Psyché’d up Psyché’d up

It would be difficult to find a better description for Ambroise Thomas’s newly-recovered Psyché, recently heard in a new recording from Palazzetto Bru Zane, than the one uttered by her suitors: “Charmante Psyché!”

The new <em>Norma</em> The new <em>Norma</em>

In a splashy new recording of Norma, Marina Rebeka “is doing something very untoward, and it appears destructive to her voice.” It has Niel Rishoi worried.

Rondo and rondo and rondo we go Rondo and rondo and rondo we go

A convocation of mezzos–and a pride of tenors–produce hundreds of sixteenth notes in a bewitching Rossini showpiece

Tales as old as time Tales as old as time

The Paris Opera continued their 350th anniversary celebration January 26 with a brand new production of Alessandro Scarlatti’s 1707 oratorio Il Primo Omicidio ovvero Caino.

Paris was burning Paris was burning

Logistically, a large-scale revival of the operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer is an unreasonable request, much less an expectation.

Speaking ill of the dead Speaking ill of the dead

Plácido Domingo’s conducting reduced the score’s urgency to the lethargy of a jellyfish.

Angelina’s ashes Angelina’s ashes

Kitsch is alive and well in Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the War Memorial.

Platée du jour Platée du jour

What must have raced through the mind of the none-too-comely Spanish Infanta when she learned that the opera to be performed during the celebrations for her 1745 wedding to the French Dauphin revolved around the comeuppance of an ugly yet vain water nymph tricked into believing Jupiter was her ardent suitor?