Roméo et Juliette
Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads Nadine Sierra, Benjamin Bernheim, Samantha Hankey, Frederick Ballentine, and Will Liverman in a broadcast from New York
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Garden varieties
Those of us in New York City who relish 17th century Italian vocal music were offered an enticing banquet over the past few weeks.
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
Salome
Mark Albrecht conducts Lise Lindstrom, John Daszak, Katarina Dalayman, Nicholas Brownlee, and Joel Prieto in a live opening night broadcast from Rome
Hey there Dalila
Happy 60th birthday mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves
Diplomatic immunity
Émigré, unfortunately, fails to do justice, either musically or theatrically, to this group of refugees or to the Shanghainese who took them in.
Lovers are very special people
Chris’s Cache previews the Met’s imminent revival of Roméo et Juliette with three pairs of doomed lovers
Pretty and witty and bright
Happy 39th birthday soprano Pretty Yende
Distinctive and unreservedly commendable
My sole live encounter with Seiji Ozawa coincided with his final appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, where he conducted its 2008 revival of Tchaikovsky’s Pikovaya Dama.
Hoppscotch
On this day in 1959 Alban Berg‘s Wozzeck had its Metropolitan Opera premiere (in English)
Have a napkin, have a chopstick, have a chair
From a musical perspective, the evening came together admirably. As a work of theater, though, it was as stale as last week’s takeout.
An die Offnung zu kommen
Born on this day in 1929 conductor Bernard Haitink
Si je t’aime, Carmen, tu m’aimeras?
On this day in 1875 Bizet‘s Carmen has its disastrous premiere at the Opéra Comique in Paris
Ernani
Thomas Schippers conducts Carlo Bergonzi, Leontyne Price, Cornell MacNeil, and Giorgio Tozzi in a broadcast from 1962
Animal Farm
All animals are equal, but some are more equal that others in a live video relay of Alexander Raskatov‘s new opera from Vienna with Gennady Bezzubenkov, Wolfgang Bankl, Michael Gniffke, Andrei Popov, Stefan Astakhov, Karl Laquit, Artem Krutko, and Margaret Plummer and conducted by Alexander Soddy
Second time as farce
On this day in 1989 Ken Ludwig‘s play Lend Me A Tenor opened on Broadway
Divine mother
What does it mean to be a “gender transcendent diva?”
Sack of Rome
Finding Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia on the Academy of Vocal Arts calendar was both a pleasure and something of a surprise—the latter because the work is far from central repertoire, even in a conservatory.
O Lucine di quest’anima
Happy 100th birthday soprano Lucine Amara
Decidedly un-HIP
Chris’s Cache celebrates Ewa Podles‘s long connection with Handel by featuring her in three complete, decidedly un-HIP operas spanning over twenty years
À ce mot seul s’anime et renaît la nature
On this day in 1836 Meyerbeer‘s Les Huguenots premiered in Paris
Turandot
Metropolitan Opera debuts for Oksana Lyniv and Elena Pankratova in a live broadcast from New York also featuring Aleksandra Kurzak, SeokJeongBaek, and Vitalij Kowaljow
Destiny’s child
While you may need to bring along your Dramamine, the Met’s new production of La forza del destino, does—eventually—spin fast enough to achieve escape velocity.
Ballet of the dolls
On this day in 1910 prima ballerina Anna Pavlova made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Coppélia (on a double bill with Werther!)