Recent Stories
Opera Parallèle is revisiting Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie’s Harvey Milk during Pride Month. It’s “not a reaction,” but it couldn’t be more timely.
I think Babette’s Feast is a more or less perfect film and has been my favorite since the first time I saw it.
The thing that inspires me about Pavarotti’s performance here is that this is the piece within the opera that everyone in the audience is waiting to hear.
Philippe Jaroussky conducts a performance recorded last month in Montpellier featuring Levy Sekgapane
Anna Paquin cries at the opera to the Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffmann (Renée Fleming and Susan Graham)
Ahead of tomorrow’s Live in HD, Michael Steinberg talks Leonore, Salome, and the “endemic misogyny” of Claus Guth‘s new production
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Women’s liberation
Parterre Box highlights two recent Verdi Requiems of interest with a pair of Libera mes from Asmik Grigorian and Anna Netrebko.
Parterre Box highlights two recent Verdi Requiems of interest with a pair of Libera mes from Asmik Grigorian and Anna Netrebko.
Ash and you shall receive
Bellini and Donizetti may be top of mind these days, so Parterre Box offers two budding belcantisti, Beth Taylor and Dave Monaco, in a duet from Rossini’s La cenerentola.
Bellini and Donizetti may be top of mind these days, so Parterre Box offers two budding belcantisti, Beth Taylor and Dave Monaco, in a duet from Rossini’s La cenerentola.
When her ship comes in
Anticipating the titanic arrival of Lise Davidsen‘s Isolde in New York in March, Parterre Box is thrilled to share a bit of her debut opposite Clay Hilley recorded in Barcelona last week.
Anticipating the titanic arrival of Lise Davidsen‘s Isolde in New York in March, Parterre Box is thrilled to share a bit of her debut opposite Clay Hilley recorded in Barcelona last week.
Erste Brautnacht
Nearly three years after the premiere of François Girard’s Lohengrin at the Met, Parterre Box looks back at the production with a duet from Piotr Beczala and Elena Stikhina.
Nearly three years after the premiere of François Girard’s Lohengrin at the Met, Parterre Box looks back at the production with a duet from Piotr Beczala and Elena Stikhina.
Tabled for now
Ahead of the return of Louise to the Opéra National de Lyon, Parterre Box features Elsa Dreisig in a much more famous French opera.
Ahead of the return of Louise to the Opéra National de Lyon, Parterre Box features Elsa Dreisig in a much more famous French opera.
My heart belongs to daddy
This week, Parterre Box shares Quinn Kelsey and Jennifer Rowley in a duet from a Verdi opera rumored to be returning to New York this time next season.
This week, Parterre Box shares Quinn Kelsey and Jennifer Rowley in a duet from a Verdi opera rumored to be returning to New York this time next season.
It’s mad! It’s gay! It’s Michael Fabiano singing “Come un bel dì di maggio” from Andrea Chénier!
One of the most striking uses of opera in television appears in HBO’s The Leftovers.
The Peruvian tenor Luigi Alva has died at 98.
An impressive cast blurs binaries as John Adams‘s ambitious Antony and Cleopatra arrives at the Met
I’m cheating by choosing TV over a movie, but I can’t not pick the Hamlet episode of Gilligan’s Island.
Chris’s Cache looks forward to next month’s Boston Early Music Festival with a comprehensive introduction to German Baroque featuring Sandrine Piau, Jennifer Larmore, and Joan Sutherland
Christopher Corwin on three stylish sopranos delighting audiences live in New York and on recording in a trio of new releases.
Talk of the Town
Any recording of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny is so overrated
It’s always surprised me how so many performances of the major Brecht/Weill collaborations seem to have zero clue of how to handle either Weill’s music.
It’s always surprised me how so many performances of the major Brecht/Weill collaborations seem to have zero clue of how to handle either Weill’s music.
The 2018 Macbeth is so overrated
I don’t know if it’s overrated because I don’t think anyone rates it, but for pure party disc joy not much beats this 2018 recording of the original 1847 version of Verdi‘s Macbeth.
I don’t know if it’s overrated because I don’t think anyone rates it, but for pure party disc joy not much beats this 2018 recording of the original 1847 version of Verdi‘s Macbeth.
This 1955 Eugene Onegin is so overrated
This is the classic Onegin and there’s much to love, especially from Khaikin‘s sensitive conducting and Lemeshev‘s ideal Lensky.
This is the classic Onegin and there’s much to love, especially from Khaikin‘s sensitive conducting and Lemeshev‘s ideal Lensky.
The best thing I saw in 2025 was Echo 72
An opera about the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics was never going to be an easy task.
An opera about the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics was never going to be an easy task.
The best things I saw in 2025 were Parsifal and The Monkey King
Both performances moved me profoundly and served as a form of catharsis, ending a challenging 2025 with a glimmer of hope for the future
Both performances moved me profoundly and served as a form of catharsis, ending a challenging 2025 with a glimmer of hope for the future
The best thing I saw in 2025 was La sonnambula
Easily the Met’s new Sonnambula, where cast and production team delivered a gorgeously sung and well thought out concept for a libretto often derided for its simplicity.
Easily the Met’s new Sonnambula, where cast and production team delivered a gorgeously sung and well thought out concept for a libretto often derided for its simplicity.
It’s a total fraud, but I have always loved Maytime‘s “Csaritza” a fake “MGM” opera based on themes from Tchaikovsky‘s 5th symphony.
Hunding, of Die Walküre notoriety, is the most misunderstood character in opera.
A live broadcast from New York
A brutal, chilling, gory final scene leading to a triumphant and goose bumps inducing final moments.
“Ebben, ne andro lontana” sung by Wihelmenia Wiggins Fernandez in Diva is a gorgeous woman in a beautiful dress singing a wonderful area in a legitimate concert venue. Great singing in my favorite French film.
parterre box presents for your comparing pleasure excerpts of three Italian sopranos trying their (poker) hands at Puccini’s Minnie: Carmen Giannatasio, Chiara Isotton, and Anna Pirozzi