Theodora
Handel’s oratorio features Julia Bullock, Joyce DiDonato, Jakub Józef Orlinski and Ed Lyon.
Recent Stories
Approaching Valhalla
Gianandrea Noseda leads seasoned Wagnerians in Andreas Homoki’s stark production of Die Walküre for Zurich Opera.
Stellar Dalis
Born on this day in 1925 versatile mezzo-soprano Irene Dalis.
Sweet Thursday
Here are another half-dozen past Trove Thursday highlights ahead of my new parterre box live-recording series launching a week from now.
When divas collide
On this day in 1989 Dolora Zajick and Aprile Millo faced off in Aida at the Metropolitan Opera.
Take the long way Rome
David McVicar’s 2017 production of Tosca returned to the Met on Tuesday night, with an able and watchable, if not transcendent cast.
Lakmé
Léo Delibes’ opera, streamed from the Opéra Comique in a production staged by Laurent Pelly and featuring Sabine Devieilhe.
Bad moon rising
Born on this day in 1887 soprano Maria Jeritza.
Talking about a revolution
People turn up at a cancer hospital on the worst day of their lives. In I’m Revolting, a moving and often unsettling world premiere from Atlantic Theatre Company, playwright Gracie Gardner dissects the fears and motivations of patients and their caregivers with surgical precision.
Renegade princess
Yulia Matochkina will make her Met role debut as Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo, replacing Anita Rachvelishvili.
Crossing over
On this day in 1996 Mirella Freni took on the title role in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Fedora.
Tosca
The Puccini evergreen, featuring Aleksandra Kurzak, Michael Fabiano and Luca Salsi.
If they could turn back time
Yuval Sharon at Boston Lyric Opera has brilliantly found an interpretative middle ground for La bohème by presenting the acts in reverse order.
Infanticide is painless
Sondra Radvanovsky‘s mean, moody, magnificent Medea fascinated the cher public as the season kicked in at the end of September.
Rome wasn’t built in a day
On this day in 1968, the Metropolitan Opera debuted a new production of Tosca (the company’s first since 1917!) featuring Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli.
Together again for the first time
On this day in 1966 Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli sang Turandot in the new Metropolitan Opera house at Lincoln Center where, according to reports, they were louder than ever.
Exotic asphyxiation
Both the mise-en-scène and the musical direction amplified the absolute worst tendencies of the Opéra Comique’s Lakmé in the most tasteless and baffling ways.
What we do in the shadows
On this day in 1966 the Metropolitan Opera offered the company premiere of Die Frau ohne Schatten.
Tannhäuser
Lise Davidsen and Le Gateau Chocolat reunite for this performance from the 2022 Bayreuth Festival.
Ocean, thou mighty monster
Michael Spyres’s nobly moving Idomeneo wasn’t just a bravura triumph: singing strongly throughout, he brought more colors to his portrayal of the tortured king than I had experienced from others in the Ponnelle production.
Full chested
On this day in 1976 mezzo-soprano Elena Obraztsova made her first Metropolitan Opera appearance as part of the “Met Marathon” fundraising gala.
So damn bored
It’s nasty world, Shostakovich seems to say, where life alternates between boring and terrifying.
“Laiden with happiness and tears”
Director Barrie Kosky brings to Fiddler on the Roof fascinating ideas, fine casting, equal mixes of comedy and sadness, and, from the beginning, a sense for we of the audience that we were about to spend three hours in very good hands.
Blue skies smiling at me
On this day in 1996 the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with a revival of Andrea Chenier starring Luciano Pavarotti and Maria Guleghina.