A star is Anna
The legendary 2005 Willy Decker production of La traviata at the Salzburg Festival.
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No mere wisp of a woman
On this day in 1937 soprano Zinka Milanov made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Leonora in Il trovatore.
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).
Lion, tamer
At Friday’s opening of Otello, there was a good deal of interesting going on, though not all of it necessarily onstage.
Alzare le spalle
“Non mi dispiace” seemed to be the general consensus in the loggione December 7 when Verdi’s Attila came roaring into La Scala to open the 2018-19 season.
The Anna in red
Joining Anna Netrebko in this 2004 performance of the first act duet from Lucia di Lammermoor is tenor Marcelo Álvarez.
Song of freedom
Born on this day in 1770 composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
Broadcast: La traviata
La Cieca invites the cher public (not pictured) to hear and discuss this afternoon’s broadcast of La traviata from the Met.
Three more times!
The long evening didn’t achieve the degree of celebration it should have.
The vinyl countdown
At one point I spent a couple of months on the dole and dollar record shopping had a number of obvious virtues as a pastime.
The rich are different from you and me
Whether you love the 2018 Berlin Staatsoper Tristan and Isolde depends on what you think the opera is about.
Instrumental Anna
Anna Netrebko sings the first movement of Gliere’s Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra in 2003.
Just turn her loose on Broadway
On this day in 1952 Bette Davis returned to Broadway in Two’s Company.
Broadcast: Otello
Conductor Gustavo Dudamel makes his long-awaited Met debut tonight at 8:00 PM.
O gloria!
“Carl Tanner will sing the title role in Verdi’s Otello in tonight’s season premiere performance, replacing Stuart Skelton, who is ill.”
Separated at the Baxter Building
And all this time we’ve thought it was only Thomas Hampson‘s elevated opinion of his talent that led him to call himself “Mr. Fantastic.”
Made in the shade
Here’s a quick sprint through some recent (and a few maybe not-so-very-recent) Handel CDs that have been stacking up.
Coming this spring to FXX
“These two dynamic artists will participate in a conversation onstage concerning activism, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, and the future of education.”
“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth”
On February 14, 2002, Anna Netrebko made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Prokofiev’s War and Peace.
One, Two, Three
On this day in 1918 Puccini’s Il trittico premiered at the Metropolitan Opera.
Gas mark four
How is it possible that no one has ever done a production of Hänsel und Gretel with the Witch played as Fanny Cradock?
Not the Messiah
Four fine Handel-centric concerts from the Morgan Library to Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center proved a bracing antidote to pervasive Messiah-mania.
Conception
Your doyenne’s origin myth must always be understood to begin with the bite of a radioactive soprano way back in 1976.
The good shepherd
L’Arlesiana in a vibrant live performance from a dozen years ago with Giuseppe Filianoti, Latonia Moore and Marianne Cornetti.