the Valkyries” to terrifying effect, depicting the brutality and horror of impersonal aerial warfare in the Vietnam War.
By Montagu James
43 comments
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).