A grandeur night for singing
“Die Zauberflöte is an opera!” “No, it’s the first musical comedy!”
Herbert von Karajan
102 pieces since 2006 — at 10 companies, most often at La Scala.
102
pieces
10
companies
21
years
An old-fashioned wedding
“Trove Thursday” presents a complete Prodanà Nevesta (aka Die Verkaufte Braut, of course) by Smetana plus extended excerpts from a broadcast of Spontini’s La Vestale in its rarely heard original French version.
È la solita storia del tenore
While Luciano Pavarotti may have brought opera to the people, once he realized how lucrative it could be, there was a string of promoters who helped him turn all that adoration into cold hard cash.
Something With a ‘Ring’ to It
Cycle II represented an embarrassment of musical riches.
Der Meisterdirigent
Christian Thielemann is widely regarded as our time’s preeminent master of the Austro-German symphonic ensemble.
Get in the ‘Ring’
Wagner’s Ring is an artistic masterpiece that is peerless in its ability to continually reveal layers of musical, theatrical, and philosophical insight
The octogenarian muse
Helga Dernesch is the singer whom I largely credit for rekindling my love for opera.
Dark shadows
On this day in 1967 Herbert von Karajan first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera conducting and directing Die Walküre.
The art of the steel
This Sony Classical set of live performances covers a golden quarter century in the singing and staging of Wagner. Birgit Nilsson shared it with many other legends, and many of them appear on these discs.
Being alive
Orfeo’s latest edition is a 1978 performance of Lucia di Lammermoor with a very estimable cast that on its surface may seem a tad mundane but the extensive liner notes (with performance photos) tell the story of why it held such magic.
Dazed and confused
Last weekend marked the opening night for West Edge Opera: Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.
You shall know them by their ‘Flutes’
This year’s Salzburg Festival opens Saturday with a new production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, an opera often performed elsewhere in translation, so “Trove Thursday” offers two for the price (!) of one.
O sink hernieder, Nacht der Lenny
Well here we are, beloveds, still swathed in the warm glow of the Leonard Bernstein centennial. Box sets abound like bunnies in a hutch.
Prodigy
Maria Callas’s most outstanding Adalgisa, out of all she partnered with, was Fiorenza Cossotto.
Surfacing: an appreciation in 20 fragments
I struggle to articulate the notion of an erotics of art.
Don Carlos: more or less
“Trove Thursday” presents an all-star five-act Don Carlo from forty years ago tonight.
With a song in my heart
Another five-Thursday month invites “Trove Thursday” to offer a combo of shorter works.
Divine intervention
The second half of Warner Classics’ Maria Callas Live Remastered set represents the years 1954 to 1964 in the career of La Divina.
Deine Divadienste will die Frau
I wish to introduce our younger Parterrians to the magical Martha Mödl to commemorate the opening of the Bayreuther Festspiele which opens tomorrow afternoon.
Composer’s intentions
A live broadcast of the prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos featuring Julia Varady, a favorite sopranos in a role she sang only rarely.
I won’t dance, don’t ask me
A live Un Ballo in Maschera featuring Jon Vickers, Amy Shuard, Lucia Popp, Shirley Verrett and Peter Glossop.
How to train your dragoon
Let’s be honest: I was there for Kaufmann and Kühmeier, two of my favorite singers.
The song is you
Met audiences might have to wait a very long time for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Lady With a Repertoire
“If you’ve overdosed on Der Rosenkavalier in the past week, let’s go back a few years to Richard Strauss’ first operatic hit: Salome.