The scorned mother of us all
Seeing Sondra Radvanovsky as Medea at Lyric Opera of Chicago sprawled across the floor, soaked in her children’s blood, is proof that we’re witnessing an utterly haunting singer-actor.
New York
La sonnambula
A live broadcast from New York
Streamed October 14, 2025 at 7:25 PM
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Rock ‘n’ Tyrol
Parterre Box features an exclusive sample of Lawrence Brownlee‘s jump-in performance in La sonnambula from this weekend
Nothing makes me feel better than War and Peace
‘Comfort opera.’ Hmm… I had to give this one some thought.
By Nigel Wilkinson
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Nothing makes me feel better than the 1961 performance of Turandot
The old Nilsson/Corelli radio checks from the 1960s are a reminder that what this opera needs are VOICES.
By Ivy Lin
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Ain’t no mountain high enough
A new production of La sonnambula at the Metropolitan Opera is musically charming if dramatically confounding.
Seeing double
Jonas Kaufmann has a new lieder album called Doppelgänger, but the contents of the album vary depending on how you purchase it.
La sonnambula
A live opening night broadcast from New York starring Nadine Sierra and Xabier Anduaga
Streamed October 6, 2025 at 7:55 PM
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The 500 Fingers of Dr. H
Surely you agree that piano concerti are inherently political.
Nothing makes me feel better than Tosca
Suck it, Joseph Kerman: Puccini’s “Shabby Little Shocker” has outlived you and will probably bury us all.
By Peter Russell
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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
A live broadcast from New York
Streamed October 2, 2025 at 7:25 PM
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What belongs to us
Kevin Ng sits down with PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novelist and critic Garth Greenwell to talk about sex, queerness, and the “promise of opera.”
Storybored
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay was, somehow, a fun night at the opera—just not one that felt specifically operatic.
Reunited and it feels so good
When Angela Meade and Michael Fabiano first sang Lucia together as students at AVA few would have predicted that they would go on to sing Turandot 16 years later.
Don Giovanni
Opening week at the Met continues with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting a cast that includes Ryan Speedo Green, Federica Lombardi, and Ben Bliss
Streamed September 24, 2025 at 7:25 PM
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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
The Metropolitan Opera's 2025-26 season opens with a live broadcast of Mason Bates's and Gene Scheer's new opera
Streamed September 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM
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Self-made woman
In the pursuit of clowning, Anthony Roth Costanzo’s Galas may have lost sight of “the seriousness of the theme.”
Peter’s arabian nights
The moral stench seeps through Peter Gelb‘s decision to partner with the Saudi government, but what new sources of funding for the Met don’t have red flags?
My soul is eager for this kind of pain
Ross Wassermann tracks the development of “Che farò senza Euridice?” — and “J’ai perdu mon Eurydice” — for this month’s Perspectives on an Aria
A favorite Wagner performance from Le Petit Yniold
Nowhere are the contradictions between Wagner’s small-mindedness, his meanness of spirit, and his human insight on clearer display than in Hans Sachs monologue Wahn, Wahn überall Wahn in the third Act of Mesitersinger.
By Le Petit Yniold
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Da tempeste
My recollections of Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in Louisiana twenty years ago today, come with a pair of odd bookends: it starts with Verdi’s Don Carlo and ends with Puccini’s Il trittico.
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).