Our Own Ercole Farnese discovered and translated this interview in La Stampa with Jonas Kaufmann, in which the tenor discusses his “his idolatrous success with ladies and gay men, four fifths of the opera-goers.”
An unlikely but adept English-language vocal stylist, Cecilia Bartoli, led the cast of a revival of the 2007 Zurich staging of Handel’s Semele, transferred to the Theater an der Wien for a short run. Director Robert Carsen takes an occasional liberty: Juno and Jupiter emerge as British royals, for instance, she a wellie-wearer and devotee…
A dramatic symphony with incidental voices: that’s how Riccardo Muti’s Otello, which inaugurated the 2008 Salzburg Festival, could be aptly described. Beginning with the initial allegro agitato with its piercing lashes, it instantly appears obvious that Muti’s intention is to go for the jugular, nail the audience to their seats and never give them a…
A new production of Verdi’s Macbeth? At the Wiener Staatsoper? At a 192 Euro top? And this is what you get?
Yes, another YouTube posting, but this one is something very special indeed. Legendary Zarah Leander is seen in a few moments from her 1975 triumph as Madame Armfelt in Das Lächeln einer Sommernacht (A Little Night Music) at the Theater an der Wien. La Leander also cavorts about a studio, lipsynching a medley of her…
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf died this morning at her home in Switzerland. She was 90. The first report of the soprano’s passing was on Deutchlandradio Kultur: “Elisabeth Schwarzkopf ist tot. Wie der Deutschlandfunk erfuhr, starb die Sopranistin im Alter von 90 Jahren in ihrem Wohnort Zumikon in der Schweiz. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf besaß eine der schönsten Sopranstimmen ihrer…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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