Contes stop the music
Trove Thursday wades into the murky musicological waters of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann..
Questo e Quello
Who let the dogs out?
Norman Lebrecht, as is increasingly his wont, emitted a vicious racially-charged dog whistle this morning.
Illuminatus
Born on this day in 1763 composer Simon Mayr.
San Francisco, open your Rheingold gate
Casting the Ring as a parable for the state of the current world, seen through the eyes of a progressive urban opera lover (and not an early German nationalist), offers us soothing self-justification.
Frappez toujours! Dieu choisira les siens!
On this day in 1855 Verdi’s Les Vêpres siciliennes premiered in Paris.
Cave dwellers
Composer/librettist David Hertzberg’s The Rose Elf, which gave its world premiere in the Green-Wood Cemetery Catacombs last weekend, is indeed a marvel of elfin proportions.
True intentions
Born on this day in 1919 actress and theatre practitioner Uta Hagen.
The sun shines nellie
Warmth, humor, and joyful out-and-proud-ness dominate the mood, yet there is considerable darkness in Taylor Mac’s view of both past and present.
Everything’s coming up roses
Born on this day in 1864 composer Richard Strauss and in 1913 mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens.
From the vault
La Cieca is delighted to remind her cher public that the parterre YouTube page (called operazine) has been newly refurbished and updated.
“I believe in the idea of the rainbow”
Born on this day in 1922 Miss Show Business.
The princess diaries
Today on parterre saturday afternoon: a live recording of Strauss’s Salome featuring the very starry quartet of Gwyneth Jones, Hans Hopf, Bernd Weikl and Martha Mödl!
Don’t keep the brakes on
Born on this day in 1891 composer Cole Porter.
Painful progress
Many lessons surface in Tony Kushner’s epic Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.
Talent works, genius creates
Born on this day in 1810 composer Robert Schumann.
Perfect is the enemy of the good
So I just got out of the Lohengrin prima at the ROH and I’m itching to share my thoughts.
A spark to pierce the dark from Battery Park to Washington Heights
I mean, who did not see this coming?
Making out like a bandit
“Trove Thursday” turns for the third of Verdi’s four Schiller adaptations to a recent I Masnadieri with risen stars Lisette Oropesa and Russell Thomas.
Knight after knight
Happy 55th birthday tenor Roberto Alagna.
Muh legacy!
A letter to the New York Times from the the company’s doughty press director Tim McKeough addresses the recent spate of running around with hair on fire about James Levine‘s artistic legacy.
Choirboy
Happy 79th birthday tenor Giacomo Aragall.
The male gaze
The third segment of New York City Opera’s gradually emerging 2018-2019 season will be Mascagni’s Isabeau.
“More wait!”
New York City Opera today offered a demi-announcement of half their next season.
Margosha koshka zhiva!
It seems Anna Netrebko has achieved a state that can only be described as “Peak Elizabeth Taylor.”
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).