Sous le ciel de Paris
Alexander Neef (currently Canadian Opera Company’s General Director and Santa Fe Opera’s Artistic Director) will succeed Stéphane Lissner as chief at the Opéra de Paris.
Recent Stories
Sussex appeal
Countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski will jump into Glyndebourne Opera’s production of Handel’s Rinaldo after mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong pulled out “for personal reasons.”
“Life’s too short. I’m not!”
Happy 50th birthday singer and songstress Kristin Chenoweth.
“I’m here, I’m queer, morir”
“Turandot is visibly stirred by Liù’s self-sacrifice and she caresses her dead body. Just after Calaf kisses her, she takes her headdress off and comes out as a gay woman.”
The journey is the destination
In this recital, the Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny and his pianist Lech Napierala present the world premiere recording of Stanislaw Baranczak‘s Podróz Zimowa (Winter’s Journey), which weds the poet’s meticulously crafted poetry to the music of Franz Schubert.
Rare bird
Happy 47th birthday soprano Anja Harteros.
Mother of Exiles
Born on this day in 1849 poet Emma Lazarus.
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).
Kommen Sie und hören Sie das Wiegenlied des Broadway!
The Bayerische Staatsorchester with General Music Director Kirill Petrenko plays music by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Frederick Loewe, Leonard Bernstein, Rodgers and Hammerstein and more.
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!
“I think women of my age are still attractive”
Happy 81st birthday actress Diana Rigg.
She’s a stranger here herself
The four leading roles in La Straniera were all attractively cast by Teatro Nuovo with fresh, promising young voices that did not seem quite ready for the big time.
No one can ever say I didn’t sing
Born on this day in 1868 soprano Florence Foster Jenkins.
Anna one, Anna two
Trove Thursday offers Bellini’s La Sonnambula with Anna Moffo (San Francisco 1960) and Anna Netrebko (Vienna 2006).
Berlin wall
Why did I mostly want to close my eyes and just listen?
L’oiseau d’or
Born on this day in 1821 mezzo-soprano, pedagogue and composer Pauline Viardot.
Muh booklet
“Will no one shed a tear for obsolescent analog technology?”
Wheeling: Summer of 1914
Born on this day in 1914 soprano Eleanor Steber.
It’s the Minnesinger not the song
Tannhäuser pales beside the other great Wagnerian operas in the degree to which it has innovated the Regisseur’s vocabulary for set design and dramaturgy.
There is no spoon
Can a work with indisputably great music fail to add up to a successful opera? I puzzled over that Sunday during Teatro Nuovo’s essential concert staging of Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra at SUNY Purchase.
“Rhythm is born in all of us”
Born on this day in 1911 actress, dancer and singer Ginger Rogers.
Moody “Blue”
The Glimmerglass Festival premiered a searing examination of race, identity, and the fraught relationship between communities of color and law enforcement. Blue, with a score by Jeanine Tesori and libretto by Tazewell Thompson.
