Sylvia Korman

Sylvia Korman is a recent graduate from Barnard College and a recent devotee of all things opera. They like mezzos in pants, Met Opera student tickets and reading the comments sections. See their tweets at ? boy eternal ? and people mad at opera.


A post-electric opera A post-electric opera

Two months ago, when climate activists interrupted a performance of Tannhaüser at the Met, the banners they unfurled from the balconies announced, “no opera on a dead planet.”

on January 22, 2024 at 9:00 AM
The school for music lovers The school for music lovers

Angel Island seemed a piece with two simultaneous goals: to musically interpret the poetry of Angel Island detainees and to educate its audience on the history of Asian and particularly Chinese immigration to America.

on January 15, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Let the river run Let the river run

In its Met premier, neither a talented cast nor some beautiful musical moments were enough to make Florencia feel new or vital.

on November 20, 2023 at 9:00 AM
Unicorn tapestry Unicorn tapestry

The Hunt’s strongest argument for the possibility of growth, connection, and agency even under adverse and restrictive circumstances lay, of course, in its music, in which three individual voices were able to combine and transform into something infinitely rich and strange.

on October 16, 2023 at 9:00 AM
Nervous system theater Nervous system theater

Like a sommelier of male entitlement, Peter Mattei paired with precision moves from a wide-ranging vocabulary of gesture.

on May 08, 2023 at 9:00 AM
Radically giddy Radically giddy

Verdi’s Falstaff is a brilliantly written opera: funny, with a complex ability to operate across minutely shifting registers of farce and lyricism. It needs, ideally, a production and cast capable of executing both comedy and drama, irony and sincerity—often concurrently. In its current Met revival, happily, Falstaff has everything it needs.

on March 14, 2023 at 4:32 PM
Mozart, maximally Mozart, maximally

Do you ever wonder how easy it is to invent a Christmas tradition?

on December 19, 2022 at 8:59 AM
Alone in the world Alone in the world

Step aside, Texas: “Everything is bigger at Aida” is the motto of the Met’s second attempt at retiring Sonja Frisell’s colossal production.

on December 03, 2022 at 9:28 PM
On a par with tuberculosis On a par with tuberculosis

Come back, Big Clock! We need you more than ever!

on October 27, 2022 at 10:00 AM
Resisting the recognizable Resisting the recognizable

It was Matthew Jocelyn’s libretto, with its disorientingly deconstructive approach to its source text, that gave Brett Dean’s Hamlet its identity.

on May 18, 2022 at 2:07 PM
Not really about ‘La bohème’ Not really about ‘La bohème’

What is there to say about the Franco Zeffirelli Bohème? What is left to say?

on November 12, 2021 at 2:48 PM
Better than the sum of its parts Better than the sum of its parts

Is there any opera more bullet-proof than Le Nozze di Figaro?

on February 07, 2020 at 10:16 AM
Faces in the crowd Faces in the crowd

Saturday night’s Rosenkavalier at the Met was an evening of excess — beautiful singing, sensitive acting, elaborate sets, and an unfortunate business that mars Robert Carsen’s otherwise excellent production.

on December 30, 2019 at 8:34 AM
Puppets and cherry blossoms Puppets and cherry blossoms

I find it difficult to experience Madama Butterfly without also experiencing an odd fracturing of the self.

on October 18, 2019 at 1:52 PM
Into the wooed Into the wooed

We are the elusive, the mysterious, the ever-courted Millennial Audience, Mr. Darcy to the marketing department’s Mrs. Bennet.

on April 30, 2019 at 9:51 AM
Dressed to kill Dressed to kill

Oh, that slippery Don Giovanni—so elusive, so chaotic, so open to no end of interpretation! 

on April 26, 2019 at 4:23 PM
The harsh untruth of the camera eye The harsh untruth of the camera eye

Ivo van Hove really seems to be everywhere lately.

on April 08, 2019 at 10:07 AM
Natural woman Natural woman

I do not envy Jennifer Rowley the task of stepping into Anna Netrebko’s shoes.

on January 25, 2019 at 9:00 AM
Whiskey tango foxtrot Whiskey tango foxtrot

I really cannot exaggerate the extent to which I truly did not know what was going on in New York City Opera’s production of Maria de Buenos Aires.

on October 23, 2018 at 3:10 PM
Go away from my window Go away from my window

Hunger was the note of the night, a sentiment shared between the audience and Proving Up, a lean and hungry one-act telling a story of drought and desperation on the post-Civil War Western frontier.

on September 27, 2018 at 2:26 PM
Elements of stile Elements of stile

I’m no fach expert but I will admit the “gay stile” is a new one for me — somewhere between the lyric and the dramatic tenor voices, perhaps?

on August 17, 2018 at 9:00 AM
Accentuate the positive Accentuate the positive

I love the comments that really seem to think they balanced the positive with the negative.

on August 10, 2018 at 9:40 AM
The savvy and the non-savvy The savvy and the non-savvy

Sounds like a better Friday night than “what the composer intended.” 

on August 03, 2018 at 11:43 AM
Heaven is a place on Broadway Heaven is a place on Broadway

Broadway’s new Head Over Heels is anything but under committed; it’s a show with an irresistibly fun spirit and an infallibly good heart.

on August 01, 2018 at 10:12 AM
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