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
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
Oksana Lyniv conducts Elena Pankratova , SeokJong Baek, Aleksandra Kurzak, and Vitalij Kowaljow in a broadcast from New York
On this day in 1991 soprano Renée Fleming made her Metropolitan Opera stage debut as Countess Almaviva
“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.”
Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda might not be a perfect opera (though I don’t see why not) but it is one of my favorites…
Aleksandra Kurzak is Cio Cio San opposite Matthew Polenzani, Elizabeth DeShong, and Davide Luciano. Xian Zhang conducts this broadcast from New York
And is this ‘Orpheus’ in the room with us right now?
Chris’s Cache offers a Leoncavallo double-bill: Aprile Millo in Zazà and Jon Vickers and Carol Vaness in Pagliacci
On this day in 1885 W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s The Mikado premiered in London
Opera at the Kennedy Center has been in hibernation this winter.
It would be enough to compare his official studio recording of this work with the recent performances in Turin to confirm that today Riccardo Muti is no longer totally ‘Mutian’
Happy 81st birthday soprano Julia Migenes
Windy City audiences can look forward to a a season of classics interspersed with a contemporary work and a world premiere
A recorded performance from Bregenz in 2023 starring Saimir Pirgu, Franco Vassallo, Goran Juric, and Guanqun Yu, conducted by Enrique Mazzola
Bay Area audiences starved for vocal fare during its opera’s winter/spring hiatus recently experienced two exceptional concerts with distinguished singing at the Davies Symphony Hall.
On this day in 1857 Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra premiered in Venice
It’s not hard not to feel jaded about Romeo and Juliet.
On this day in 1985 Giuseppe Sinopoli made his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting Tosca
Born on this day in 1892 soprano Dame Eva Turner
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Lise Davidsen, Brian Jadge, Judit Kutasi, Igor Golovatenko, Patrick Carfizzi, and Soloman Howard in a live broadcast from New York
Born on this day in 1910 composer Samuel Barber
In an ingenious stroke of double casting, the Met’s new Forza del destino brings back the Marquis of Calatrava—father of the heroine Leonora, unintentionally killed in the opening scene by a bullet from her lover’s pistol—as Padre Guardiano, Father Superior of the monastery that will take her under its protection as a hermit in Act 2.
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