When I am down to earth
What does it mean anyway to get to know a diva, and why exactly would we wish to do such a thing?
Metropolitan Opera
Wish upon a star
At what moment does a “rising star” become simply a “star”?
A wasted time
Vittorio Grigolo in the title role of the Met’s revival of Les Contes d’Hoffman is the opera version of the charming homeless drunk.
Rock-a-bye your baby with a pentatonic melody
It seems almost comical to think now but the designer-director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, who died in 1988, was at one time considered the height of regie-theatre scandal.
The year in Dawn
For my 2014 retrospective, I’ve chosen two shows from the past year that are returning in 2015 and that really shouldn’t be missed by NY-based-and-visiting parterriani.
The year in Corwin
New York City isn’t a bad place to live, operatically-speaking.
The year in Yohalem
My memory is fading but the events I recall most vividly of the last season seem largely to have been concert performances.
Moody’s blues
Last week, Moody’s Investor Services delivered yet another piece of yet another piece of bad news for the Metropolitan Opera.
Lost and found
Verdi must have gotten tired of tossing and turning by now and has gone back to resting in peace.
Capitol gains
Clemency tends to get a bad rap these days, as polities demand swift action by leaders whose mandates to govern are violently threatened by “terrorists.”
Daggers are a thane’s best friend
A Birnam Wood of Macbeths and Ladys has come traipsing through New York this year.
Moon and stars
One of the major complaints about the five year casting system (as well as the shared productions by different companies) is that operatic events are rarely surprises anymore.
Revival meeting
For many in New York and around the world, if the name William Christie appears on a concert or opera program, it’s a must-attend.
Bows and arias
Whenever opera-lovers are canvassed about what neglected operas they hunger to see revived, the resulting lists inevitably feature a goodly number of grand operas, those once wildly popular monstrosities–particularly by Meyerbeer–written primarily for Paris in the mid-19th century.
Regni Dessay
Almost exactly twenty years after her auspicious Metropolitan Opera debut as the Fiakermilli in Arabella and a year following what she has claims was her final appearance on the operatic stage, Natalie Dessay returned Sunday afternoon to Lincoln Center—to sing opera.
The coast of Bohemia
What would you do if I asked you to take a old, faded version of Puccini’s score for La Bohème and fill in the unreadable parts with a mélange of disco, kabarett, and Alban Berg?
Snow business
Every year I say I’m not going to another La Bohème because I’ve seen this too many times.
Words to the heat of deeds to Colbran gives
A young friend messaged me to ask if I knew Rossini’s Macbeth.
Katerina’s insomnia
Throw in a trio of murders and a healthy splash of vodka and you have, more or less, the plot of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
Ottoman and woman
“With radiant looks, we shall depart this world,” sing Konstanze and Belmonte near the end of Mozart’s exotic yet charming opera Singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
Side eye and bitch face
At the first intermission at last night’s Met revival of Aida, I turned to my companion and said, “So… what about the Aida? I thought she was supposed to be good.”
Anger’s aweigh
It was a night a-tingle with excitement at the Metropolitan Opera House.
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).