A Christmas story
This archly traditional production of La bohème was a little shaky on opening night. It nevertheless had a full complement of sterling individual performances to take us on home.
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Gente là dentro
On this day in 1974 tenor Jose Carreras made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Cavardossi
Bei sogni del tempo primiero
On this day in 1839 Verdi‘s Oberto premiered in Milan
Madama Butterfly
Marina Rebeka and Joshua Guerrero lead this recent performance from Vienna.
That is really a noise!
On this day in 1926 the US Premiere and first Metropolitan Opera performance of Puccini‘s Turandot.
Character assassination
Austin Opera’s 2024 production of The Manchurian Candidate proved to be a daring and timely commentary on political power in America, shortly after the 2024 election, just as it had been before the 2016 election.
Things will be great when you’re downtown
On this day in 1918 soprano Rosa Ponselle made her Metropolitan Opera debut, and her first appearance in opera, as Leonora
On an evening in Roma
After an uneven gala performance of Tosca on Tuesday, I’m not sure what the Met means by “celebrating Puccini.”
Sie jagt dich auf, schreiend entfliehst du
Born on this day in 1926 soprano Leonie Rysanek
If I rest, I Rustioni
“The Metropolitan Opera announced the appointment of Daniele Rustioni to the position of Principal Guest Conductor for a three-year term.”
Afraid of their own shadows
Later this month the Met at last revives its striking Herbert Wernicke production of Die Frau ohne Schatten, prompting a Chris’s Cache preview of three live recordings of Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s fanciful if knotty masterpiece.
You can hear the grass as it grows
Born on this day in 1914 librettist and composer John La Touche
Aïda, harder not smarter
With Boston Lyric Opera’s largest opera production of the season already well behind us, the one-off semi-staged gala performance of Aïda held on Sunday at Emerson College’s Colonial Theatre to support the company’s vast education and community engagement apparatus, was a particularly enticing entry on the Boston cultural calendar.
Mixte blessings
I was just moderately excited when LA Opera announced that French tenor Benjamin Bernheim would be coming to concertize at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, 90210.
Talk about Popp muzik
Born on this day in 1939 soprano Lucia Popp
Persson of interest
The New York Philharmonic podium has been occupied the past two weeks by Finnish conductors once thought to be top contenders for the ensemble’s music directorship.
Fish are friends, not food
On this day in 1993 Dvorak‘s Rusalka finally appears at the Met. Gabriela Benacková does the honors.
Play drive
Born on this day in 1759 poet and dramatist Friedrich von Schiller
A Wales of a singer
Happy 59th birthday bass-baritone Bryn Terfel
Rise and look around you
My first opera of the new season in Paris, after kicking off in Brussels with Kris Defoort’s thought-provoking The Day of our Singing, was another nearly-new work, totally new to me: Sir George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this.
The new Norma
In a splashy new recording of Norma, Marina Rebeka “is doing something very untoward, and it appears destructive to her voice.” It has Niel Rishoi worried.