WindyCityOperaman
Dan Soda (Windy City Operaman) is a Chicago native whose first visit to opera was at age 17 and Massenet’s Werther with Troyanos and Kraus. Nothing was ever the same. Opera and concert performances, recordings and video are an obsession. He prepares Parterre Box’s daily birthday and anniversary tributes. He also enjoys concerts, live theater and movies.
On this day in 1938, the Archbishop of Dubuque, Francis J. L. Beckman, denounced swing music.
On this day in 1947 American actor Kevin Kline was born.
On this day in 1967, the musical Henry, Sweet Henry opened at the Palace Theater.
On this day in 1883, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opened with a performance of Gounod’s Faust.
On this day in 1803 the United States Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.
On this day in 1845, Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser premiered in Dresden.
On this day in 1902 American actress Miriam Hopkins was born.
On this day in 529 BC, King Cyrus the Great of Persia marched into the city of Babylon.
On this day in 1925 English-American actress Angela Lansbury was born.
On this day in 1793, Queen Marie-Antoinette of France was tried and convicted in a swift, pre-determined trial in the Palais de Justice, Paris, and condemned to death the following day.
On this day in 1930, Ethel Merman debuted on Broadway in Girl Crazy.
On this day in 1917 American puppeteer Burr Tillstrom was born.
On this day in 490 BC, the Athenians and their Plataean allies defeated the first Persian invasion force of Greece at the Battle of Marathon.
On this day in 1957, Welsh actress and screenwriter Dawn French was born.
On this day in 1919, Die Frau ohne Schatten premiered in Vienna.
On this day in 1890, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was born.
On this day in 1979, the revue Sugar Babies opened at Mark Hellinger Theater, to run 1208 performances.
On this day in 1955, American poet Allen Ginsberg performed his poem “Howl” for the first time at the Six Gallery in San Francisco.
On this day in 1889, the Moulin Rouge opened in Paris.
On this day in 1568, the Earl of Moray produced the Casket letters of Mary, Queen of Scots at a conference in York, headed by Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk.
On this day in 1961, Noël Coward‘s musical Sail Away opened at the Broadhurst Theater.
On this day in 1849, American author Edgar Allan Poe was found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland under mysterious circumstances.
Born on this day in 1890 Groucho Marx, American comedian, actor, and singer.
On this day in 1907, the Plaza Hotel opened in New York.
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.
