Questo e Quello
A live recording of the Barber/Menotti weepie from the 2016 Wexford Festival
On this day in 1954 Sandy Wilson‘s musical The Boy Friend opened at the Royale Theater, to run 483 performances.
Born on this day in 1942 singer and actress Madeline Kahn.
In Schikaneder’s patriarchal cosmology, darkness is the province of emotional women—not just the erratic fury of the Queen of the Night, but the pathetic supplications of Pamina as well.
Peter Gelb offering voluntary buyouts to a couple of dozen employees is precisely the same thing as Nazis murdering hundreds of people.
Arabella with Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting a prime-time 1980s Munich cast.
Rest in peace, dear Albert.
Lyric Opera of Chicago opened its 2017-18 season on Saturday evening with a new production of Gluck’s Orphee et Eurydice in the 1774 Paris version.
Born on this day in 1901 television host Ed Sullivan.
We have just heard the sad news that playwright and critic Albert Innaurato has died.
Last night was my fourth or fifth wade into the slough of Bartlett Sher’s production of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Met since its premiere in 2009.
Happy 60th birthday opera director Peter Sellars.
Bellini’s Norma Monday evening didn’t at all improve on the production it was replacing.
On this day in 1835 Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor premiered in Naples.
The performance and the obligatory parterre chat both begin at 6:30 PM EDT.
Remember the disastrous 2010 Traviata at the Met, “conducted” by Leonard Slatkin?
No amount of scholarly diligence has kept Les contes d’Hoffmann from being the messiest of all standard-repertory messes.
Happy 68th birthday filmmaker Pedro Almodovar.
Born on this day in 1927 tenor Alfredo Kraus.
This black-box recital was an aggressively Gallic affair
In a classic live performance from more then 50 years ago, Montserrat Caballé is Desdemona to the Otello of James McCracken.
Born on this day in 1907 soprano Jarmila Novotná.
Born on this day in 1894 soprano Elisabeth Rethberg.
Ali Baba ou Les Quarantes Voleurs continues straight-tone September with Teresa Stich-Randall as its heroine while Alfredo Kraus scales the heights with another Nadir.
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
