The rewards of Leonore lie almost as much in the ensembles as the solo contributions.
On Thursday evening, the Teatro alla Scala audience didn’t watch the familiar presentation of a “wayward woman” who overcomes moral inferiority only to be robbed of happiness when she finally deserved it.
“In my music, there’s not repetition. Something is always going on.”
Opening night of La Scala in 1962 with Franco Corelli, Antonietta Stella, Fiorenza Cossotto, Ettore Bastianini, and Ivo Vinco.
Radvanovsky delivered a vocal and histrionic performance that should be the gold standard Norma for years.
Trove Thursday presents as compensation Verdi’s Jérusalem with Cecilia Gasdia, Veriano Luchetti and Silvano Carroli conducted by Donato Renzetti.
This week we get closer to completing the operas of Benjamin Britten with The Rape of Lucretia.
A performance of Gluck’s Alceste from Wiener Staatsoper in June 2016.
The beautiful singing here is less in the sound than in the way the voice moves.
Now we find Mariella Devia, a diva held in near mythic regard due to her vocal longevity, with competing videos of two of her performances that were released, literally, on the same day.
Kaufmann conveys Lohengrin’s immense loneliness in a profoundly moving way. I am happy to report that vocally he sounds completely recovered.
In our circle, Mexico City in the summer was the opera capital of the world from the late 1940s and early 1950.
“Trove Thursday” offers a sparkling performance of Rossini’s La Cenerentola from our nation’s capital featuring the scintillating conducting of Claudio Abbado and Lucia Valentini-Terrani in the title role.
The very first Vienna post-war performance of Elektra.
Jonas Kaufmann announced that he feels ready to return to the stage after calling in sick since last autumn
strong>Christian Gerhaher does not appear at first to sing but rather to speak on pitches, telling stories, explaining words by lingering on them or biting them off short.
Anita Cerquetti had one of the most remarkable, most brief careers in opera in the past century.
Much like Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, which launched the Met’s 2016-2017 season, Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin is an opera about love and death.
Leonie Rysanek, would have turned 90 today.
What to do with all those glorious short operas: play them alone or find companion pieces?
The 2016 Richard Tucker Award recipient is Tamara Wilson.
Verdi’s Macbeth gets true blood-and-guts treatment from Guillermo Sarabia and the legendary Marisa Galvany.
“Take a good deal of trouble with it, because it is a fine subject, delicate and full of pathos.”
The UK’s first-ever production of Poliuto, now available from Opus Arte on DVD, set the lions of Rome among the lambs of Glyndebourne.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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