Matchless!
Douglas Moore’s score for The Ballad of Baby Doe has everything that could please and little that could offend.
Recent Stories
Owning it
Happy 33rd birthday tenor Michael Fabiano.
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).
From the sublime to the stentorian
W.C. Fields used to have a funny trope about in show business you should never work with children or animals. To that list should perhaps be added the soprano Anna Netrebko.
Elements of style
Antonio Literes, a boy soprano from Majorca, had, we may presume, friends in high places.
Back to the beach
Were La Rondine an IQ test, I’d be in trouble.
On this night of a thousand stars
On this day in 1967 the Metropolitan Opera performed La Gioconda in Memphis, Tennessee.
The music, ho!
Here’s where the parterriani will surely gather to hear and to comment upon this evening’s monster gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Met’s incumbency at Lincoln Center.
She’s just a lady with a song
Note to naysayers: there is nothing wrong with this singing!
There wouldn’t be chandeliers bright enough!
“I thought you did it for me, Mama.”
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
Broadcast: Cyrano de Bergerac
Be ready to start chatting at 12:30 today, cher public, when the Met broadcasts The Knights Who Say “Nez!”
“On the stage, I am a lion, an elephant”
The cher public are invited to post YouTube clips of Mme. Dimitrova at her most leonine and/or pachydermatous.
The Riel thing
By virtue of its subject matter and the auspicious occasion of its commissioning, Louis Riel was destined to be iconic.
I’m irresistible, you fool
On this day in 1955 the Richard Adler/Jerry Ross musical Damn Yankees opened on Broadway.
And now a word from our sponsors
On this lovely May morning, La Cieca (pictured) and the gang down at parterre are delighted to salute our advertisers.
Angry in a noble manner
“Trove Thursday” presents a live Motezuma conducted by Alan Curtis with Karina Gauvin, Sonia Prina, Mary-Ellen Nesi, Vito Priante and Ann Hallenberg (as Hernán Cortés!).
Because I am mad, I hate you
On this day in 1944 the film Gaslight premiered at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.
Panache room
“Roberto Alagna has found his most congenial and emotionally moving role yet: Cyrano de Bergerac.”
Ladies’ Quadrille
It is much to be regretted that song recitalists stick to the tried, the true, the excessively familiar when the repertory of song is so vast, so full of treasures ready for the light
You have and you were and you went and you did
Born on this day in 1917 lyricist and performer Betty Comden.
Fair game
Only the grand forces of Lyric Opera could bring such power and life to this production of My Fair Lady.
Stop the wedding
Opera Philadelphia ended its season with Le Nozze di Figaro, Friday, and it will play May 3, 5, and 7—a matinee. Figaro is considered by most to be one of the few perfect operas and although it’s perhaps too easily encountered in routine run-throughs, there are usually rewards in seeing it.
Only memory’s torch will burn for hours that ne’er return
Happy 65th birthday actress Christine Baranski.
