Charm city offensive
A starry concert Aïda in Baltimore proves unusually polished
Angel Blue
43 pieces since 2014 — in 17 roles, at 3 companies, most often at Metropolitan Opera.
43
pieces
17
roles
3
companies
13
years
By role
By company
Role Aïda
Ritorna vincitrice
Elina Garanca is back at the Met for the first time since 2020 — her Amneris is, in a word, sensational.
Can you dig it?
I had been hopeful that 2024 would end, if not on a high note, then one that was at least in tune.
A farewell to Frisell
Old opera productions at the end of their performing life can be sad affairs.
Role Bess
One Moore night
While the Met reruns over-familiar HDs, Trove Thursday offers a Puccini rarity: Edgar, the composer’s second opera, starring Latonia Moore and Marcello Giordani.
Out of the Blue
Bess is clearly Angel Blue’s part—set in the richest and most shimmering upper middle portion of her voice, and optimally suited to her persona.
Drag me to hell
My first-ever Met Sunday opera brought the welcome return of Gluck’s sublime Orfeo ed Euridice in an enchanting afternoon that combined elegant conducting, joyous dancing and Jamie Barton’s extraordinary hero.
All I cared about was Bess
Opera’s latest superstar, Angel Blue, in a compleat and enthralling portrayal, gloriously sung and rivetingly acted.
Role Clara
Porgy on the bay
A new DVD of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess features an enjoyable live performance from the San Francisco Opera from June of 2009.
Role Desdemona
A divided duty
Today’s Chris’s Cache features live recordings of Otello most noteworthy for their Desdemonas: (in chronological order) Teresa Stratas, Julia Varady, Eva Marton and Karita Mattila.
Role Destiny, Loneliness, Greta
Playing with ‘Fire’
With composer Terence Blanchard and librettist Kasi Lemmons‘ incendiary Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the Met makes long overdue history and Will Liverman ascends to superstardom.
Role Floria Tosca
Better off dead
I have a horrible confession. I’ve always judged the quality of an opera largely on the number of dead characters at the finale.
Role Leonora
Got to get you into my strife
Power struggles, prejudice, feuds and revenge abound in San Francisco at the moment.
Role Liù
Difficult people
Anna Pirozzi makes a welcome return to the Metropolitan Opera, but Turandot remains as thorny as ever.
Role Magda
Dancing at the edge of the world
Puccini’s schmaltziest, most melodic, most dramatically limp, most cynical, most obscure mature work
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.
Role Margarita
Actress of protest
Ainadamar functions on two levels: as a defiant dance against fascist totalitarianism and as an exaltation of the diva.
Spain and neutered
Ainadamar never quite found its identity between the two poles of conceptual and concrete.
Role Margarita Xirgu
Tucker and roll
The Richard Tucker Foundation Gala has always been a big annual celebration of the voice with an emphasis on big-voiced singers in big repertoire (not much Wagner usually, though…). Like so many reliable operatic institutions it has struggled for survival after the pandemic.
Role Micäela
Star vehicles
This Carmen, in other words, was somewhat less radical than its initial image suggested.
Role Mimi
Champagne o’clock
Happy New Year, dear readers, from me, Callum, and Christine Goerke’s headband-tiara!
La bohème
Starring Sonya Yoncheva, Susanna Phillips, Michael Fabiano, Lucas Meachem, Alexey Lavrov, Matthew Rose and Paul Plishka, conducted by Marco Armiliato. From February 24, 2018.
Technical difficulties
La bohéme returned to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera once again last night (does it ever leave?)
Reason to believe
I was extraordinarily happy Monday evening to encounter Angel Blue and Russell Thomas as Mimi and Rodolfo.
A voice that must be heard
At the center of the Met’s revival of Puccini’s La bohème, one found the rich and layered talent of Angel Blue.
Role Musetta
Must the winter come so soon?
On Tuesday we got one of the Met’s inveterate classics, which meant yet another opportunity to gaze upon the old accessories: Donkey cart! Teal shawl! Fugly plaid slacks!
Role student
What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
This week we get closer to completing the operas of Benjamin Britten with The Rape of Lucretia.
Role Tosca
Back to the future
After putting a hiatus on their awards in 2020 and 2021 (for reasons that are all too well-known to all of us), the Richard Tucker Foundation Gala returned on Sunday evening November 13 honoring soprano Angel Blue the 2022 Award winner.
Role Violetta
Three faces of Violetta
Christopher Corwin surveys the three Traviata casts — led by Lisette Oropesa, Rosa Feola, and Ermonela Jaho — at the Met this spring.
Touched by a fallen Angel
Angel Blue‘s refulgent, lush soprano blooms as Violetta’s vocal lines broaden and soar.
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).
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
