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Let’s all sing “O terra addio” to the those crumbly styrofoam pharaoh toes.
It’s been a rough winter in Chicago, and an especially rough one for lead singers at Lyric Opera of Chicago
“Trove Thursday” leaps to the end of the cycle with a slightly abridged Götterdämmerung featuring Amy Shuard as Brünnhilde.
Happy 88th birthday soprano Mady Mesplé!
Happy 75th birthday soprano Kiri Te Kanawa.
Russell Thomas’s opening aria, “Del piu sublime soglio” displayed an intense attention to the text and some surprisingly beautiful piano phrasing that I’ve never heard risked before and it brought wonder and gooseflesh.
Sixty years ago today, Berg’s Wozzeck was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera.
Joyce DiDonato and her band fuse Italian Baroque bel canto classics, jazz ballads, and tunes from the Great American Songbook into one illuminating musical program.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Don’t cry because it’s over
Grand Tier Grab Bag hearkens back to the days when Sondra Radvanovsky — who is singing no Verdi at all next season — seemed like the Verdi soprano of reference.
Grand Tier Grab Bag hearkens back to the days when Sondra Radvanovsky — who is singing no Verdi at all next season — seemed like the Verdi soprano of reference.
Rizzin’ to the occasion
Parterre Box features the Met’s current Eugene Onegin, Iurii Samoilov, in a performance of Rossini ahead of a return to Pesaro this summer.
Parterre Box features the Met’s current Eugene Onegin, Iurii Samoilov, in a performance of Rossini ahead of a return to Pesaro this summer.
When they go low
Nostalgic for bass month, Parterre Box offers excerpts from two young basses to watch: Giorgi Manoshvili and Patrick Guetti.
Nostalgic for bass month, Parterre Box offers excerpts from two young basses to watch: Giorgi Manoshvili and Patrick Guetti.
Nailin’ the coughin’
Rosa Feola, still scheduled for a run of performances as Violetta in New York this spring, is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Rosa Feola, still scheduled for a run of performances as Violetta in New York this spring, is the subject of this week’s Grand Tier Grab Bag.
Landing the plane
With Nixon, Klinghoffer, and Andris Nelsons on the mind, Parterre Box offers a recording of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s recent John Adams outing.
With Nixon, Klinghoffer, and Andris Nelsons on the mind, Parterre Box offers a recording of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s recent John Adams outing.
Le galant tireur
American tenor Charles Castronovo performs a bit of Weber’s Der Freischütz ahead of the opportunity to hear Berlioz‘s take on the score at Carnegie Hall next week.
American tenor Charles Castronovo performs a bit of Weber’s Der Freischütz ahead of the opportunity to hear Berlioz‘s take on the score at Carnegie Hall next week.
On this day in 1830 Vincenzo Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi premiered in Venice.
The most disappointing performance in 30 otherwise glorious years of William Christie and Les Arts Florissants visiting New York City.
On this day in 1970 mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Adalgisa.
The Met season’s final performance of the Donizetti romcom begins at 1:00 PM.
Birthday anniversaries of composers Kurt Weill (1900) and Marc Blitzstein (1905).
La Cieca is delighted to announce that the most popular posts for the month of February dealt primarily with the Met season yet to come.
Sondra Radvanovsky returned for her 29th Met Aïda Thursday night (but only her second Aïda.)
La Cieca and the gang down at parterre box extend our sincerest thanks to our angels whose largesse keeps our blog blogging: sponsors Carnegie Hall, Mirror Visions Ensemble and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Talk of the Town
A favorite Verdi performance from Tildy Diva
A well-known Met Aïda with a starry cast from 1967 is TildyDiva’s Favorite Verdi Performance
A well-known Met Aïda with a starry cast from 1967 is TildyDiva’s Favorite Verdi Performance
A favorite Verdi performance from Arrigo
My favorite Verdi performance is Claudio Abbado Don Carlo opening of the Scala.
My favorite Verdi performance is Claudio Abbado Don Carlo opening of the Scala.
A favorite Verdi performance from Peter Russell
The purely musical performance preserved here is thrilling, ratcheted to a higher intensity than the Deutsche Grammophon studio recording
The purely musical performance preserved here is thrilling, ratcheted to a higher intensity than the Deutsche Grammophon studio recording
A favorite Verdi performance from TC
Victoria de los Ángeles has always been my Violetta of choice, a portrayal that never ceases to move me.
Victoria de los Ángeles has always been my Violetta of choice, a portrayal that never ceases to move me.
A favorite Verdi performance from Anna Netrebko
I feel that the best years of Maria Callas’s vocalità, when we hear such a unique freedom and generosity in her singing, were captured in her early recordings.
I feel that the best years of Maria Callas’s vocalità, when we hear such a unique freedom and generosity in her singing, were captured in her early recordings.
A favorite Verdi performance from Armerjacquino
Before the screams of horror begin, it says ‘favorite’, not best.
Before the screams of horror begin, it says ‘favorite’, not best.
On this day in 1913, the Met revived Manon with Geraldine Farrar and Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini conducting.
If Glenda Jackson, who is 82 years old, can whip through King Lear in two hours and 45 minutes, then how is it that La Traviata at the Met slogs on for over three hours?
Although Gustav Mahler never wrote an opera, his colossal Eighth Symphony “The Symphony of a Thousand” may give us some glimpses of what a Mahler opera might have sounded like
On this day in 1862 Gounod’s La Reine de Saba premiered in Paris.
It’s an 8:00 PM curtain tonight for the Met’s Falstaff.
West Bay Opera’s sterling production of Verdi’s I due Foscari played over the last two weekends.
Tenor Matthew Polenzani and pianist Julius Drake’s performance left this listener in a a state of euphoria.
Ardent Angel Blue will jump into performances vacated by the collapsible Sonya Yoncheva at La Scala.
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