Video Artists International brings us back to a time when opera was carried over the airwaves by great voices—and a tire company.
The Met’s recent Ariadne auf Naxos and Elektra combo left me wanting more and more Richard Strauss, so Trove Thursday offers a complete Capriccio with Jonas Kaufmann (his one-and-only Flamand) and Christopher Maltman vying for Soile Isokoski.
Quarantining during COVID dramatically increased my compulsion to collect and compare interpretations.
“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.
This week’s star-spangled “Trove Thursday” offers the second crazy-quilt installment of divas in the wrong language.
A week from tonight the Met premieres an eagerly anticipated new Der Rosenkavalier, its first in nearly 50 years—probably to the dismay of many grown used to the venerable Nathaniel Merrill–Robert O’Hearn production. As a preview “Trove Thursday” offers a live broadcast of Richard Strauss’s most popular opera with a delicious cast headed by Régine…
This week’s feature is a classic Salzburger Festspiele performance from 1959 with the all-star cast of Leopold Simoneau, Lisa Della Casa, Kurt Böhme, Erika Köth, Walter Berry, Hans Hotter, Graziella Sciutti and Karl Dönch conducted by George Szell.
God, I love that photo of Lisa della Casa. She can sing, too!
With help from the Met’s invaluable performance archive, here is a look back at just some of what you could have seen, and perhaps did see, on October 31st through the years at the Met.
Giulio Cesare at the Met proved an evening that added up to much more than the sum of its uneven parts.
The elegant Swiss-born soprano has died at 93.
You Parterrestrials know all about Santa Fe Opera’s amazing mountain setting and open-sided theater affording breathtaking sunsets, weather-related drama and–when the back stage wall is opened–starry backdrops, but it was my first visit, so indulge me a little.
Richard Strauss’s “last romantic opera,” as he called Die Frau Ohne Schatten, is and has always been a problem child.
On Saturday I attended the premiere performance of a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, Germany. It was Renée Fleming’s debut in the title role…
Until Monday evening, I never placed Don Pasquale in my list of favorite operas, but the four principals were so magnificent that I realized just how special an opera can be when it is sung so well. Remember that works like this—Elisir, Ory, Flute, rather than Aida, Forza, etc.—can be performed beautifully today since the…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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