Life is like a train
“In my music, there’s not repetition. Something is always going on.”
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Operette
Born on this day in 1822 composer Victor Massé.
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: Idomeneo
Here’s where the parterriani meet to discuss tonight’s season premiere of Idomeneo at 7:25 PM.
Questa donna conoscete?
Last week Anna Netrebko sang in concert Violetta’s first act aria from La traviata, an opera she will return to her repertoire at La Scala on Thursday of this week.
The Importance of Being Rudolph
Since Gilbert and Sullivan remain constant in the light-opera repertory, somewhere between Fledermaus and Les Mis in popular esteem, there must be good reasons their final collaboration, The Grand Duke, is seldom revived.
Les feuilles mortes
Lyric Opera of Chicago concluded its 2016-17 season with a spellbinding and wonderfully sung production of Tchaikovsky’s familiar Eugene Onegin.
Ready or not, here comes mama
Opening night of La Scala in 1962 with Franco Corelli, Antonietta Stella, Fiorenza Cossotto, Ettore Bastianini, and Ivo Vinco.
Sleep, my love
On this day in 1831 Vincenzo Bellini‘s La Sonnambula premiered in Milan.
Never brought to mind
Born on this day in 1748 composer William Shield.
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).
Mistress of improvisation
On this day in 1943, actress Greer Garson delivered what remains the longest Academy Awards acceptance speech in history
Start the revolution with me
The Bayerische Staatsoper just announced, in addition to their usual bounty of webcasts, two special presentations: a repeat of Semiramide and a live telecast of Andrea Chenier.
Beyond the sea
“Trove Thursday” presents Mozart’s Idomeneo with superstar tenor Jonas Kaufmann in the title role.
Somewhere out there is a lady who I think will never be a nun
On this day in 1965, The Sound of Music premiered at the Rivoli Theater in New York City.
Broadcast: La Traviata
More merriment tonight, cher public, with another broadcast of La traviata to discuss.
The top ten returns
A listing of the ten most-read parterre posts of February 2017.
Lait préludes
Does yummy Yannick Nézet-Séguin owe it all to dairy?
I never wanted to set the world on fire
Born on this day in 1917 songstress Dinah Shore.
All right on the western front
Silent Night is in a sense a giant middle finger raised against the conventional wisdom that musical sophistication requires inscrutability.
‘Dead Man,’ stumbling
The opera is relentlessly obvious, a work that repeatedly turns to tired tropes and canned characters to fill up its nearly three hour run time.
She can pull all the stops out
On this day in 1862 Gounod’s La Reine de Saba premiered in Paris.
Cards on the table
The Canadian Opera Company scored a coup when they secured Christine Goerke for the revival of their Ring productions over the last three seasons
