Questo e Quello
Turn of the Screw is an incredibly frightening ghost story really at the heart of it but with a very modern edge.
Of particular visual interest in last weekend’s Lohengrin (though not perhaps so tantalizing as Jonas Kaufmann‘s aristocratic bare feet, pictured above) is the very obvious change in the staging that was made between the antegenerale (in which Anja Harteros sang Elsa) and the telecast opening night.
The soprano and political dissident of the postwar Soviet Union died yesterday in Moscow. She was 86.
The elegant Swiss-born soprano has died at 93.
Cecilia Bartoli and Joyce DiDonato are not the only ladies who have recorded recitals this year featuring music from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Soprano Kristin Lewis will sing the role of Maddalena in Opera Orchestra of New York’s presentation of Andrea Chenier on January 6.
Natalie Dessay coyly bares a breast on the cover of Virgin Classics’ new Giulio Cesare.
“French mezzo-soprano Géraldine Chauvet will make her Met debut as Sesto in this evening’s performance of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, replacing Elina Garanca, who is ill.”
Actually, Lohengrin at La Scala wasn’t all that bad, so the reports go.
But do chat this afternoon, cher public, during the season opener of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2012-2013 Saturday matinee broadcasts.
Putting in a little face time (and what faces!) at Charles Castronovo‘s cabaret at 54 Below last night were barihunk trifecta Erwin Schrott, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ildar Abdrazakov.
“The courtesan’s entourage included dancing girls in filmy harem pants and bedazzled Afro wigs, and the hunky chorus boys pranced about in velour leggings, codpieces and nipple ornaments.”
Before there was a Stefan Herheim Boheme (which I reviewed a couple of weeks back for this site), there was a Herheim Eugene Onegin, recorded in June 2011 at De Nederlanse Opera.
All of the operas of Giuseppe Verdi contain music that is worth hearing and can be rewarding in good performances.
Everyone who revives Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, as the Collegiate Chorale did at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night, calls the piece an “overlooked masterpiece.”
“New York City Opera, seeking to shed decades’ worth of old sets, costumes and props, has decided to auction off most of the material next month, the company’s general manager and artistic director, George Steel, said on Wednesday.”
Our Own JJ‘s nominee for 2012 Newsmaker of the Year: the Met’s Peter Gelb.
Beatrice di Tenda was a problem child, Vincenzo Bellini an alternately protective and disparaging parent.
Verdi’s first operatic masterpiece is well served by this DVD
of a performance from the Teatro Regio di Parma.
Protean diva Patricia Racette will perform an ethnic hat-trick in 2013-2014 at San Francisco Opera.
The saga of the Royal Opera’s production of Robert le Diable, infinitely more melodramatic than the plot of the opera proper, continues.
Anthony Tommasini and his long-time partner Ben McCommon were married on Friday.
It’s that date that rolls around once a year, cher public, the date we celebrate the 1993 founding of parterre box and the 1923 birth of Maria Callas.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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