Parterre Box
Esclarmonde is the only answer to the question of what the Met should revive.
It is time for the Met to revive Puccini‘s masterpiece and his best work IMHO, Il trittico.
It’s fascinating, and gorgeous, and over the top, and it requires a director to make actual decisions in a way that causes clutching of pearls when it happens in a production of a better known opera.
The San Francisco Opera announces its 2025-26 season.
The American bass, a fixture of the Metropolitan Opera between 1967 and 2018, was 83.
Der Freischütz has not been seen at the Met since 1972!
Every mediocre performance of Trovatore (and don’t we know about those?) could instead be a very good performance of Massenet‘s Hérodiade.
Verdi’s Les vêpres siciliennes — not I vespri siciliani, but the French original.
Korngold‘s opera in a live broadcast from Boston
A live broadcast from the Vienna Staatsoper conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.
Renée Fleming leads a performance recorded in New York in 2007
The forces of the Teatro La Fenice in a performance of Respighi‘s opera recorded last spring at Venice’s Teatro Malibran
Peter—may I call you Peter? It has come to our attention that you are seeking operas with “rich, melodic scores.”
This is an astonishing recording by one of the greatest singers of the 19th century.
The Greatest Thing Ever (AKA Lisette Oropesa) in a stunning performance of “Martern aller Arten”
Never heard more beautiful runs than by Della Casa.
A message from CEO and General Director Piper Gunnarson and Board President Corey Kinger announces the closure of the innovative New York-based On Site Opera
William Christie curates an evening of French Baroque music in a live broadcast from Carnegie Hall.
Lise Davidsen and Michael Spyres, now in a live video broadcast from Vienna.
Idomeneo from the 2022 Aix festival. A wacky production, with those moving towers, but the cast is outstanding: Michael Spyres (Idomeneo), Anna Bonitatibus (Idamante), Sabine Devieilhe (Ilia), Nicole Chevalier (Elettra); Raphaël Pichon, Conductor.
One of the most purely gorgeous voices I’ve ever heard live.
Mozart: Zaide, K.344 / Act 1: “Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben” · Lucia Popp · Vienna Haydn Orchestra · István Kertész from Mozart Opera Festival ? 1972 Decca Music Group Limited
A live broadcast of a new production from the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
A live video broadcast from Reggio Emilia featuring rising stars Annalisa Stroppa and Benedetta Torre.
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
