Questo e Quello
On this day in 1786 Le nozze di Figaro premiered in Vienna.
La Cieca (not pictured) welcomes you, cher public, to the real-time chat for this afternoon’s Met broadcast (and HD!) of Elektra, starting at 12:55 PM.
On this day in 1803 the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million.
A semi-staging of Dido and Aeneas starring Broadway divas and frequent collaborators Kelli O’Hara and Victoria Clark seemed a screwy idea at best.
“It started out as something of a dinner party crowd-pleaser.”
On this say in 1429 Joan of Arc arrived at the seige of Orleans.
“Trove Thursday” presents Jonas Kaufmann‘s only performance (thus far) of Max in Weber’s Der Freischütz.
On this day in 1965 Barbra Streisand starred in My Name is Barbra on CBS.
On this day in 1922 Fritz Lang‘s film Dr Mabuse, der Spieler premiered in Berlin.
Anna Netrebko has withdrawn from the Met’s Norma scheduled for opening night 2017
On this day in 1970 Company opened at the Alvin Theatre to run 690 performances.
Welcome, cher public, to the real-time chat for tonight’s Met broadcast of La boheme, starting at 7:25 PM.
Giuseppe Verdi was so unhappy with the first production of his Giovanna d’Arco at La Scala in 1845 that he swore an oath to himself that he would never entrust that theatre with a prima again.
This season’s Met Donizetti Tudor Trilogy concluded with Roberto Devereux, given its penultimate performance by HD transmission Saturday, April 16. It is good to see these works finally given here; they are too important, too crucial a part of the operatic repertory to have been ignored for as long as they have.
The no-star, slapstick revival of John Dexter’s 37-year-old production of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail that opened Friday night proved James Levine’s tenure as Music Director of the Met will end in two weeks with neither a whimper nor a bang.
Which diva gets to sing “I hope you die! I hope you die soon! I’ll be waiting for you to die!”
On this day in 1926 Puccini’s opera Turandot premiered in Milan.
Happy 82nd birthday actress/author Shirley MacLaine.
Welcome, cher public, to the real-time chat (pictured) for this afternoon’s Met broadcast of Otello, starting at 1:00 PM.
On this day in 2005 the first video was uploaded to YouTube.com.
Welcome, cher public, to the real-time chat (pictured) for this evening’s Met broadcast of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, starting at 7:25 PM.
To be honest, I have never seen anything quite like Matthias Goerne in recital. He seemed so wonderfully free.
Happy 81st birthday mezzo-soprano Fiorenza Cossotto.
With six leads in Gioconda, you can reliably hope that three or four will be worth listening to, or why would they have revived the opera?
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
