Heil macht mich dein Nah’n!
Happy 54th birthday tenor Brandon Jovanovich
Recent Stories
The clown of God
Rigoletto is the perfect opera. The story is straightforward and powerful; none of the action occurs backstage or between scenes or twenty-seven years before curtain rise; and the ethical anvil lands not once but twice, on the title character singing, “La maledizione!” The curse!
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).
There’s only color and light
Happy 83rd birthday director and designer Robert Wilson
Tosca
Xian Zhang conducts Aleksandra Kurzak, SeokJong Baek, and George Gagnidze in a live broadcast from New York
Palette knives out
Lincoln Center is in full diva mode. Or at least that is what it seemed as I passed the line of posters outside Alice Tully Hall for the forthcoming Maria Callas biopic.
Gonna build a daydream from a little hope
On this day in 1968 soprano Marion Lippert made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Turandot.
Green grow the lilacs
Eastern Long Island remains surprisingly verdant even into the early fall.
Freude im Herzen
On this day in 1966 baritone Walter Berry made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Barak
The music and the mirror
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.
Practically perfect in every way
Happy 89th birthday Julie Andrews
Rigoletto
Pier Giorgio Morandi conducts Quinn Kelsey, Stephen Costello, Nadine Sierra, and J’nai Bridges in a live broadcast from New York
Boomers in bloomers
The show, with its high production values and ever so abstract and high-minded Vedic metaphor, presents a nominally innovative performance that points at the avant garde but never quite ventures into challenging territory.
Humming chorus
Two opera houses, both alike in dignity (but less so in resources and international fame) launched their seasons this week, making similar out-of-the-box choices: new works on edgy, contemporary themes.
Music for chameleons
On this day in 1791 Mozart‘s Die Zauberflöte premiered in Vienna
La fiamma
Carlo Rizzi conducts a live performance of Respighi‘s final opera from Deutsche Oper Berlin with Olesya Golovneva, Georgy Vasiliev, Ivan Inverardi, Martina Serafin, Doris Soffel, and Sua Jo
When the moon hits your eye
On this day in 1965 soprano Mirella Freni and tenor Gianni Raimondi made their Metropolitan Opera debuts in La bohème
Il Bajazet (Il Tamerlano)
Federico Maria Sardelli conducts a performance of Vivaldi‘s opera with Renato Dolcini, Sonia Prina, Loriana Castellano, Raffaele Pe, and Lucia Cirillo from earlier this summer at Venice’s Teatro Malibran
Le Nozze di Figaro
Julia Jones conducts a broadcast from this season in London featuring Luca Micheletti, Ying Fang, Huw Montague Rendall, Maria Bengtsson, Ginger Costa-Jackson, Peter Kálmán, and Rebecca Evans
Ciel! quante belle frasi…
On this day in 1968 tenor Placido Domingo made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Maurizio
S’amuse-bouche
Lyric Opera of Chicago has opened its new season with a revival of its tried and true 2006 production of Verdi’s sixteenth opera, Rigoletto, one of his most tuneful and dramatic works (I attended the Sunday matinée performance).
Nice piece of Tales
Les Contes d’Hoffmann is something of a puzzle in which some of the pieces are missing and others been altered to fit since Offenbach died before he could complete and revise the work.
Direct messaging
Happy 67th birthday opera director Peter Sellars
We’re the kids in America
Needing a Mozart palate-cleanser after the recent misbegotten Marriage of Figaro, I went back more than two decades for a Houston Così fan Tutte featuring then-rising Americans Christine Goerke, Joyce Di Donato, Richard Croft, and Nathan Gunn as the confused lovers.