NYCO, out(doors) and proud
The New York City Opera has become an elusive “now you see it, now you don’t” presence in the New York opera scene since the departure of main sponsor and chairman of the board Roy G. Niederhoffer in 2019.
Charles Castronovo
27 pieces since 2012 — in 16 roles, at 9 companies, most often at Metropolitan Opera.
27
pieces
16
roles
9
companies
15
years
By role
Role Alfredo
Nothing but the truth
On a new Opus Arte video, Ermonela Jaho is at the absolute peak of her powers both vocally and interpretively.
Paris in the springtime
La Traviata offered a cast of fresh debutantes and an uncommonly strong musical performance that could hardly be bettered.
Against the grain
I wondered if there truly is a future for opera other than as an overpriced museum piece for an aging audience who likes their sets lavish, their productions non-challenging, and their singers telegenic.
L’art du hipster
The reinvention of Verdi’s masterpiece, La Traviata, as sung by world-famous French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay, is the subject of Philippe Béziat’s thrilling new movie.
Blonde item
This year, I attended one of Natalie Dessay‘s only fully-sung Traviatas at the Met.
Role Armand
Revolutionary étude
Thérèse is a compact work consisting of two short acts and clocks in just under seventy minutes.
Role Carlo
Robber barons
A revival of the furious I masnadieri at the Bayerische Staatsoper falls short of perfection – and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Role Don Carlos
C’est une vraie voix
Don Carlos returns to the Opéra National de Paris and it’s an unusually happy occasion
Role Don José
This is the part when I break free
Following the great success of its new piece The Factotum, Lyric Opera of Chicago returned to the tried and true with the audience-pleaser Carmen in an equally tried and true 20-year old Lyric production that has stood the test of time.
Role Edgardo
What women want
Psychology is encoded in the composer’s vocal lines more than his librettist’s words.
Role Gustavo
Cuck and ball torture
On October 20th, a wet but warmish Friday night, the Metropolitan Opera opened this season’s revival of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera in David Alden’s 2012 production.
Role Jason
Season of the Witch
Trove Thursday offers a pair of live broadcasts of Médée featuring two compelling mid-20th century divas—Inge Borkh in German and Eileen Farrell in Italian.
Role Lensky
Les feuilles mortes
Lyric Opera of Chicago concluded its 2016-17 season with a spellbinding and wonderfully sung production of Tchaikovsky’s familiar Eugene Onegin.
Role Mylio
Are you there, God? It’s me, Margared
Trove Thursday offers a nearly forgotten 19th century opera with a most marvelous name: Le Roi d’Ys by Éduoard Lalo featuring a superb French cast led by Alain Vanzo, Andrea Guiot, Jane Rhodes and Robert Massard.
Role Nemorino
The brew that is true
This is an exuberant, uplifting, and joyous Elisir, and, for once, it was actually laugh-out-loud funny.
Role Rodolfo
Distinctly human
In the five short years that I’ve been in New York, I have seen that crusty old Franco Zeffirelli production of La bohème more times than I can count on one hand. And there are certainly times when that peeling mise-en-scène really shows its age.
Not really about ‘La bohème’
What is there to say about the Franco Zeffirelli Bohème? What is left to say?
Moon and stars
One of the major complaints about the five year casting system (as well as the shared productions by different companies) is that operatic events are rarely surprises anymore.
Role Roméo
The finale countdown
Our Own JJ catches up with the tail end of the Met season.
Speaking ill of the dead
Plácido Domingo’s conducting reduced the score’s urgency to the lethargy of a jellyfish.
Role Ruggero
Bella come un tramonto
With the performance of Dessì we move onto a different plane than the other singers.
Role Ruggero Lastouc
Out of the passerine
Here’s a lesser piece by a great composer, single-handedly “rescued” for our generation by Angela Gheorghiu.
Role Tamino
Dark matter
In Schikaneder’s patriarchal cosmology, darkness is the province of emotional women—not just the erratic fury of the Queen of the Night, but the pathetic supplications of Pamina as well.
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!
