Finnish the fight
Happy 66th birthday conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen
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Idomeneo
Simon Rattle conducts Andrew Staples, Elsa Dreisig, Magdalena Kozená, Sabine Devieilhe, Allan Clayton, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Mozart‘s opera seria recorded last December
Character defect
Born on this day in 1914 conductor and composer Rafael Kubelík
Purple pros
On Friday, June 21st, Opera Parallèle – the Bay Area nomadic, contemporary opera company – together with the Presidio Theatre unveiled their final production of the season, the West Coast premiere of Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce’s Fellow Travelers, an adaptation of Thomas Mallon’s 2007 novel of the same name.
The music man
Born on this day in 1902 composer Richard Rodgers
One that was a woman
Earlier this month the opera world was stunned to learn of the death of Belgian soprano Jodie Devos who died of breast cancer at just 35, and Chris’s Cache remembers her with a broadcast from last November of Devos as Ophélie in Hamlet, her only US appearance.
Profitons bien de la jeunesse
Born on this day in 1932 soprano Anna Moffo
Russian seasons
Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov are splitting up
Sax and the city
PRISM Quartet teams up with Tyshawn Sorey, David Krakauer, and a host of some of the finest new music musicians and composers in the nation to create Generate Music: a musical exploration of the ties that bind together Black and Jewish Americans.
Lakmé
Daniela Candillari conducts Aigul Khismatullina, Josh Lovell, Dean Murphy, Thomas Lehmann, and Mireille Lebel in a 2022 performance from Deutsche Oper Berlin
Here Taddei, gone tomorrow
Born on this day in 1916 baritone Giuseppe Taddei
Halle if ya hear me
Bergamo hosts an annual Donizetti festival, Salzburg presents a Mozart-woche every January, and of course there is Bayreuth for Wagner. But Handel gets two festivals every spring, and this year I was finally able to attend one of them.
Das Lied von der Erde
Recent Richard Tucker Award winner Clay Hilley and Samuel Hasselhorn perform the tenor-baritone version of Mahler‘s song cycle in a performance recorded earlier this month in Frankfurt conducted by Alain Altinonglu
Mitte children
On this day in 1870 Wagner‘s Die Walküre premiered in Munich
In Napoli where love is queen
Final opera of the season. Little-known opera. A revival. So, you can probably skip it, right?
Turandot
Ewa Vesin, Stefano La Colla, Venera Gimadieva, and Michele Pertusi lead a live broadcast from Brussels conducted by Ouri Bronchti
Park and bark
On this day in 1967 the Metropolitan Opera’s first Met in the Parks performance in Crocheron Park, Bayside, Queens
Roberto Devereux
A performance from the Dutch National Opera featuring Barno Ismatullaeva, Ismael Jordi, and Angela Brower conducted by Enrique Mazzola recorded earlier this spring
Hollywood jazz squares
Born on this day in 1927 dancer and choreographer Bob Fosse
Andrea Chenier
Antonio Pappano conducts Jonas Kaufmann, Sondra Radvanovsky, Aleksei Isaev, Katia Ledoux, and Elena Zilio in one of his valedictory performances from this spring
Così fan tutte
Philippe Jordan conducts Federica Lombardi, Emily D’Angelo, Peter Kellner, Filipe Manu, Kate Lindsey, and Christopher Maltman in a production by Barrie Kosky from Vienna
Direct female
Born on this day in 1904 choreographer and opera director Margarethe Wallmann
The eras tour
She can’t put her foot on the gas the way she used to but there’s still plenty of fuel in that tank.
Larmore est un oiseau rebelle
Happy 66th birthday mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore