Interplanet Janet
Chris’s Cache celebrates the 91st birthday today of Janet Baker, one of my favorite singers.
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Hard to be a dame
Happy 91st birthday mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker
Seria processing
You probably won’t leave Idomeneo ready to burst out in song, but what the opera lacks in melodic immediacy it makes up for in sheer virtuosity.
The glass ménage à trois
On this day in 1828 Rossini’s Le comte Ory premiered in Paris
Der Rosenkavalier
Karina Canellakis conducts Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Paula Murrihy, Matthew Rose, Ying Fang, and David Portillo in a performance recorded last month at The Santa Fe Opera
Assault and battery
Jay Scheib’s Augmented-Reality Parsifal is a cautionary reminder that technological innovation shouldn’t absolve directors from the exacting work of deriving intelligent and fascinating theater from the source material.
Elegance is refusal
Born on this day in 1883 designer Coco Chanel
I speak for all mediocrities in the world
Born on this day in 1750 composer Antonio Salieri
The Gambler
Timur Zangiev conducts Sean Panikkar, Peixin Chen, Asmik Grigorian, Violeta Urmana, and Juan Francisco Gatell in a live broadcast from the Salzburg Festival
Rusalka
Giampaolo Bisanti conducts Corinne Winters, Anton Rositskiy, Jana Kurucová, Evgeny Stavinsky, and Nino Surguladze in a performance of Dvorák‘s watery fairy tale recorded in Liège earlier this year
Gods and demigods
Born on this day in 1686 composer Nicola Porpora
Sag’ es mir, süßer Freundin!
On this day in 1876 Wagner’s Siegfried premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus
Spyres of ascension
Chris’s Cache steps up with a recording of Michael Spyres in Lohengrin, as well as with a capture of Spyres in the title role of a 2017 La Clemenza di Tito.
Ritas and rituals
Happy 68th birthday tenor Bruce Ford
Haus of eternal return
In Nike Wagner’s essay “The Sounding Silence,” the German dramaturge argues that “the longing for deathrepresents the central motif” of her great-grandfather’s opera Tristan und Isolde.
Into the arena
Happy 64th birthdays to soprano Cecilia Gasdia
Music in the air
Happy 76th birthday soprano Kathleen Battle
The Righteous
Jordan de Souza conducts a performance of the latest opera by Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith featuring Michael Mayes, Elena Villalón, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Anthony Roth Costanzo, and Greer Grimsley recorded last month at the Santa Fe Opera
Geschmack ist king
At the heart of Tobias Kratzer’s incisively rollicking production of Tannhäuser lies a metanarrative that maps Wagner’s early political and artistic challenges onto its hero’s philosophical struggles.
La femme de l’ombre
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Rjy-zpW7M Born on this day in 1944 tenor Peter Hofmann httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtFBTjwxbjM Birthday anniversaries of tenor Antonio Cortis (1891), mezzo-contralto Maria Olszewska (1892), soprano Trude Eipperle (1910), and opera director Harry Kupfer (1935) Happy 74th birthday soprano Melanie Holliday httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqXx-RBWRgI
Broken HIP
Born on this day in 1927 conductor Raymond Leppard
Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Another live broadcast from Pesaro! Lorenzo Passerini conducts Jack Swanson, Carlo Lepore, Maria Kataeva, Andrzej Filonczyk, and Michele Pertusi.
Ah di me che si dirà?
Happy 72nd birthday soprano Ashley Putnam
Ermione
The Rossini Festival continues with Michele Mariotti conducting Juan Diego Flórez, Anastasia Bartoli, Enea Scala, Victoria Yarovaya, Antonio Mandrillo, and Michael Mofidian in another live broadcast from Pesaro