Orfeo ed Euridice
Gluck’s masterpiece returns to the streamwaves tonight for your listening and chatting pleasure.
Recent Stories
Anna Bellezza
Anna Netrebko’s voice to me sounds like a very expensive chocolate covered strawberry.
A word from our sponsors
Let’s hear a resounding round of applause for parterre box‘s advertisers for the month of November:
Design for living
Sadly, the news of the passing of two beloved artists provided much of the traffic on parterre box last month.
“I don’t like traditions”
Born on this day in 1923 soprano Victoria de los Angeles.
Close encounters
Zauberland: An Encounter with Schumann’s Dichterliebe touched on themes of forced migration, loss, exile, and dehumanization.
In Memoriam Raymond Leppard
Trove Thursday acknowledges the late Raymond Leppard‘s important influence with a live broadcast of his seminal “realisation” of Cavalli’s L’Ormindo plus some Cavalli and Monteverdi tidbits with Janet Baker.
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
ABC’s answer to trick or treat
Happy Halloween, cher public!
That Park Avenue air
On this day in 1940, the musical Panama Hattie opened at the 46th Street Theatre, to run 501 performances.
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).
The long listen
A conversation with maestro Gil Rose of Odyssey Opera.
Soprano-crusher
On this day in 1956 Maria Callas made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Norma.
The Coronation of Lisette
Sunday’s Richard Tucker Gala at Carnegie Hall was unusually satisfying despite a less than usually superstarry line-up.
Fashion is a language
Born on this day in 1898 costume designer Edith Head.
Tony One-Note
“Tony could only sing one note and the note he sang was this…”
Imperious splendor
On this day in 1958 the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with Tosca, featuring Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco and George London.
Nearly there
On Site Opera’s Turn of the Screw, an immersive production set in the Bronx’s Wave Hill Gardens, featured mostly good singing and a few directorial and technological missteps.
We’ll always have Paris
At Friday night’s performance of La Bohème at the Met, the cast seemed to lean into (and gamble upon) the production’s enduring popularity.
Electric excitement
On this day in 1959 mezzo-soprano Giulietta Simionato made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Azucena.
La bohème
The season premiere of the Met’s sempiternal warhorse begins tonight at 7:25.
Raspberry bouquet
Lise Davidsen, who makes her role debut tonight as Leonore in Fidelio, is still very early in what appears to be a most promising career.
Elegy of Life
Born on this day in 1926 soprano Galina Vishnevskaya.
Pink flamingos
Like any good gay theatergoers, we seek out Tennessee Williams revivals with the fervor of truffle-sniffing pigs.
