There wouldn’t be signs big enough
On this day in 1959, Ethel Merman bellowed “Sing out, Louise!” into a Broadway theater for the first of 702 times, as the world’s greatest musical (per La Cieca) sprang forth.
Recent Stories
Como crosses over
I feel that any singer attempting crossover would do well to listen to Perry Como to hear how it should be done.
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).
Reviving a pharaoh
The Met brought back 2019 smash Akhnaten last night, with nearly the exact same cast and creative team, and with nearly the same knockout effect of three years ago.
Goddess of Pop
Happy 76th birthday to mean, moody, mononymous Cher.
The many faces of Perry Como
To give an idea of how well Perry Como was able to “assume” different vocal identities, here he is doing his mega #1 1953 hit, “Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes.”
The Multiverse of Morley
A Trove Thursday Mega-Post © featuring the wonderful American soprano Erin Morley in Orff’s Carmina Burana and Richard Strauss’s Brentano Lieder, plus extended live excerpts from Handel’s Orlando, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots.
“I lost control”
Happy 74th birthday model, singer and actress Grace Jones.
Perry Como: a Postscript
In observation of the 110th birthday of Perry Como, May 18, 1912.
Resisting the recognizable
It was Matthew Jocelyn’s libretto, with its disorientingly deconstructive approach to its source text, that gave Brett Dean’s Hamlet its identity.
Room temperature
It’s maybe not a surprise that Carmen is neither a good vocal nor temperamental fit for Isabel Leonard.
The two faces of Karita
An evening with Finland’s most famous opera star.
Rachel, Rachel
It’s nice to see Sony Classical backing a serious operatic soprano and not some crossover refugee from Britain’s Got Talent or another syrupy Christmas album from the world’s reigning Heldentenor.
Your lifelong membership is free
Born on this day in 1931 actor Robert Morse.
“I sang before I could walk”
Born on this day in 1918 soprano Birgit Nilsson.
“Acting in the movies is just like ditch-digging”
Born on this day in 1909 actress Margaret Sullavan.
Songbird
Happy 86th birthday to soprano and actress Anna Maria Alberghetti.
The lady who dared
Born on this day in 1903 actress Billie Dove.
Hamlet
Brett Dean‘s operatic treatment of the Bard makes its Metropolitan Opera premiere.
Teresa Berganza 1933 – 2022
The beloved concert and opera singer died earlier today.
To Bea or not to Bea
Happy centennial to actress and activist Bea Arthur.
A deed without a name
Trove Thursday offers Ernst Bloch’s 1910 Macbeth featuring Inge Borkh and Nicola Rossi-Lemeni and Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas starring Thomas Allen with Christine Barbaux and Josephine Veasey as the women in his life.