I first went bonkers for Bellini’s masterpiece during the previous century when the Met remounted it for Joan Sutherland.
I wish to introduce our younger Parterrians to the magical Martha Mödl to commemorate the opening of the Bayreuther Festspiele which opens tomorrow afternoon.
A poster outside Carnegie Hall proclaimed “Mahler Well Met” and to some degree it proved to be true.
An outstanding performance of Weber’s Euryanthe to share on “Trove Thursday.”
If everything you see is great, you are either new to opera or chronically easy to please.
“If you’ve overdosed on Der Rosenkavalier in the past week, let’s go back a few years to Richard Strauss’ first operatic hit: Salome.
Our selected Rosenkavalier video overview closes out the 20th-century selections, crosses the millennial mark, and includes the first of our performances to depart from the opera’s prescribed 18th-century setting.
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.
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.
“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.
Sometimes when you find the club that will have you as a member, you do not easily give up your spot.
It’s time to add more legends to my Mixcloud site: Mario Del Monaco, Raina Kabaivanska, and Tito Gobbi star in this 1962 performance of Otello from Covent Garden led by Georg Solti.
Have you ever had the unfortunate experience of listening to someone tell a joke badly?
Here’s a lesser piece by a great composer, single-handedly “rescued” for our generation by Angela Gheorghiu.
A woman reads from the Bible. There is a dance scene in a tavern. The discovery of blood gives away the protagonist.
Gather around while I play Ghost of New Year’s Eve past!
The Hänsel und Gretel discussions over the holidays plunged me down a YouTube rabbit hole.
Enthusiasm is contagious–you have to cover up carefully lest it make you sick.
The most recent Egyptian voluptuary of 2006 by our friend Franco has now been replaced by the most singularly spartan production of Verdi’s masterpiece I think I’ve ever seen.
This “new-to-Chicago” production is a sheer pleasure from beginning to end.
Although the season is less than three weeks old, Metropolitan Opera audiences may hear nothing else this season as beautiful as Peter Mattei’s “Song to the Evening Star.”
Which operatic character could be best described as a spider?
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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