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.
Recent Stories
Leontyne Price sings Christmas songs
Leontyne Price in her early prime is soaring and radiant in traditional Christmas songs.
By Gergory B. Mowery
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Oh that’s it, a switch! A switch!
Bernie Williams and Jonathan Tetelman take over Carnegie Hall for one night. You’ll be fine.
By Parterre Box + AllStar Encore
Make them die through singing
Ahead of a new production opening at the Met on New Year’s Eve, director Charles Edwards and Lisette Oropesa discuss creating an I puritani that is stark and serious — and sings.
Yvonne Kenny sings “Christmas Day”
An Australian Christmas where the paddocks are brown, the gullies are green, and the singing is, frankly, better behaved than most of us will be by lunchtime.
By Robbie Johnstone
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Reduce, reuse, recycle
Global warming meets the cool factor in The Seasons.
Jessye Norman sings Christmas music at the Ely Cathedral
Though there are a number of fine recording of holiday music by opera singers (Eileen Farrell!), this great performance of Jessye Norman was captured on video as well.
Contes stop won’t stop
Juan Diego Flórez and Damiano Michieletto concoct an absinthe-fueled fever dream in a new DVD from The Royal Ballet and Opera and Opusarte.
Luciano Pavarotti sings “O Holy Night”
A beautiful Christmas album is Pavarotti‘s ‘Oh, Holy Night” conducted by Kurt Herbert Adler.
By Mr. Portafiori
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Broadcast
Partenope / Teatro San Carlo
Ennio Morricone's only opera heard in a performance recorded last week in Naples
Streamed December 21, 2025 at 2:30 PM
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Life in the Faust lane
Théâtre de l’Athénée Louis-Jouvet mounts a raucous production of Hervé’s Le petit Faust.
Broadcast
The Magic Flute / Metropolitan Opera
A performance of the beloved (and inescapable) abridged English-language version of Mozart's Singspiel live from New York
Streamed December 20, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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Better the devil you know
America’s own Faust gets a compelling operatic treatment, courtesy of DC’s IN Series
Malena Ernman sings “Jul, jul, strålande jul”
This has been my favorite Christmas song since I first heard this performance, the opening track of Malena Ernman‘s first Christmas album.
By Alben Barg
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Broadcast
Fidelio / Wiener Staatsoper
Malin Byström and David Butt Philip lead a new production by Nicholas Habjan in a live video broadcast from Vienna
Streamed December 19, 2025 at 1:00 PM
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Mein Lieder Schwan
Matthew Polenzani charms the pants off of Philadelphia.
Anne-Sofie von Otter sings “Koppangen”
There’s plenty of full-on Christmas music to love in Anne Sophie von Otter‘s “Home for Christmas.”
By Larry Rudiger
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Capital punishment
A patchy production and musical performance can’t dull the edge of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Komische Oper Berlin
Saint-Ex marks the spot
Washington National Opera’s holiday presentation of The Little Prince, based on the classic French novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, showcased the company’s Cafritz Young Artists
Christmas with Renata Scotto at St. Patrick’s Cathedral
I bought this album because I found the photo on the cover to be Camp.
By feliks
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I listen to the wind of my soul
Washington Concert Opera began its 39th season last month with Christoph Willibald Gluck’s late masterpiece Iphigénie en Tauride.
When Pushkin comes to shove
An incoherent production of Ruslan and Lyudmila at the Hamburg State Opera may dispense with the fantastical, but Glinka‘s magic remains.
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
Renata Tebaldi sings “Tu scendi dalle stelle”
When I first listened years ago as a baby opera queen to Tebaldi‘s 1971 “Christmas Festival,” I could not get over just how enfeebled she sounded.
By Harry Rose
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