Questo e Quello
La bohème is such a popular romantic opera that hardly anyone ever notices that Mimì and Rodolfo undergo what in modern terms would be called speed dating.
As someone who thinks Verdi is the greatest composer who ever lived and who feels pretty meh about Mozart, I expected to love the Verdi and be bored by the Mozart. I wasn’t far wrong.
Short answer: yes. But let’s begin by dismissing the a blatant canard. One thing that the Metropolitan Opera does not need to do is to scale back the number of performances in a season.
From the Mike Richter collection, Act Three of Die Walküre at the Teatro Colón, featuring Hans Hotter and Birgit Nilsson (not pictured.)
“Rufus Wainwright: Why I love composer Olivier Messiaen“
When Norman Lebrecht is declaring on an almost daily basis that classical music is dead, it’s perhaps heartening that four of today’s prominent tenors have recently released what might be called fluff/vanity albums.
La Cieca hears that Indianapolis Opera plans to cancel the fourth and final show of its season, Britten’s Albert Herring, “amid ongoing financial issues.”
“Last year, Freud sold 80 percent of available seats during the 2012-13 Lyric Opera season.”
“Mary Garden, it was announced last night, ate a Christmas dinner consisting of ‘sweetbreads, petits pois, and Maraschino punch’.”
La Cieca (pictured) invites the cher public to join in the fun tonight at La Casa della Cieca during the Met’s broadcast of Andrea Chenier, starting at 7:25 PM.
Masterful mezzo Joyce DiDonato heads the cast of this 2010 performance of Mozart’s Idomeno from the Edinburgh International Festival
“This powerful tale is laced with revenge, destruction and jealousy and the spectacular traditionally staged production features magnificent sets and costumes with amazing lighting and stage effects.” [Basingstoke Gazette]
No matter where you’re seated, cher public, you are encouraged to join in the general interest and off-topic conversation for the week.
Devotees of Dawn Fatale (and you are legion!) will be delighted to hear that the parterre scribe made an early (2001!) appearance in issue #45 of parterre box, the queer opera zine, ranting about the “squish-squish school of opera direction.”
The “arme Leut” who will be listening to Wozzeck this afternoon are invited to commiserate in La Casa della Cieca beginning at 1:00 PM.
“Union members have occupied Paris’ Opera Garnier in a protest over proposed changes to labor rules for theater workers.”
What better way to say, “welcome, first day of spring” than with Elena Cernei singing “Printemps qui commence?”
Mike Richter‘s documentation of the 1962 Buenos Aires Ring continues with the second act of Die Walküre featuring Birgit Nilsson and Hans Hotter.
After nearly a half century on stage, San Diego Opera will cease operations after its current season, said Ian Campbell, the opera’s general and artistic director.
For one week every two years since 1981 the eyes—and ears—of those interested in period performance turn to the Boston Early Music Festival, particularly to its opera centerpiece, but that organization doesn’t rest on its laurels in between festivals.
“Opera can, in fact, be something beautiful and moving even when all a performance has going for it is some really excellent singing.”
The Met’s financial challenges are not meteorological, demographic, or cyclical; they are structural.
George Steel?
“There are ascenseurs even in Paris,” said the singer afterward.
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
