Sing out, <em>Louise</em> Sing out, <em>Louise</em>

Christof Loy‘s Louise in Aix-en-Provence scratches at the urban– and operatic– unconscious

A matinée, a Pinto play A matinée, a Pinto play

Perhaps a piece of Mahler’s? For Wagner Month, Chris’s Cache offers the unexpected collaboration Die drei Pintos, started by Wagner-predecessor Carl Maria von Weber and completed by one of Wagner’s followers, Gustav Mahler

The Aix factor The Aix factor

This summer’s festival, taking place amid record high temperatures and in the wake of its artistic director, Pierre Audi, featured a disquietingly zeigeisty focus on sexual violence.

This summer I’m reading <em>A Time to Sing</em> This summer I’m reading <em>A Time to Sing</em>

I did not expect Dorothy Kirsten‘s autobiography to be so rewarding a read: I did so twice.

Letting their hair down Letting their hair down

After the break the ladies stepped up their game so much that it elevated the night into legendary status: definitely one for the books!

The last time I saw Paris The last time I saw Paris

Trove Thursday goes mini-epic with Gustave Charpentier’s naturalistic slice-of-life of fin-de-siêcle Paris in a rare 1999 Renée Fleming performance of Louise co-starring Jerry Hadley, Samuel Ramey and Felicity Palmer.

Thousands cheer Thousands cheer

Although Gustav Mahler never wrote an opera, his colossal Eighth Symphony “The Symphony of a Thousand” may give us some glimpses of what a Mahler opera might have sounded like

A starred day’s night A starred day’s night

Anna Netrebko sang throughout with a palpable sense of joy and ease in vocal production, never a hint of strain or any moment forced. 

L’infelice Aragonese L’infelice Aragonese

Camille Saint-Saëns was such a brilliant, facile musician that pals like Wagner and Liszt felt a distinct schadenfreude when he suffered composer’s block.