Parterre Box
Régine Crespin singing the Wesendonck Lieder is the most beautiful Wagner singing I’ve ever heard.
All of the Teatro Colón live opera recordings conducted by Fritz Busch are special, but his 1936 Parsifal is my favorite.
The start of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro provides a perfect opportunity to enjoy a bit of the breathtaking Vasilisa Berzhanskaya recorded there last summer
Dame Gwyneth Jones as Brünnhilde pretty much started it all for me.
Daniela Barcellona leads a live broadcast from the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro
Júlia Várady‘s smoldering, almost feral Sieglinde from the Sawallisch/Lehnhoff Ring, remains my favorite.
A live broadcast from the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro
This is one of my favorite operas, and visually and story telling-wise, you can’t beat this production.
One final appeal for you to share what most titillates you in the upcoming season for September’s The Talk of the Town
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
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
