Change my mind about Anna Moffo
The musical virtues of Anna Moffo have heretofore eluded me.
By Harry Rose
176 comments
The Talk of the Town
Change my mind about the Toscanini Bohème
It’s like making love with someone whose rap never ceases—and includes “helpful suggestions” about how you can be improving your game.
By Peter Russell
79 comments
Change my mind about The Last Savage
Despite having endured premiers at the Santa Fe Opera, including Cold Mountain, Oscar, and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, all of which were disappointing on every level, Santa Fe Opera’s 2011 production of Menotti‘s The Last Savage is an opera I never care to see or listen to again.
By Darby Fegan
153 comments
Change my mind about Joan Sutherland’s Norma
Joan Sutherland as Norma is something I’ve never been able to get.
By Ivy Lin
159 comments
Change my mind about booing singers
I don’t understand the booing of singers, whether it’s booing bad characters, or booing singers who don’t live up to the booer’s expectations.
By Remko Jas
204 comments
Change my mind about performing operetta in English
I so don’t get why any company in the Anglophone world ever bothers to perform Continental operetta in English.
By Last Castrato
139 comments
Change my mind about Joyce DiDonato
When I first encountered Joyce DiDonato in the early 2000s, I found her to be the case of an extraordinary technique and intelligent artistry supporting a rather ordinary voice.
By Cameron Kelsall
135 comments
Change my mind about what makes a legendary artist
My contention here is more general than just a critique of an opera, a composer, or a singer. I argue that one cannot be a truly legendary artist unless one sings NEW MUSIC.
By Leyla Gender-Bender
291 comments
Change my mind about Parsifal
Parsifal just gives me the creeps – a muddy maundery concoction that wallows in faux religiosity, a creepy view of sin, and naïve redemption.
By Belfagor
201 comments
Change my mind about Mario Lanza
I just don’t get why anyone takes Mario Lanza seriously as “the tenor of the century” and so forth.
By Krunoslav
132 comments
This summer I’m reading The Reign of Patti
The ultimate in Diva worship – where she can do no wrong.
By Belle Raggio
80 comments
This summer I’m reading I promessi sposi
Nothing helped me understand Verdi better than Alessandro Manzoni‘s I promessi sposi.
By Harry Rose
90 comments
This summer I’m reading Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
I first read Edith Hamilton‘s classic book on Greek mythology about sixty years ago.
By Moe Rear
38 comments
This summer I’m reading a juicy diva autobiography
What better beach read than a juicy diva autobiography?
By Richard Lynn
65 comments
This summer I’m reading The Music Goes Round
The earliest days of recording told by F.W. Gaisberg, the man who recorded Patti, Melba, Moreschi, and Tamagno among many others.
By Belle Raggio
33 comments
This summer I’m reading Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment
Not really an opera book but, c’mon, it’s Bach.
By David Phillips
39 comments
This summer I’m reading A Time to Sing
I did not expect Dorothy Kirsten‘s autobiography to be so rewarding a read: I did so twice.
By Niel Rishoi
243 comments
This summer I’m reading The Divas by Robert Merrill
A juicy, guilty pleasure read!
By Darby Fegan
68 comments
This summer I’m reading Verdi: A novel of the opera
According to the memoirs of Alma Mahler, her third husband, Franz Werfel used to wander around the cafés of Paris with one of his chums, singing arias from obscure Verdi operas at the top of their lungs until the management would ask them to move on.
By John Yohalem
36 comments
This summer I’m reading Cavalleria rusticana
Giovanni Verga‘s short story (which he adapted as a play with Giuseppe Giacosa) provides the basis for Mascagni‘s famous opera.
By Montagu James
41 comments
This summer I’m reading Wagnerism
Alex Ross wrote an exciting, gorgeously detailed examination of, for better or worse, Ricky’s far reaching influence on music, theatre, architecture, film, literature, mental illness, Satanism, Homosexuality, and rough sex.
By James Laferla
28 comments
This summer I’m reading Galina: A Russian Story
Vishnevskaya writes rather as she sings.
By Belfagor
30 comments
This summer I’m reading Fellow Travelers
With tenth anniversary productions of Fellow Travelers, the heart wrenching gay romance opera by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce, due to grace several major U.S. companies next season, what better way to commemorate Pride Month than by reading Thomas Mallon’s 2007 historical novel on which it’s based?
By Peter Russell
65 comments
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).