Coming out
On this day in 1933 Richard Strauss’ Arabella premiered in Dresden.
Recent Stories
Broadcast: Cendrillon
The live telecast from the Glyndebourne Festival has just started!
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).
Hoops to swell her Pride
Born on this day in 1685 playwright and librettist John Gay.
Out of the pastiche
Born on this day in 1911 composer Bernard Herrmann.
Opera, queens
La Cieca hears that for the first time in recorded history, the Metropolitan Opera will have an official presence in the Pride March this Sunday.
Defying gravitas
Benjamin Yarmolinsky’s The Constitution: A Secular Oratorio, performed by Vertical Player Repertory on Thursday evening, was an awful lot of legal speak for one evening.
He’s a Cat who has lived many lives in succession
The Royal Opera Covent Garden is getting into the act with a star-studded revival of Cats featuring Sir Bryn Terfel (pictured) as “Old Deuteronomy.”
Let’s talk about sax
Born on this day in 1902 composer Richard Rodgers.
From Russia with love
Under any circumstances, the Russian Opera Workshop’s radiant concert performance of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta would have been an event to celebrate.
Vaness: Ah!
“Trove Thursday” turns to an opera by a gay American composer prior to Sunday’s Stonewall 50 commemoration: Samuel Barber’s gothic melodrama Vanessa starring the great Carol Vaness.
Love me, baby, love me!
Born on this day in 1932 soprano Anna Moffo.
Peak gay achieved
“For five years, concert pianist Theo Mangrove has been living at his family’s home in East Kill, New York, recovering from a nervous breakdown that derailed his career.”
Swing time
On this day in 1911, The Ziegfeld Follies opened at the rooftop Jardin de Paris.
Ev’rything’s coming up Renée!
Noted method actress Reneé Fleming is caught up the glamour and footlights of it all.
Putting it together
Riccardo Muti’s vision of Aida’s score largely emerged as one of subtlety, musicality, and restraint.
Nixon in Jersey: The Renixoning
The singers and the orchestra carry the show, but where do they carry it?
Better watch Ott
Happy birthday baritone Jarrett Ott!
Duvet sono
“I have been looking for a hydrangea print for years,” she told reporters.
A little ‘Nixon’ goes a long way
The Princeton Festival has long been a “Little Engine that Could,” but the current operatic offering, John Adams’ Nixon in China, is a good deal more than that.
Have garret, will travel
On this day in 1967 the Metropolitan Opera presented its first Met in the Parks performance in Crocheron Park, Bayside, Queens.
Broadcast: Nabucco
Live from the Zurich Opera, a new production of Verdi’s Biblical melodrama. The telecast begins at 1:00 PM.
Toys in the attic
One of the main problems with My Undying Love was that it did not appear to know what audience it was pitching to.