Orientalism alive and well on the Upper West Side
“Based on two Noh plays, the hypnotic work creates a shimmering world of supernatural encounters…”
Recent Stories
Smoke gets in your eyes
On this day in 1970, Regina Resnik celebrated her 25th anniversary at the Met with a performance of Carmen, part of the company’s first June Festival.
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).
Blonde Venus?
The frequently-omniscient Future Met Wiki has recently vouchsafed a few morsels about upcoming Met seasons.
She’s electrifying
Happy 75th birthday soprano Eva Marton.
“I wish I could say I was sorry!”
“James Levine is trying to discredit one of his alleged victims by dredging up a ‘love’ letter his teen accuser once wrote to him.”
Human, all too human
Siegfried is, in a sense, The Ring’s odd one out.
‘La traviata’ on a parterre saturday afternoon
Today at 2:00 PM, Our Own JJ presents the “other” great Maria Callas Traviata from 1958, the glorious performance of June 20, 1958 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Boys of the baroque
In less than 10 days two outstanding countertenors, Franco Fagioli and Jakub Józef Orlinski, visited London.
Rara avis
Tomorrow (Sunday) a staged reading of The Lisbon Traviata will be performed at New York’s LGBT Community Center.
Borne back ceaselessly into the past
Born on this day in 1952 tenor Jerry Hadley.
Stonebroke?
New York City Opera apparently plans to fund its commission of the opera Stonewall via Patreon.
The hipster demigoddess
If Das Rheingold is an opera about infinitude, the illusory idea that the world is large enough to satisfy all of our desires, passions, and lusts, Die Walküre is an opera about scarcity.
Statuesque
Happy 88th birthday stage designer and director Pier Luigi Pizzi.
Contes stop the music
Trove Thursday wades into the murky musicological waters of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann..
Who let the dogs out?
Norman Lebrecht, as is increasingly his wont, emitted a vicious racially-charged dog whistle this morning.
Illuminatus
Born on this day in 1763 composer Simon Mayr.
San Francisco, open your Rheingold gate
Casting the Ring as a parable for the state of the current world, seen through the eyes of a progressive urban opera lover (and not an early German nationalist), offers us soothing self-justification.
Frappez toujours! Dieu choisira les siens!
On this day in 1855 Verdi’s Les Vêpres siciliennes premiered in Paris.
Cave dwellers
Composer/librettist David Hertzberg’s The Rose Elf, which gave its world premiere in the Green-Wood Cemetery Catacombs last weekend, is indeed a marvel of elfin proportions.
True intentions
Born on this day in 1919 actress and theatre practitioner Uta Hagen.
The sun shines nellie
Warmth, humor, and joyful out-and-proud-ness dominate the mood, yet there is considerable darkness in Taylor Mac’s view of both past and present.
Everything’s coming up roses
Born on this day in 1864 composer Richard Strauss and in 1913 mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens.
From the vault
La Cieca is delighted to remind her cher public that the parterre YouTube page (called operazine) has been newly refurbished and updated.