Roméo et Juliette
Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads Nadine Sierra, Benjamin Bernheim, Samantha Hankey, Frederick Ballentine, and Will Liverman in a broadcast from New York
Recent Stories
Those stitches tell a curious tale
On this day in 1977 soprano Ileana Cotrubas made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Mimì
And that concludes my entire performance in French
Natalie Dessay debuts as Madam Rose in Paris in 2025
Thoughts on La Gioconda: Callas
Maria Callas’s official debut in opera was as La Gioconda in 1947 at the arena in Verona.
What would we do without you?
Birthday Celebrations of Musical Theater composers:
Spit or swallow
Next week Puccini’s La Rondine returns to the Met for the first time in eleven years, so Chris’s Cache offers three quite diverse sopranos as Magda: Ljuba Welitsch, Virginia Zeani, and Cristina Gallardo-Domâs.
L’ospite
On this day in 2008 soprano Angela Meade made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Elvira in Ernani
Brazilian brass lift
The past seems to be in conversation with the present.
Women on the verge of a nervous breakup
Not in my wildest dreams could I have come up with anything more homosexual than the sight of Almodóvar muse Rossy de Palma in a stage-length wedding gown onstage Madrid’s Teatro Real.
Im wachen Dichtertraum
Born on this day in 1890 tenors Lauritz Melchior…
Beatrice di Tenda
Riccardo Minassi conducts Angela Meade, Mattia Olivieri, Carmela Remigio, and Francesco Demuro in a live performance from Genoa
Dialogues des Carmélites
A May 2023 performance of Poulenc‘s opera from Vienna featuring Nicole Car, Michaela Schuster, Maria Motolygina, Eve-Maud Hubeaux, and Maria Nazarova conducted by Bertrand de Billy
If on a winter’s night a traveler
The tragic speaker of Schubert’s Winterreise makes his fateful journey but once, yet some singers cannot help trodding the path again and again.
Dealer’s choice
Three Metropolitan Opera premieres on this date:
The Battle wears on
“Soprano Kathleen Battle returns to the Met for a special concert program on Sunday, May 12, her first appearance at the Met since her historic concert in 2016 highlighting music of the Underground Railroad.”
Thoughts on La Gioconda: Milanov
It’s time to discuss Zinka Milanov.
Unqualified triumph
Since I began regularly attending performances at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1999, I have been a great admirer of director Francesca Zambello’s productions.
Special baby
On this day in 1977 Alban Berg‘s Lulu premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in the as-yet incomplete 2 act version.
Laffont Grand Finals Competition
Evan Rogister conducts the stars of tomorrow, hosted by Denyce Graves and featuring Ryan Speedo Green!
Daisy, you’re the one I adore
On this day in 1951 soprano Victoria de los Ángeles made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Marguerite
Guillaume Tell
Bertrand de Billy conducts a live Staatsoper performance with Roberto Frontali, John Osborn, Maria Nazarova, Jean Teitgen, and Lisette Oropesa in David Poutney‘s production
Turandot
Oksana Lyniv conducts Elena Pankratova , SeokJong Baek, Aleksandra Kurzak, and Vitalij Kowaljow in a broadcast from New York
Sortite or via sortite
On this day in 1991 soprano Renée Fleming made her Metropolitan Opera stage debut as Countess Almaviva
Femenine mystique
“What I am trying to achieve is to be what I am to the fullest. Black to the fullest, a musician to the fullest, a homosexual to the fullest.”