One more souvenir of bliss
This week, Chris’s Cache offers a performance of Follies from 2007 featuring Lucine Amara as a rarely richly sung Heidi alongside Donna Murphy and Victoria Clark.
Recent Stories
More people should listen to Renée Doria
For me, Renée Doria epitomizes the best of French style – pointed diction, a slightly lemon-y timbre that cuts through any cloying sentimentality…..love her!
By Belfagor
85 comments
Yes and no
William Kentridge‘s eclectic The Great Yes, The Great No arrives at Cal Performances.
A most finely Huwn art
Huw Montague Rendall’s new release Contemplation has been spinning in both my car and home players repeatedly for months now.
More people should listen to Elisabete Matos
… as Minnie in La fanciulla del west
By Gregory Munna
75 comments
Beyond redemption
This performance of Mahler’s Symphony N°8 at the Bozar in Brussels will probably be my last ever Mahler concert.
Nilsson ratings
Christina Nilsson‘s debut enlivens the Met’s new Aïda.
Alcina
The opening night of a new production live from the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.
Proud ladies
Karen Slack is downright magisterial in her recital African Queens.
Kát’a Kabanová
Corinne Winters sings the title role in Janácek‘s opera live from Munich.
The Women are like that
A stylish and funny Così fan tutte at LA Opera is a pretty glam affair, according to Patrick Mack.
More people should listen to Pilar Lorengar
She demonstrated impressive artistry in repertoire that ranged from Spanish music to Mozart and Verdi. I only saw her twice at the Met in Mozart but they were both memorable performances.
By Patrick Lenaghan
62 comments
Laffont Grand Finals Concert
The conclusion of the Metropolitan Opera’s annual competition, live from New York
Bel Canto Sunday Matinée
parterre‘s protean publisher and historical singing authority Nick Scholl sits down with the Bel Canto Boot Camp team to discuss the old school and what makes for good filth
More people should listen to Martile Rowland
A drama/trauma-tic soprano in the model of Gencer and Olivero, Martile Rowland sang a brilliant Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux (a last minute replacement for Zampieri, another controversial pick) at a concert, did half a Puritani at the Met, and sang the other “Gencer” roles such as Paolina in I Martiri, the title roles in Caterina Cornaro and Linda di Chamounix, and then retired to teach in the midwest somewhere(?).
By Leyla Gender-Bender
136 comments
Beware the ides of March
But two weeks remain for readers to stoke the fires of daily discussion over at The Talk of the Town!
Fidelio
A live broadcast from New York – and Lise Davidsen‘s final broadcast before her maternity leave!
Norma
Federica Lombardi is Norma in a performance recorded in Vienna last month.
More people should listen to Joyce Guyer
Joyce Guyer’s silvery soprano, impeccable musicianship and beguiling stage presence made her an invaluable member of the Met roster in the late 1990s and early 2000s, appearing most frequently in harmony with others in such assignments as Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos, Woglinde in Wagner’s Ring Cycle and as a Parsifal Flower Maiden.
By Peter Russell
57 comments
From California to the New York island
The new musical starring Idina Menzel, ostensibly a paean to back-to-naturism, could hardly feel more manufactured and synthetic.
‘Do’ or die
Hoping to speed up the arrival of spring, parterre box coaxes you to Michael Spyres‘s blazing pira with an in-house sampling of his Manrico from last fall’s Il trovatore in Houston.
More people should listen to Lianna Haroutounian
Although not exactly unknown, why she isn’t a big star is mysterious to me.
By Tim Meijers
55 comments
Birds of a feather
In Opera Parallèle’s The Pigeon Keeper, Michael Anthonio finds a timely message of kindness during hard times.