Babylon revisited
What if you could time travel back to the first run of Giuseppe Verdi’s first great success Nabucco?
East Coast
The last ruse of summer
Flotow’s Martha, a work of 1847 that was popular around the world for a hundred years.
Girl power
Washington National Opera’s lukewarm Alcina, unthreateningly misguided in both its musical and theatrical values, made little impact.
Puppet show
Madama Butterfly remains fascinating because of its complexity.
With a song in my heart
Another five-Thursday month invites “Trove Thursday” to offer a combo of shorter works.
Murder, he composed
Flashes of excitement and genuine pathos lit up City Opera’s production of Dolores Claiborne!
Leah and the barihunk
At yesterday’s recital at the Morgan Library, Leah Crocetto sang as her encore Kern and Hammerstein’s “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.”
Untouched by an ‘Angel’
Just because one can write an opera based on a film, does this necessarily indicate that one should?
Reason to believe
I was extraordinarily happy Monday evening to encounter Angel Blue and Russell Thomas as Mimi and Rodolfo.
Crepuscolo
“It’s not easy being green”: especially if you’re the two greatest Italian opera composers.
Mad about the Boyar
“Trove Thursday” offers a belated 55th birthday nod to Dmitri Hvorostovsky with a blazing live performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride.
Turandon’t
From the perspective of current identity politics, Puccini’s Turandot is a disaster of epic proportions.
I’ll be hard to Handel, I promise you that
For my early self-birthday gift “Trove Thursday” offers a Handel-orgy of rarely done works.
I love you to death
New York fans of 17th century Italian vocal music should be rejoicing this month.
Diver gent
Georges Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles has been knocking steadily at the door of the standard repertoire now in this country for quite some time.
Sgombra è la sacra megaplex
I suspect that David McVicar’s new production of the Metropolitan Opera’s Norma had its most congenial showing as a totality, specifically in the HD format at the movie theater.
A voice that must be heard
At the center of the Met’s revival of Puccini’s La bohème, one found the rich and layered talent of Angel Blue.
Outside this house
The 55th New York Film Festival presented the world premiere of Susan Froemke’s marvelous new documentary The Opera House in a special one-time-only screening at the Metropolitan Opera.
Dark matter
In Schikaneder’s patriarchal cosmology, darkness is the province of emotional women—not just the erratic fury of the Queen of the Night, but the pathetic supplications of Pamina as well.
Debuts and farewells
Arabella with Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting a prime-time 1980s Munich cast.
Drunk history
Last night was my fourth or fifth wade into the slough of Bartlett Sher’s production of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Met since its premiere in 2009.
Better call Gaul
Bellini’s Norma Monday evening didn’t at all improve on the production it was replacing.
Una vittima della sventura
Remember the disastrous 2010 Traviata at the Met, “conducted” by Leonard Slatkin?
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).