He plays the violin He plays the violin

This Bard production, led by Leon Botstein, makes the strongest possible case musically, dramatically and visually for Smetana’s opera Dalibor.

Oh, Marie, don’t ask! Oh, Marie, don’t ask!

On this date in 1991 the Metropolitan Opera presented the world premiere of John Corigliano‘s The Ghosts of Versailles.

High ‘Society’ High ‘Society’

Off-and-on since last fall my PPP (Personal Pandemic Project) has been assembling a chronology of the American Opera Society. For 19 years beginning in 1951 it presented a remarkable series of concert performances of works unperformed by either the Met or New York City Opera.

Do that slow drag Do that slow drag

With the Fourth of July approaching, Trove Thursday turns to a quintessentially American opera with the broadcast of the world premiere—some 60 years after its composition—of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha with Alpha Floyd, Seth McCoy and Simon Estes conducted by Robert Shaw.

Debuts and farewells Debuts and farewells

Arabella with Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting a prime-time 1980s Munich cast.

Tomb raider Tomb raider

Despite the continued popularity of Der Freischütz in German-speaking countries, are the magical mature operas of Carl Maria von Weber otherwise really so problematic, their libretti so unwieldy to explain their continued absence from the world’s stages?