“This is the very ecstasy of love”
The grand illusion is that we know it all. From four hundred years of opera, we’ve distilled the worthy survivors.
Recent Stories
Maverick
Happy 57th birthday soprano Lauren Flanigan.
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!
The swan never bothered me anyway
Cher public, you knew La Cieca would come through for you, didn’t you? So hurry past the jump and give a listen.
Snow business
Los Angeles saw the first U.S. performance of Giacomo Puccini’s snow-dusted weeper in 1897 just a year after the young Toscanini led the prima in Turin.
Per la Madonna che ti mangerei come il pane!
On this day in 1890 Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana premiered in Rome.
Community service
Regina Opera almost completely fulfilled its mission Saturday afternoon with their production of Manon Lescaut.
Class act
Happy 67th birthday bass Ferruccio Furlanetto.
Youth served
Too often I allow my memories of great singers to be dulled by late career behavior, delving into unsuitable roles or just plain laziness.
Chat: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
An early bird special chat: the premiere of Die Meistersinger from the Bayerische Staatsoper, featuring DJ Jummy Jonas.
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).
Now I suddenly feel as if I’ve taken all my clothes off
Can it really be 40 (Four, oh!) years since La Cieca was born?
Shooting in low light
What we really need, some seem to believe, is fuller representation of the 19th century.
To affect the soul
Born on this day in 1567 composer Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi.
She’s still here
Happy 91st birthday soprano Patrice Munsel.
Live and empoisoned
In how many operas does the heroine drink poison and then go lengthily mad?
After all we have each of us only eight notes to work upon
Born on this day in 1842 composer Arthur Sullivan.
The other Valkyrie
While D.C. Wagnerians wait for Nina Stemme’s Brünnhilde to arrive next week, “Trove Thursday” presents the erstwhile Valkyrie of another compelling diva: Anna Caterina Antonacci as Brunehild, the heroine of Ernest Reyer’s Sigurd, a French grand opera also based on the Nibelungenlied.
“This is the biggest flop in the world history of theater, going all the way back to Aristophanes”
On this day in 1988 Carrie-The Musical opened on Broadway, to run five performances.
Many moons ago
On this day in 1959 the musical Once Upon a Mattress opened off-Broadway.
That ’70s show
Washington National Opera followed up Monday’s lavishly praised Die Walküre with a Siegfried that, if not quite rising to the summit of the previous installment, delivered a musically committed and eminently watchable version of this complicated work.
Forever young
Perhaps the most admirable project of Dominique Meyer’s Intendanz at Wiener Staatsoper is the traversal of the operas of Leos Janancek,.
“They hear drums, we hear music”
On this day in 1994 Stephen Sondheim‘s Passion opened on Broadway.
The usual gang of idiots
On this day in 1952 Mad Magazine was first published.
