Parterre Box
Beckmesser’s serenade never fails to amuse, particularly when sung by Thomas Allen in this ROH recording from 1997 under the late Haitink with Tomlinson, Gustafson, Winbergh, and Lippert.
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.
The color, power, and character are all there in this recording.
Parsifal puts Monsieur to sleep when he most needs it. He has probably listened to more versions than actually exist.
This may be a rather trite choice, but I genuinely believe that Rossini comedies make the ultimate comfort operas.
This sequence of two arias is perfectly judged to calm the jangled or melancholic spirit.
Anna Netrebko managed to debut a new role in Naples earlier this month — Amelia in Un ballo in maschera — and this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag features her in the complete second Act of her first performance.
This performance truly “never fails to lift my mood.”
Der Rosenkavalier is a three-hour meditation on nostalgia. What could be better to bathe in?
Parterre Box features an exclusive sample of Lawrence Brownlee‘s jump-in performance in La sonnambula from this weekend
‘Comfort opera.’ Hmm… I had to give this one some thought.
I have listened to this clip on the way to every first date I’ve ever been on.
Mere days remain to contribute to The Talk of the Town for the rest of the year!
The opera is life affirming, but also recognizes that life comes to an end.
Today’s Grand Tier Grab Bag features Chiara Isotton and Joyce El-Khoury as two murderous mommies in the final scene of Cherubini‘s Medea (and Medée)
My comfort opera is Elektra. Yes, you read correctly, Elektra.
The old Nilsson/Corelli radio checks from the 1960s are a reminder that what this opera needs are VOICES.
Other queens have been richer of voice or more dramatically compelling, but none I have ever heard succeeds in sounding something other than human.
Conchita Supervia (1895-1936), Spanish mezzo, never fails to lift my spirits, in practically everything she sang.
Suck it, Joseph Kerman: Puccini’s “Shabby Little Shocker” has outlived you and will probably bury us all.
Wozzeck. Yes, really.
From an early age I knew I should have been French.
Today’s Grand Tier Grab Bag features a snippet from Carolina López Moreno and Antonio Pappano‘s recent Rondine in London.
We will have two Bellinis in new productions, with the best possible casts that can be assembled.
Messiah remains ubiquitous, but several of Handel’s other superb English oratorios will be given enticing performances during the 2025-26 season.
