Hate-watch
I can’t imagine anyone watching this two-hour schlockfest at home and then dropping $150 for the privilege to see it again, masked and in an uncomfortable chair.
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Nerone
This rare performance of Arrigo Boito‘s sprawling Roman epic was recorded at the Bregenz Festival in July 2021.
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).
Rex education
Happy 83rd birthday to critic and occasional performer Rex Reed.
Great balls of ‘Fire’
The Met’s premiere of Terence Blanchard‘s Fire Shut Up in My Bones dominated the top ten list of most popular articles on parterre box in September.
The medley lingers on
Happy 86th birthday actress and songstress Julie Andrews!
No country for gold men
Trove Thursday offers two very different live recordings of Halévy’s grand opera La Juive.
To Pav and Pav Not
On this day in 1996 the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with a revival of Andrea Chénier.
The sonic clash never resolves itself
The cabaret at Saint Ann’s Warehouse delivered frothy fun and a dollop of pathos with Anthony Roth Costanzo and Justin Vivian Bond in Only an Octave Apart.
A wig and a prayer
A snarky commentator might dub last night at the Met “Boris of the divo hair flip” but that would do a disservice to a serious, often effective performance of the challenging original version of Mussorgsky’s masterpiece.
The people’s courtesan
On this day in 2003 the Metropolitan Opera opened with a revival of La traviata featuring Renée Fleming as Violetta.
Playing with ‘Fire’
With composer Terence Blanchard and librettist Kasi Lemmons‘ incendiary Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the Met makes long overdue history and Will Liverman ascends to superstardom.
The brew that is true
This is an exuberant, uplifting, and joyous Elisir, and, for once, it was actually laugh-out-loud funny.
Talk to the animals
Happy 87th birthday to actress, singer and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot.
Fire Shut Up in My Bones
The Metropolitan Opera’s opening night for 2021 features the the historic company premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones.
Ghost in the machine
On this day in 2010, the Metropolitan Opera opened with a new production of Das Rheingold.
Royalty
On this day in 1983 the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with a revival of Les Troyens featuring the company debut of Jessye Norman.
Hello, Dolora!
On this day in 1989 General Manager Hugh Southern (not pictured) celebrated his only opening night (he resigned in May 1990).
Real Housewives of Verismo
New Camerata Opera is presenting its first staged and indoor program in some time, at “The Muse,” a lofty cabaret space up against a cemetery in Bushwick, and their singers sound like they’ve been champing at the bit for eighteen months and are bursting to vocalize!
Widow’s talk
Call me Mary Quite Contrary if you want, but as we finally see live performances coming back, I’m reflecting with gratitude and even some nostalgia on the way COVID quarantine forged a path for entrepreneurial performance companies to recalibrate and deliver their work through streaming platforms.
It’s a nice day for a white wedding
On this day in 2007 the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor directed by Mary Zimmerman and starring Natalie Dessay.
I’m a Slav 4 U
Trove Thursday joins with those who prayed for opera to reopen worldwide for two broadcasts—more than fifty years apart–of Janacek’s stunning Glagolitic Mass, one conducted by Robert Shaw featuring Martina Arroyo, the other with Asmik Grigorian (pictured) led by rising American Karina Canellakis.
Another opening, another ‘no’
On this day in 1974 the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with a performance perhaps most notable for who was not present: Montserrat Caballé canceled her own opening night.
Goodbye, Nostalgia!
The program was set around themes of loss, of unfulfilled wishes, the endurance of loss, triumphant or depressed.