parterre box
I first saw her perform with Portland Opera in Lucia. I subsequently saw her in Traviata, also in Portland. Later, I saw her as both Gilda and Juliette as the Met.
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Following the successful launch of the new regular feature The Talk of the Town in January, the team at the box is inviting contributions for a new quarter of operatic potpourri.
Not sure if she’s under-appreciated per se, but hers is my favorite Manon Lescaut with Jussi Björling.
A performance recorded earlier this year at the Teatro Regio di Parma.
parterre box is titillated (in the most prudishly puritanical way possible) to share a clip from the Paris Opera’s recent production of I Puritani starring Lisette Oropesa and Lawrence Brownlee
The assumption is that singers, singing in their own language, will be more expressive and idiomatic. The reality is that it often seldom makes a difference.
Diana Soviero, America’s standard-setter in Puccini and verismo — an artist whose vocalism was luminous, and whose inner conviction achieved the ultimate in shattering, profoundly moving emotional intensity.
I first heard Patrizia Ciofi in a production of La traviata from Venice. It was a very modern production set in present day, but still she shown through her performance was just incredible.
East Germany’s Hochdramatische icon, Berlin’s local Nachtigall.
“Baritone Thomas Glass will sing the role of Starbuck in tonight’s performance of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, replacing Peter Mattei, who has withdrawn due to illness.”
Unfortunately, Barbara Haveman does not perform very much anymore and she did not leave many recordings.
My parents- heroes that they were- used to drive me to Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus (RIP, to both the store and while we’re here, to my parents) after dinner on my birthday, to take advantage of the fact that it was open until midnight.
A 2010 broadcast documenting Yannick Nézet-Séguin‘s Metropolitan Opera debut performances
Corinne Winters and Karita Mattila lead a performance recorded last month in London
Many of us of a certain age had the good luck to see Benita Valente frequently at the Met. My memory is that she was treated rather like a house singer at first, and only later was appreciated for her extraordinary gifts.
Following the successful launch of the new regular feature The Talk of the Town in January, the team at the box is inviting contributions for a new quarter of operatic potpourri.
Ahead of Natalie Dessay‘s adieu to classical music and upcoming American turn, parterre box offers a sample of her in Gounod‘s “Jewel Song” recorded just last year.
Mussorgsky‘s Khovanshchina is one of the most gripping operatic political dramas ever written, with lots of gorgeous melodies and superb choral writing.
Great score; let anyone but Jeremy Sams concoct a new libretto!
It used to be proverbial on the Met Opera Quiz, usually quoted by quiz master Edward Downes: “If you can’t remember where a certain plot event occurs … it happens in La Gioconda.”
I know that there is no chance that Met will ever do this since they have decided to focus on contemporary opera at the expense of reviving older works. Still it has some of Donizetti’s most moving and striking moments. The plot is so over the top gothic that it could still be quite effective.
Following the peek at Asmik Grigorian‘s attempt, parterre box humbly offers an in-house snippet of Federica Lombardi‘s “Casta Diva” from a few blocks over on the Ringstrasse
