The Talk of the Town
I am pretty excited to add coverage of nearby performances while I am getting settled here in Southern California.
Thank you, Leon Botstein, for giving us a chance to hear the Berlioz adaptation of Der Freischütz (or Freyschütz).
My next production will be Aïda with the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta.
It’s always interesting to hear the master of one role in an opera take on another one.
Kaija Saariaho’s gifts for vocal and instrumental writing and the uncanniness of the themes she musicalized resonate with unforced power
De Materie (1989) by Louis Andriessen is unsuitable for home listening, so I’m really looking forward to hearing the great Asko|Schönberg ensemble perform it live in Rotterdam next season.
‘Expect nothing and you’ll never be disappointed.’
One of the most exciting things in prospect next season is Lise Davidsen‘s role debut as Isolde, to take place in Barcelona in January.
The announcement that the increasingly Trump-annexed Kennedy Center would be presenting Robert Ward‘s The Crucible seemed too on-the-nose to be true.
Barrie Kosky directs Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Sickos: “Yes… ha ha ha YES!”
In a world of guilty pleasures, Arabella is mine.
I’d love to have a better answer than ‘movie star directs opera’, but I’m curious to see what Ralph Fiennes does with Eugene Onegin in Paris.
This season, I’m looking forward to Washington Concert Opera’s (WCO) production of Georges Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles on 14 March 2026.
So many Frida Leider clips to choose from, but I’ll pick this one because it is so different from what we might think of as the “typical” Wagnerian dramatic soprano.
Nowhere are the contradictions between Wagner’s small-mindedness, his meanness of spirit, and his human insight on clearer display than in Hans Sachs monologue Wahn, Wahn überall Wahn in the third Act of Mesitersinger.
The 1966 Bayreuth Festival production of Tristan and Isolde, conducted by Karl Böhm provides Nilsson with the cast she truly deserved, including Wolfgang Windgassen, Christa Ludwig, Martti Talvela, and Eberhard Waechter.
Die Walküre Met 12/6/1941- Helen Traubel, Astrid Varnay (debut), Kerstin Thorborg, Lauritz Melchior, Friedrich Schorr, Alexander Kipnis, cond. Erich Leinsdorf
Eva Maria Westbroek in her prime, in a role in which I find her unsurpassed among current singers.
As a frequent visitor of Parterre’s Jones Home (ah, the early internet!), I’d be remiss not to share this favorite clip of two queens maximizing their joint slay.
For me, Hans Hotter‘s interpretation of Wotan is a convincingly successful interpretation of this role.
I’d long ago given up on my Goldilocks search for a “just right” complete Tristan und Isolde recording starring Jon Vickers, my hands-down tenor of choice.
There was that Tristan.
The complete RCA Furtwängler Tristan is actually my top favorite, but the Ponnelle staging in Bayreuth featuring René Kollo and Johanna Meier is my top sentimental favorite, because it was my first full Wagner performance.
I’d never heard Götterdämmerung in a live performance until 1985 at The Dallas Opera. OMG, so long ago!
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
