Diva November meets Wagner December when Chris’s Cache this week offers Régine Crespin as both Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer via a pair of American pirates from the 1960s.
On this day in 1960 soprano Eileen Farrell made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the title role of a new production of Gluck’s Alceste.
Step aside, Texas: “Everything is bigger at Aida” is the motto of the Met’s second attempt at retiring Sonja Frisell’s colossal production.
Arts Council England, as a global policy trendsetter, may have sounded the death knell for the international opera industry as we know it.
“Opera needs a reset. We think there needs to be a fundamental shift in the ecology.”
The film of The Hours failed to effectively weave together the novel’s trio of threads of interiority about suicide and secondarily literary creation. I wondered if an opera would stand a better chance at achieving that? Based on Tuesday’s diva-encrusted stage premiere of Kevin Puts and Greg Pierce’s The Hours, its creators didn’t pull it off either.
On this day in 1965 Montserrat Caballé and Sherrill Milnes made their Metropolitan Opera debuts in Faust.
I have a horrible confession. I’ve always judged the quality of an opera largely on the number of dead characters at the finale.
On this day in 1967 Herbert von Karajan bowed at the Metropolitan Opera in a new production of Die Walküre which he directed and conducted.
On this day in 1992 the Metropolitan Opera presented a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor directed by Francesca Zambello (not pictured.)
On this day in 1949 the Metropolitan Opera opened their season with a televised(!) performance of Der Rosenkavalier.
Sondra Radvanovsky eschewed the customary stuffiness of the recital format, often speaking directly to the audience and putting her selections in a highly personal context.
On this day in 1953 the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with a new production of Gounod’s Faust.
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Le Comte Ory was a lovely cake with waaaay too much frosting.
After putting a hiatus on their awards in 2020 and 2021 (for reasons that are all too well-known to all of us), the Richard Tucker Foundation Gala returned on Sunday evening November 13 honoring soprano Angel Blue the 2022 Award winner.
On this day in 1951 the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with a new production of Aida.
The main reason to see this revival is Benjamin Bernheim’s Duca.
On this day in 1952, the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with a new production of La forza del destino.
Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen‘s star is surely on the rise.
Teatro Nuovo took a big risk in a bad way on Wednesday with its revival of Rossini’s Maometto II.
The revival of Don Carlo(s) which opened on November 3 restored the translated Italian text and the cut 1882 four-act revision not seen at the Met since Rudolf Bing’s last season in 1972.
On this day in 1883 the Metropolitan Opera presented the company premiere of La traviata.
On this day in 1926 the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with La vestale with Rosa Ponselle in the title role.
The pandemic had different effects on different people.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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