Questo e Quello
Come back to Kohl Mountain with Anita Rachvelishvili as well as the aforementioned Anna Netrebko in a live web broadcast of Aida from the Met Tuesday night at 7:25.
On Thursday, Puccini’s seventh opera, the California Gold Rush romance La fanciulla del West, returns to its birthplace for its first Met performances since 2011.
The Met’s new production of Samson et Dalila (not pictured) grabbed the most attention last month.
“Are we Team Guelf or Team Ghibelline?”
On this day in 2011 tenor Javier Camarena made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Count Almaviva.
On this day in 1963 the musical The Student Gypsy, or, The Prince of Liederkranz opened at the 54th Street Theatre.
Our Own JJ (not pictured) is a feeling a bit tuckered by the whirlwind of the Met’s opening week, so “parterre saturday afternoon” is pre-empted today.
Opera Philadelphia’s O18 Festival continues through the weekend, but Friday represented a finale of sorts with the last two premieres.
On this day in 1965 soprano Mirella Freni and tenor Gianni Raimondi made their Metropolitan Opera debuts in La bohème.
La Cieca has just heard that Kristian Benedikt is singing the role of Samson at the Met this evening.
On this day in 1968 tenor Placido Domingo made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Maurizio.
“Trove Thursday” features a great composer who had little success on the stage—Franz Schubert.
Hunger was the note of the night, a sentiment shared between the audience and Proving Up, a lean and hungry one-act telling a story of drought and desperation on the post-Civil War Western frontier.
Anna Netrebko is the greatest performing artist singing opera today. Nobody else comes close; she makes me love her in a way that verges on the erotic.
Happy 61st birthday opera director Peter Sellars.
How Glucky can you get?
I braved the alarming and majestically colorful wall-graffiti-art of Bushwick to attend Bullfight Boylesque, which runs to October 28.
On Tuesday we got one of the Met’s inveterate classics, which meant yet another opportunity to gaze upon the old accessories: Donkey cart! Teal shawl! Fugly plaid slacks!
“Fricka is on fucking vacation.”
Born on this day in 1898 composer George Gershwin.
For opening night 2018, the Met offered the creaky but appealing biblical epic Samson et Dalila, presumably as a vehicle for Elina Garanca and Roberto Alagna.
On this day in 1985 baritone Giuseppe Taddei made his belated Metropolitan Opera debut as Falstaff.
Where will the elite meet? Why, at the Met for the opening night premiere of Samson et Dalila, of course!
What do the cher public want to hear this fall? According to last week’s polls, Samson et Dalila and Jonas Kaufmann.
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.
