Orfeo ed Euridice
J. David Jackson conducts Anthony Roth Costanzo, Ying Fang, and Elena Villalón in the final Saturday matinée broadcast of the season from New York
Recent Stories
Song stylings
Born on this day in 1810 composer Robert Schumann
La Grande Opera Italiana Patrimonio dell’Umanità
Riccardo Muti conducts a greatest hits concert featuring Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Juan Diego Flórez, Ludovic Tézier, Vittorio Grigolo, Luca Salsi, Eleonora Buratto, Francesco Meli, and more to open the 2024 Arena di Verona summer season
Thoughts on Andrea Chénier: the greats
Quite simply, the singers are not around today who are steeped in the tradition of verismo, or for that matter the later part of the 19th century.
Tosca
Daniele Gatti conducts a live broadcast from the Florence May Festival featuring Vanessa Goikoetxea, Piero Pretti, and Alexey Markov
The age of Innocence
The score for Innocence was menacing yet comforting, and, essentially, violent and peaceful at the same time
The beloved returns
Happy 85th birthday tenor Giacomo Aragall
Speaking of tradition
You can imagine my surprise at encountering an almost wholly traditional staging with one teensy difference.
Femme libérée
Happy 59th birthday soprano Sandrine Piau
Turandot
Marco Armiliato leads Elena Pankratova, Olga Kulchynska, SeokJong Baek, and Soloman Howard in the final weeknight broadcast of the season
Bach humbug
Peter Sellars’s rarely radical climate epic Shall We Gather at The River brought together a superb collection of musical talent for an unfortunately incoherent night of sacred song.
Mezzos on the move
Happy 58th birthday mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli
Nach mir wird Einer kommen, der ist stärker als ich
A second Parisian Salome, in crisper sound, has surfaced for the perverse pleasure of cher public
Tall, dark and handsome
Happy 59th birthday baritone Peter Mattei
Cinderella
Emmanuel Villaume conducts Isabel Leonard, Emily D’Angelo, Stephanie Blythe, Laurent Naouri, and Jessica Pratt in a performance from 2022
Otello
A live broadcast from Rome featuring Gregory Kunde, Roberta Mantegna, Igor Golovatenko, Irene Savignano, and Piotr Buszewski conducted by Daniel Oren
My friend Flicka
Happy 79th birthday mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade
Thoughts on Andrea Chénier: the opera
Doing my research for these “thoughts” ahead of a starry revival in London that opened yesterday, I came across the following review for the Opening Night of the 1962-63 Season.
Dramatic improvement
Born on this day in 1931 mezzo-soprano/soprano Shirley Verrett
Ich will dir alles geben, was dein Herz begehrt
A parterre box exclusive: a live recording of Lise Davidsen‘s first Judean princess
Ha sortito l’effetto!
Born on this day in 1920 bass-baritone George London
Try and try again
Matthew Polenzani strode into the Park Avenue Armory’s Board of Officers Room last Monday evening and was received like a beloved friend–and indeed that is what he is to many of New York’s opera-goers.