Questo e Quello
On this day in 1965 bass Nicolai Ghaiurov made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Méphistophélès.
BAM brings us a political opera featuring… literal balancing acts.
Logistically, a large-scale revival of the operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer is an unreasonable request, much less an expectation.
On this day in 1928 the American premiere of Richard Strauss’ Die ägyptische Helena took place at the Met, with Maria Jeritza in the title role.
Throughout the evening I couldn’t help thinking that this1870s Biblical epic of erotic obsession and penance was what the Met should have been doing this fall rather than its misbegotten Samson et Dalila.
On this day in 1883 the Metropolitan Opera presented its very first Traviata with Marcella Sembrich as Violetta.
Met debuts: In 1961 soprano Phyllis Curtin debuted as Fiordiligi…
For your listening and discussing pleasure this afternoon, La Cieca recommends you turn to Die Walküre live on the BBC from Covent Garden at 1:00 PM EDT.
On this night in 1924 Tullio Serafin made his Met debut conducting Aida.
On this day in 2005 mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato made her Met debut as Cherubino.
Jonas Kaufmann‘s Herbstreise to Little Old New York dominated the busy pages of October’s parterre box, boosting our total number of pageviews to nearly 400,000.
La Cieca heaps praise yet once more upon our faithful and perceptive advertisers.
“Trove Thursday” keeps the evil deeds going this All Saints’s Day with a vintage La Scala broadcast of Arrigo Boito’s only completed opera Mefistofele.
Born on this day in 1923 soprano Victoria de los Angeles.
The Hungarian State Opera and Hungarian National Ballet opened their visit to Lincoln Center Tuesday night with the US stage premiere of their “national opera” Bánk Bán.
Niccolò Jommelli, forgotten now, was quite well known in Italy and southern Germany in his day.
Like most directors of this opera this century, David Alden is keen to outline the helplessness of women in the face of 19th century patriarchy.
Our Doyenne wishes all the cher public a joyous and spooky All Hallows’ Eve.
Bizet returns to the Met tonight at 7:30, and it’s broadcast live!
Rufus Wainwright is determined to offer a spectacle and that intention overrides all other considerations.
On this day in 1975, Régine Crespin sang her first Met Carmen.
Yet another surprising new project for Karita Mattila: Leticia Van Allen in Myra Breckenridge.
The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (NYGASP to its friends) is giving Sullivan’s most operatic score a dusting off (or should one say dusting-up?) at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College.
I was floored to find that Company with a female protagonist, at least in Marianne Elliott’s West End production, is a better and more complete show than original recipe Company.
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.
