Trapped Trapped

What happens when you attend a performance and it doesn’t engage you? 

The key of dreams The key of dreams

My sister Julie celebrates an important birthday later this month which reminded me—as I also recalled I visiting her while she was living in Prague—that I should unearth Bohuslav Martin?’s Julietta with Lucia Popp and Dénes Gulyás for this week’s Trove Thursday.

Vierzig Letzte Lieder Vierzig Letzte Lieder

Quarantining during COVID dramatically increased my compulsion to collect and compare interpretations.

Shining through Shining through

Trove Thursday celebrates Christa Ludwig with live excerpts from 1955 through 1982.

Undead of the night Undead of the night

For those pining for Puccini with the Met out of commission. Trove Thursday steps up with the composer’s brief first opera Le Villi with Krassimira Stoyanova, José Cura and Franz Grundheber, led by Simone Young.

Idol gossip Idol gossip

During the 70s, Kiri Te Kanawa, particularly singing Mozart, became one of my favorite singers.

Love, loss, and what I sang Love, loss, and what I sang

Sunday is Handel’s 335th birthday, an event Trove Thursday celebrates with Rodelinda, Regina de’Longobardi, one of the composer’s most popular works.

Seductively compelling Seductively compelling

Rosa Feola immediately established with her first group that she’s a serious artist who brought to the concert format both a warmly appealing coppery soprano as well as detailed and savvy dramatic instincts.

A Norman conquest A Norman conquest

When I first heard of this broadcast my thought was to save it to celebrate Jessye Norman‘s 75th birthday in 2020.

The Lady in the vanguard The Lady in the vanguard

“Trove Thursday” remembers the company’s very first Lady Macbeth via Leonie Rysanek’s NYC debut in a concert performance of Verdi’s Shakespeare masterpiece less than a year before her first Met appearance.

Wien disposition Wien disposition

Following classic recordings documenting the work of Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan. Orfeo’s 150 Years Wiener Staatsoper box moves on to new releases that are seeing their first incarnation on an officially available disc.

The boys of summer The boys of summer

“Trove Thursday” turns to a quintet of baritone/bass voices: Matthias Goerne, Simon Keenlyside, Georg Nigl, Thomas Quasthoff and René Pape performing works by Pfitzner, Sibelius, Adams, Martin and Schubert.

Putting it together Putting it together

Riccardo Muti’s vision of Aida’s score largely emerged as one of subtlety, musicality, and restraint.

Thousands cheer Thousands cheer

Although Gustav Mahler never wrote an opera, his colossal Eighth Symphony “The Symphony of a Thousand” may give us some glimpses of what a Mahler opera might have sounded like

General Elektra General Elektra

Nina Stemme’s Elektra is familiar to me in three different incarnations.

Love of the earth Love of the earth

Claudio Abbado passed away on the 20th of January five years ago, just months before I began my Ph.D.

Super tsar Super tsar

Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov must be Russian’s most iconic opera and “Trove Thursday” presents it with Claudio Abbado leading an impressive team.

Man of the camellias Man of the camellias

Tuesday the Met unveils its sixth new production of La Traviata since moving to Lincoln Center. 

Telling the glory of God Telling the glory of God

“The heavens are telling” begins the famous chorus that ends the first section of The Creation. 

Rosa’s turn Rosa’s turn

To heck with Bayreuth and Salzburg, Glimmerglass and Santa Fe as Rosa Feola sang Mozart at Lincoln Center Friday night and I wouldn’t have been anywhere else!

The constant nymph The constant nymph

The old adage “the third time’s the charm” proved to be the case with me and Daphne, Richard Strauss’s ravishing bukolische Tragödie, when I recently heard it performed by Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra.

BASTA: Call me by your game BASTA: Call me by your game

It was already nearly two o’clock in the morning, late for a work night, and Nixon Ben Mahmoud was ashamed to find himself crying real tears.

That time of year That time of year

One of the greats of classical music, Franz Joseph Haydn was a bit of an “also-ran” as an opera composer.

“The most significant dramatic creation since Les Huguenots” “The most significant dramatic creation since Les Huguenots”

Awaiting the return of Parsifal to the Met, “Trove Thursday” hops to the other end of Wagner’s oeuvre with a recent Rienzi der letzte der Tribunen.