“Robert Lepage‘s direction of a crucial scene in the Ring is even worse than Otto Schenk‘s, if such a thing is possible.”
Leave it to the New York Times to present a hard-hitting, no-holds-barred debate on the explosive subject of race, with Anthony Tommasini and Ben Brantley boldly in agreement throughout.
“The cast, to a member, embraces every chance…”
“The title character in Barber’s Gothic melodrama Vanessa, a self-deluded, manipulative older woman, ‘keeps coming up,’ Ms. Voigt said.”
La Cieca spies spotted the New York Times‘ Anthony Tommasini at the opening of the Salzburg Meistersinger, which indicates his review should be appearing by tomorrow at the latest.
Anthony Tommasini and his long-time partner Ben McCommon were married on Friday.
For decades New York City Opera was a model of an organization with a clear mission.
“The Met’s new Ring is the most frustrating opera production I have ever had to grapple with.”
Just in time for the beginning of the first cycle of the Robert Lepage Ring (pictured), Peter Gelb tries to convince Anthony Tommasini that everything is just fine, thank you…
In honor of Martin Luther King day (belated), the New York Times hosts a discussion about the current Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. As a bold gesture toward diversity and inclusion, the keynote speakers range from Anthony Tommasini to Ben Brantley.
Is Peter Gelb wearing too many hats? Anthony Tommasini seems to think so, adding that one of those headpieces in particular is ill-fitting and might perhaps more flatteringly perch upon some other head. Call La Cieca suspicious, but she thinks the timing of this piece is hardly an accident.
So, tell me this, what do Anthony Tommasini, Zachary Woolfe and James Jorden (not pictured) have in common? Well, according to John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute Heather MacDonald, these three “trendy” critics constitute “a press corps determined to push Met general manager Peter Gelb into conformity with European opera houses, where narcissistic…
“With the news this month that James Levine had slipped and injured a vertebra while vacationing in Vermont… Fabio Luisi became the company’s music director in all but name.” [New York Times]
Now Anthony Tommasini has gone rummaging for the good news (“a place that could set the cultural tone for its neighborhood, much the way the Public Theater defines the life of its East Village environs”) so completely obscured by the dark clouds of recent reports from NYCO. But even a cockeyed optimist like Tommasini has…
And now Anthony Tommasini has joined the chorus calling for James Levine “to make his next contribution to the company he loves and step aside as music director.” Even the headline of his NYT piece echoes the talk on parterre a fortnight ago.
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
