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Lise Davidsen will sing Brünhilde in the Met’s new Yuval Sharon-directed and Nézet-Séguin-conducted Ring Cycle starting in 2027-28 and culminating in 2030
Paul Agnew conducts Les Arts Florissants in a live Proms performance featuring Paulina Francisco, Georgia Burashko, Rebecca Leggett, Juliette Mey, Rodrigo Carreto, and Ilja Aksionov
As a burgeoning opera fan, I relied on YouTube to connect me with the art form.
Born on this day in 1954 writer, editor, and parterre creator James Jorden
Harry Bicket conducts a performance recorded earlier this summer in Santa Fe featuring Ryan Speedo Green, Rachel Fitzgerald, Rachael Wilson, David Portillo, Nicholas Newton, Liv Redpath, William Guanbo Su, and Soloman Howard
Born on this day in 1890 conductor Erich Kleiber
Happy 64th birthday soprano Deborah Voigt
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Tra voi belle
Tra voi belle
Following the announcement that she’ll make her Met debut next season, Grand Tier Grab Bag brings Italian soprano Erika Grimaldi to your attention with a duet from Manon Lescaut.
Following the announcement that she’ll make her Met debut next season, Grand Tier Grab Bag brings Italian soprano Erika Grimaldi to your attention with a duet from Manon Lescaut.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
León in winter
León in winter
Ahead of his performance in Les pêcheurs de perles with Washington Concert Opera, Parterre Box features the unusually elegant Anthony León performing Mozart.
Ahead of his performance in Les pêcheurs de perles with Washington Concert Opera, Parterre Box features the unusually elegant Anthony León performing Mozart.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Assai più vale il soglio
che un genitor perduto
Assai più vale il soglio
che un genitor perduto
Parterre Box highlights a busy few months of Verdi performances for Marina Rebeka and Ludovic Tézier with an exciting sample of their debuts in Nabucco.
Parterre Box highlights a busy few months of Verdi performances for Marina Rebeka and Ludovic Tézier with an exciting sample of their debuts in Nabucco.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Women’s liberation
Women’s liberation
Parterre Box highlights two recent Verdi Requiems of interest with a pair of Libera mes from Asmik Grigorian and Anna Netrebko.
Parterre Box highlights two recent Verdi Requiems of interest with a pair of Libera mes from Asmik Grigorian and Anna Netrebko.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
Ash and you shall receive
Ash and you shall receive
Bellini and Donizetti may be top of mind these days, so Parterre Box offers two budding belcantisti, Beth Taylor and Dave Monaco, in a duet from Rossini’s La cenerentola.
Bellini and Donizetti may be top of mind these days, so Parterre Box offers two budding belcantisti, Beth Taylor and Dave Monaco, in a duet from Rossini’s La cenerentola.
Grand Tier Grab Bag
When her ship comes in
When her ship comes in
Anticipating the titanic arrival of Lise Davidsen‘s Isolde in New York in March, Parterre Box is thrilled to share a bit of her debut opposite Clay Hilley recorded in Barcelona last week.
Anticipating the titanic arrival of Lise Davidsen‘s Isolde in New York in March, Parterre Box is thrilled to share a bit of her debut opposite Clay Hilley recorded in Barcelona last week.
Happy 65th birthday baritone Simon Keenlyside
Chris’s Cache wishes Gundula Janowitz a happy 87th birthday today with three early live broadcasts of a favorite soprano in works by Pergolesi, Haydn, and Schumann.
Maxime Pascal conducts Caroline Wettergreen, Freya Apffelstaedt, Robin Tritschler, Tobias Moretti, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, Georg Nigl, and John Daszak in a 20th century double bill of Il Canto sospeso and Il prigioniero recorded last week at the Salzburg Festival
Simone Young leads the final 2024 Bayreuth Ring broadcast with Klaus Florian Vogt, Olafur Sigurdarson, Catherine Foster, Michael Kupfer-Radecky, Mika Kares, and Gabriela Scherer
Happy 87th birthday soprano Gundula Janowitz
Oksana Lyniv conducts Michael Volle, Elisabeth Teige, Georg Zeppenfeld, Eric Cutler, Nadine Weissmann, and Matthew Newlin in a live broadcast from Bayreuth
Born on this day in 1926 bass Theo Adam
Anna Netrebko returns to our shores in February for the first time since 2019 as part of a fundraiser for Palm Beach Opera.
Talk of the Town
The Talk of the Town
The René Jacobs Giulio Cesare is so overrated
The René Jacobs Giulio Cesare is so overrated
George Frideric Handel (born 341 years ago on Monday) composed over 40 operas including many masterpieces, but his Giulio Cesare is the one that everyone knows best.
George Frideric Handel (born 341 years ago on Monday) composed over 40 operas including many masterpieces, but his Giulio Cesare is the one that everyone knows best.
The Talk of the Town
The 1946 La traviata is so overrated
The 1946 La traviata is so overrated
For all his undeniable precision and discipline, I still find Toscanini’s tempi rushed and unyielding and his lack of rubato a chilly turnoff.
For all his undeniable precision and discipline, I still find Toscanini’s tempi rushed and unyielding and his lack of rubato a chilly turnoff.
The Talk of the Town
The 1957 Anna Bolena is so overrated
The 1957 Anna Bolena is so overrated
While the three leads do sing the material well, there has been a glut of recordings since then which are more complete and at least as well sung.
While the three leads do sing the material well, there has been a glut of recordings since then which are more complete and at least as well sung.
The Talk of the Town
The Solti Ring Cycle is so overrated
The Solti Ring Cycle is so overrated
It was many decades ago that I first listened to the Solti Ring Cycle.
It was many decades ago that I first listened to the Solti Ring Cycle.
The Talk of the Town
The 1959 Aïda is so overrated
The 1959 Aïda is so overrated
Karajan’s 1959 Aïda was once treated like gospel, a wall of plush Vienna Philharmonic sound and star power that critics dutifully genuflected before.
Karajan’s 1959 Aïda was once treated like gospel, a wall of plush Vienna Philharmonic sound and star power that critics dutifully genuflected before.
The Talk of the Town
The 1973 La bohème is so overrated
The 1973 La bohème is so overrated
The Solti recording of Bohème is completely miscast.
The Solti recording of Bohème is completely miscast.
Does Diane Paulus really have no better ideas?
Born on this day in 1930 tenor Pedro Lavirgen
Too young to be in love. But not too young to go to war or to die.
Born on this day in 1925 bass Carlos Feller
Simone Young is back at it with Michael Spyres, Vida Mikneviciute, Tomasz Konieczny, Catherine Foster, Georg Zeppenfeld, and Christa Mayer in a slightly delayed broadcast from Bayreuth
Pelléas and Mélisande are not transparent to themselves. Which means: they each have an unconscious.
Happy 61st birthday mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina