Parterre Box
A Baroque Valentine’s with Opera Lafayette | Feb | DC & NYC
Celebrate love in all its guises with tender ballads, amorous duets, cheeky verses, and bawdy drinking songs plus food, cocktails and wine.
This performance represents a perfect alignment of piece, performer, director, and conductor – the epitome of Gesamtkunstwerk.
In the midst of an eventful summer for the Arena di Verona, one important happening has flown under the radar: the return of Anita Rachvelishvili to her signature role of Carmen, of which Parterre Box features a sample of today
Rita Gorr as Ortrud, Bayreuth, 1959, Cluytens.
Iván Fischer leads an all-Hungarian team in a broadcast from the Proms
The superb 1958 Bayreuth Lohengrin, under the wonderful Cluytens.
Recency bias is in full swing here, but Glyndebourne’s first ever staging of Parsifal – and my first Parsifal – takes top prize for me.
A performance recorded earlier this summer at The Santa Fe Opera
I went to hear Eileen Farrell conducted by Leonard Bernstein at the Philharmonic in 1970.
A live broadcast from the Verbier Festival
Trouble in Tahiti and A Quiet Place in a performance recorded last fall in London
I suppose Der fliegende Holländer is my favorite Wagner opera — a riveting masterpiece from start to finish, dramatically and musically.
A recent review of Olga Maslova as Aïda is as good a reason as any to share a clip of her fascinating Turandot
Lisette Oropesa and Kate Lindsey star in a live video broadcast from Salzburg
Eleanor Steber and Wolfgang Windgassen in the Act III bridal chamber scene of Lohengrin.
The groundbreaking director and designer of works like Einstein on the Beach died earlier today at his home in Water Mill, New York
Mady Mesplé’s voice has, sadly, become an acquired taste.
The final installment of the 2025 Ring from Bayreuth
I never got to hear Silja in person, and I suspect I should have for me to even begin to appreciate her.
This clip is a strong case for leaving non-operatic music alone.
STEMdiva status
Ahead of a special boozy, bawdy Valentine’s Day concert, artistic director of Opera Lafayette Patrick Quigley speaks with soprano Maya Kherani about her journey from MIT to rising American Baroque star.
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.