Don’t cry because it’s over
Grand Tier Grab Bag hearkens back to the days when Sondra Radvanovsky — who is singing no Verdi at all next season — seemed like the Verdi soprano of reference.
Teatro Real
Manon Lescaut
Sondra Radvanovsky, Michael Fabiano, and Lucas Meachem lead a performance recorded in Madrid earlier this week
Streamed October 10, 2026 at 1:00 PM
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Il trovatore
Nicola Luisotti conducts Celso Albelo, Saioa Hernández, Artur Ruciński, and Ksenia Dudnikova in a performance recorded in Madrid in July
Streamed October 3, 2026 at 12:00 PM
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The Bartered Bride
A live video broadcast from the Teatro Real in Madrid
Streamed April 23, 2026 at 1:30 PM
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I’m still thinking about Laurent Pelly’s Il turco in Italia
Ha ha ha, so gorgeous!
By grimoaldo2
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Moor is more
A pair of Otellos – in Madrid and Parma – is a study in contrasts.
Drink me
Chris’s Cache offers Nadine Sierra and Xabier Anduaga, the stars of the upcoming production of La sonnambula, in a performance of another favorite bel canto opera
Maria Stuarda
Lisette Oropesa and Aigul Akhmetshina come to blows in a performance recorded last fall in Madrid.
The new Norma
In a splashy new recording of Norma, Marina Rebeka “is doing something very untoward, and it appears destructive to her voice.” It has Niel Rishoi worried.
Woman’s lib
A work that skimps on profundity need not be devoid of entertainment value, and Madrid’s charismatic soloists and musicians more than capably deliver on this front.
Women on the verge of a nervous breakup
Not in my wildest dreams could I have come up with anything more homosexual than the sight of Almodóvar muse Rossy de Palma in a stage-length wedding gown onstage Madrid’s Teatro Real.
Early onset dementia
Nothing says “diva” like an insane recital program.
The Real thing
Surrounded by security and greeted by a bevy of cameras, Su Majestad la Reina Sofía brought a bit of excitement to an evening that didn’t end up being all that musically rewarding.
Mark, with thee we mean to live
People these days often exclaim “…..is everything!” but often it feels like gross hyperbole. But surely anyone who has seen Mark Morris’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato since it premiered in 1989 would agree that it is indeed everything!
Uncloistered
Let’s all cast our minds back to March of 2020. Or, better, let’s not.
Letting their hair down
After the break the ladies stepped up their game so much that it elevated the night into legendary status: definitely one for the books!
Charisma and chemistry
For this revival of Tosca Teatro Real has configured several casts with some of the best singers in the world: Sondra Radvanovsky, Maria Agresta, Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja, Michael Fabiano, Yusif Eyvazov, Jonas Kaufmann, Carlos Álvarez, Gevorg Hakobyan and Luca Salsi.
Atlantis in Atlanta
“Once upon a time / Lived a foolish king. / Mocking Death, his crime, / Pure chaos he bring.”
The distance between us
“Dying in the third act is much more intense, as the sickness has the same symptoms as COVID-19, so suffocation, pain, agony, fever—all this must be present and real.”
Jawdropper
Robert Wilson is many things: a visionary (certainly); an iconoclast, artist, director, and designer of sets, lighting, costumes, movement (and furniture). Yet his work is never boring (well, at least not intentionally).
On the beach
On the first viewing of this Idomeneo, with a cast clad mostly in military khaki green set against a green sky, the eye starts to tire from the dullness of the surroundings.
From the HIP
We are in the midst of a titanic Beethoven onslaught prompted by the unstoppable need to commemorate the composer’s upcoming 250th birthday.
The journey is the destination
In this recital, the Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny and his pianist Lech Napierala present the world premiere recording of Stanislaw Baranczak‘s Podróz Zimowa (Winter’s Journey), which weds the poet’s meticulously crafted poetry to the music of Franz Schubert.
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).