Well done, sister suffragette
Happy 100th birthday actress Glynis Johns
Recent Stories
Queer and dangerous and exciting
Zack Woolfe of The New York Times remembers James Jorden
Nabucco
Daniele Callegari conducts George Gagnidze, Liudmyla Monastyrska, Maria Barakova, SeokJong Baek in the second of 14 (yes, 14!) performances of Verdi’s opera at the Met this season
James Jorden, 1954-2023
The writers of the Box and James’s friends are saddened to announce the death of the inimitable founder of Parterre Box
Aida
Nicola Luisotti conducts Marina Rebeka, Elina Garanca, Yusif Eyvazov and Gabriele Viviani in a live broadcast from the Staatsopen Unter den Linden.
Cosa umana non sono
On this day in 1968 soprano Marion Lippert made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Turandot. Six years later her Met farewell in the same role.
Turn and face the strange
How appropriate that the Met should present this supposedly “Jewish” opera after many in the audience had just spent twelve days immersed in the genuine article over the High Holy Days.
Do or dye
On this day in 1966 baritone Walter Berry made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Barak
There is nothing like a dame
Happy 88th birthday Julie Andrews
Ohne Ziel, ohne Rast
Instead of following the story, we in the audience spend most of the evening thinking “What?? Why is that happening?”
Les Martyrs
Donizetti’s Les Martyrs in a broadcast from Vienna with Roberta Mantegna, John Osborn, and Mattia Olivieri
I’ll cheer each toot
On this day in 1791 Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte premiered in Vienna
Tremens factus sum ego
One got a sense that the Met and the maestro directed most of the rehearsal and preparation toward the opening night premiere of the Heggie opus
Son io il poeta, essa la poesia
On this day in 1965 soprano Mirella Freni and tenor Gianni Raimondi made their Metropolitan Opera debuts in La bohème.
Nun of a kind
“None of that sentimental crap, okay?”
Think different
Bay Area composer Mason Bates’s and librettist Mark Campbell’s contemporary opera about the life of the tech mogul Steve Jobs came home “to the place where it all began” in spectacular fashion
Non chiedo in bontà di ritirarmi
On this day in 1968 tenor Placido Domingo made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur
Verdi Requiem
From the Metropolitan Opera, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Leah Hawkins, Karen Cargill, Matthew Polenzani, and Dmitry Belosselskiy in Verdi’s Requiem
Some unholy war
Rather than focusing on a narrative, Unholy Wars explores a series of timeless yet current themes: war, destruction, alienation, and what it means to be perceived as outsider—particularly from the Middle East—in the context of a violent world.
Divas and scholars
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRn8FZA-Pa4 Happy 66th birthday opera director Peter Sellars Birthday anniversaries of composers Cyril Scott (1879) and Vincent Youmans (1898) and musicologist Philip Gossett (1941) Happy 83rd birthday soprano Josephine Barstow Happy 72nd birthday tenor Peter Dvorsky Happy 71st birthday tenor Chris Merritt
Dead Man Walking
Yannick Nézet-Seguin conducts Ryan McKinny, Joyce DiDonato, Latonia Moore, and Susan Graham in the season opening night and Metropolitan Opera Premiere of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking.
Double take
German opera-director Claus Guth has reimagined Schwanengesang as a series of scarred soldier’s visions in Doppelgänger, showing this week in at the Park Avenue Armory.
Wie stark ist nicht dein Zauberton
Born on this day in 1930 tenor Fritz Wunderlich