Recent Stories
The final live weeknight broadcast of the 2024-25 season from New York
West Bay Opera’s Otello punches well above its weight
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
A bleak and somber version of the familiar story by Saint-Réal, mixing facts with fiction, making it even more tragical than the Verdi opera.
Following last week’s performances in Cleveland, Ronnie Banerjee compares six different versions of the Kostelnicka’s monologue from Leos Janácek’s Jenufa for “Perspectives on an Aria”
Because D.M. Thomas‘s book was a famous book back in its day — I read it in the mid-eighties, yet have forgotten 90% of what it’s all about.
Astrid Varnay‘s autobiography. Entertaining, cogent. Shows wit and character. Much more than “I sang, I got applause, and everyone loved me.”
Act now to join the starry ranks of The Talk of the Town contributors for a new quarter of à propos chitter chatter!
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Tabled for now
Tabled for now
Ahead of the return of Louise to the Opéra National de Lyon, Parterre Box features Elsa Dreisig in a much more famous French opera.
Ahead of the return of Louise to the Opéra National de Lyon, Parterre Box features Elsa Dreisig in a much more famous French opera.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
My heart belongs to daddy
My heart belongs to daddy
This week, Parterre Box shares Quinn Kelsey and Jennifer Rowley in a duet from a Verdi opera rumored to be returning to New York this time next season.
This week, Parterre Box shares Quinn Kelsey and Jennifer Rowley in a duet from a Verdi opera rumored to be returning to New York this time next season.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Mediterranean crossings
Mediterranean crossings
Grand Tier Grab Bag anticipates Elina Garanca‘s upcoming Zwischenfach pivot by sharing her in some other not-quite-mezzo repertoire opposite Brian Jagde.
Grand Tier Grab Bag anticipates Elina Garanca‘s upcoming Zwischenfach pivot by sharing her in some other not-quite-mezzo repertoire opposite Brian Jagde.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Ritorna un’altra volta
Ritorna un’altra volta
Parterre Box anticipates Ailyn Peréz‘s upcoming New York performances of Madama Butterfly with the Puccini role most closely associated with her
Parterre Box anticipates Ailyn Peréz‘s upcoming New York performances of Madama Butterfly with the Puccini role most closely associated with her
Grand Tier Grab Bag
My sister’s keeper
My sister’s keeper
Grand Tier Grab Bag highlights La Scala’s opening night prima donna Sara Jakubiak with an excerpt of her Chrysothemis recorded last year.
Grand Tier Grab Bag highlights La Scala’s opening night prima donna Sara Jakubiak with an excerpt of her Chrysothemis recorded last year.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Lightning strikes twice
Lightning strikes twice
New York audiences got a taste of Ben Bliss in Mozart this fall, but this week Grand Tier Grab Bag offers snippets of the tenor trying his hand at Handel earlier this year.
New York audiences got a taste of Ben Bliss in Mozart this fall, but this week Grand Tier Grab Bag offers snippets of the tenor trying his hand at Handel earlier this year.
A live broadcast from New York
I’m bending the rules a little here, and not only substituting TV for film, but turning the category on its head by doing Movies At The Opera rather than the other way round.
Corinne Winters is back at the Met and back in the pages of parterre box, which inclines us to share a bit of Winters in Jenufa
A live performance streamed from the Wiener Staatsoper.
Francis Ford Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now (1979) uses Richard Wagner‘s “Ride of the Valkyries” to terrifying effect, depicting the brutality and horror of impersonal aerial warfare in the Vietnam War.
An impressively well-rounded revival of Francesca Zambello‘s production of Porgy and Bess concludes the Washington National Opera season
Talk of the Town
The Talk of the Town
The best things I saw in 2025 were vocal recitals
The best things I saw in 2025 were vocal recitals
I’m going with four outstanding, deeply personal NYC recitals
I’m going with four outstanding, deeply personal NYC recitals
The Talk of the Town
The best thing I saw in 2025 was In a Grove
The best thing I saw in 2025 was In a Grove
I had the pleasure of going with some members of the Pittsburgh Opera to the PROTOTYPE Festival in New York at the start of the year- almost unfortunate it was so early on in 2025 because it set my expectations for the year so high!
I had the pleasure of going with some members of the Pittsburgh Opera to the PROTOTYPE Festival in New York at the start of the year- almost unfortunate it was so early on in 2025 because it set my expectations for the year so high!
The Talk of the Town
The best thing I saw in 2025 was Festen
The best thing I saw in 2025 was Festen
It’s a dazzling, shocking, and entertaining 100 minutes – one of the best new operas I’ve seen.
It’s a dazzling, shocking, and entertaining 100 minutes – one of the best new operas I’ve seen.
The Talk of the Town
The best thing I saw in 2025 was Sunset Boulevard
The best thing I saw in 2025 was Sunset Boulevard
I still don’t think Sunset Boulevard is a top-tier musical but it was by far the most memorable vocal performance I saw in 2025.
I still don’t think Sunset Boulevard is a top-tier musical but it was by far the most memorable vocal performance I saw in 2025.
The Talk of the Town
The best thing I saw in 2025 was Elina Garanča in Aïda
The best thing I saw in 2025 was Elina Garanča in Aïda
Elina Garanča scaled the vocal and dramatic summits of the Judgement Duet and Scene in the May series of Aïda.
Elina Garanča scaled the vocal and dramatic summits of the Judgement Duet and Scene in the May series of Aïda.
The Talk of the Town
The best thing I saw in 2025 was Der Freischütz
The best thing I saw in 2025 was Der Freischütz
A staged Freischütz is rare enough in itself to be the highlight of any opera season, but it was in Christoph Marthaler‘s Antwerp production that I connected with the characters and felt the story for the first time.
A staged Freischütz is rare enough in itself to be the highlight of any opera season, but it was in Christoph Marthaler‘s Antwerp production that I connected with the characters and felt the story for the first time.
Chris’s Cache marks the arrival of Printemps in its many guises with three beguilingly cast performances of operas by Rimsky-Korsakov, Massenet, and Saint-Saëns
While Godfather III is definitely the weakest movie in the eponymous trilogy, partly due to a miscasting of Mary Corleone, I have nothing but praise for the wonderful, almost inspirational use of Cavalleria Rusticana in the finale of the movie.
The Met’s mostly successful revivals of The Queen of Spades and La bohème showcase the returns of Sonya Yoncheva and Corinne Winters
The Met doesn’t have the monopoly on Salome this spring — look no further than Catapult Opera’s San Giovanni Battista which opens in Brooklyn next month.
Henze‘s opera in a live broadcast from the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
The Talented Mr. Ripley x Eugene Onegin.
Rachel Willis-Sorensen is the winner of the 2025 Beverly Sills Award, per the Met press office
An innovative score and fluid production by Denyce Graves-Montgomery are highlights of Virginia Opera’s production of Loving v. Virginia