“Labels play a hugely important role in our listening lives.”
Remember the disastrous 2010 Traviata at the Met, “conducted” by Leonard Slatkin?
“One of the most highly-regarded pianists of our time, Grigory Sokolov, has refused to accept the Cremona Music Award 2015 because it has previously been awarded to the blogger Norman Lebrecht.”
You know, the commenters at parterre.com (pictured) may get a bit testy from time to time, but at least nobody here says stuff like, oh, for example…
Friend and friend-in-law of parterre box Greg Sandow pours the oil of calm and rational analysis upon the troubled waters of the Met’s current labor negotiations in the most recent installment of his always excellent (not to mention eponymous) blog.
“Toilets occupy me a great deal because, well, this is England after all and they matter.”
La bohème is such a popular romantic opera that hardly anyone ever notices that Mimì and Rodolfo undergo what in modern terms would be called speed dating.
“Is Parsifal, then, a religious artwork, or is it a work ‘about’ religion?”
“After attending the dress rehearsal in London I wrote the following to Mr Carsen to give him the opportunity to make changes.”
On the occasion of “the greatest party for Classical Music on the planet,” the Last Night of the Proms, mezzo Joyce DiDonato quietly (but audibly) takes a stand for equality.
Opera Teen (pictured, second from left) is not kidding us: he had an interview with Peter Gelb.
“Taking the libretto’s description of ‘panther-like’ literally, Bacchus appears in a shiny leopard-print suit…”
La Cieca has reviewed the parterre circulation numbers and she is delighted and not a little perplexed to note that the day of the Great Opera News Kerfuffle provided our site with the highest number of pageviews in history.
“Aus den Trümmern der zusammengestürzten Halle sehen die Männer und Frauen in höchster Ergriffenheit dem wachsenden Feuerschein am Himmel zu.”
Daniel Wakin reports that “WQXR pulled a blog posting critical of the Metropolitan Opera’s new Ring cycle last month after the Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, personally complained to the radio station’s top executive…”