A favorite Wagner performance from Rowna Sutin
This is one of my favorite operas, and visually and story telling-wise, you can’t beat this production.
By Rowna Sutin
28 comments
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Zelmira
A live broadcast of the opening night of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro with Anastasia Bartoli and Lawrence Brownlee
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).
With so little to be sure of
One final appeal for you to share what most titillates you in the upcoming season for September’s The Talk of the Town
Agrippina
A performance recorded last month at the Festival International d’Opéra Baroque & Romantique de Beaune featuring Les Épopées
A favorite Wagner performance from Yuval Sharon
This performance represents a perfect alignment of piece, performer, director, and conductor – the epitome of Gesamtkunstwerk.
By Yuval Sharon
50 comments
Gonna build a heaven from a little hell
Tobias Kratzer‘s Das Rheingold in Munich kicks off a Ring for the post-secular age
Back to the gypsy that I was
In the midst of an eventful summer for the Arena di Verona, one important happening has flown under the radar: the return of Anita Rachvelishvili to her signature role of Carmen, of which Parterre Box features a sample of today
This is what trauma looks like
Valentin Schwarz‘s and Simone Young‘s Ring, in its final outing at Bayreuth, is dramaturgically messy and musically excellent.
A favorite Wagner performance from Scott Grunow
Rita Gorr as Ortrud, Bayreuth, 1959, Cluytens.
By Scott Grunow
95 comments
Pompeo and circumstance
Chris’s Cache previews the upcoming Bayreuth Baroque Festival with a rare recording of Cavalli’s Pompeo Magno
Bluebeard’s Castle
Iván Fischer leads an all-Hungarian team in a broadcast from the Proms
A favorite Wagner performance from Krunoslav
The superb 1958 Bayreuth Lohengrin, under the wonderful Cluytens.
By Krunoslav
160 comments
Land where the lemon trees bloom
The repertory company of Munich’s Gärtnerplatztheater brings sparkle to a goofy, summery L’elisir d’amore
The Aix factor
This summer’s festival, taking place amid record high temperatures and in the wake of its artistic director, Pierre Audi, featured a disquietingly zeigeisty focus on sexual violence.
A favorite Wagner performance from Carmen Paddock
Recency bias is in full swing here, but Glyndebourne’s first ever staging of Parsifal – and my first Parsifal – takes top prize for me.
By Carmen Paddock
34 comments
Space oddity
In Lohengrin, populism comes to an apocalyptic end on the Bavarian stage
Le nozze di Figaro
A performance recorded earlier this summer at The Santa Fe Opera
Walking through the valley of death
Peter Sellars‘s triple bill of Viennese modernism featuring Erwartung and a concert performance of The Raft of the Medusa stare down death at the Salzburg Festival
A favorite Wagner performance from Mr. Portafiori
I went to hear Eileen Farrell conducted by Leonard Bernstein at the Philharmonic in 1970.
By Mr. Portafiori
94 comments
Bernstein Double Bill
Trouble in Tahiti and A Quiet Place in a performance recorded last fall in London
A favorite Wagner performance from grimoaldo2
I suppose Der fliegende Holländer is my favorite Wagner opera — a riveting masterpiece from start to finish, dramatically and musically.
By Grimoaldo2
53 comments
Ice ice baby
A recent review of Olga Maslova as Aïda is as good a reason as any to share a clip of her fascinating Turandot