The new Opera News section of OPERA magazine already seems to be getting smaller, but the March issue features a long interview with Carol Vaness about Donna Anna.
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.
A trio of live Bellini recordings featuring Mirella Freni, June Anderson, and Angela Meade in the title role
Chris’s Cache previews Lise Davidsen‘s concert with six sopranos singing the five Wesendonck Lieder , plus a tenor interloper (Jonas Kaufmann, of course), and a mezzo (Hanna Schwarz )
A convocation of mezzos–and a pride of tenors–produce hundreds of sixteenth notes in a bewitching Rossini showpiece
Before some important Madama Butterfly sopranos dominate the American scene in early 2024, Chris’s Cache offers live recordings of four vintage Cio-Cio-Sans, plus a brand new one: Renata Scotto; Galina Vishnevskaya, Anna Moffo, Gilda Cruz-Romo–and Sonya Yoncheva.
Florian Leopold Gassmann’s delicious romp L’Opera Seria seems the perfect New Year’s Eve choice at Chris’s Cache
Today’s Three Kings aren’t the ones who arrive in Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera usually performed this time of year
Today’s collection features souvenirs of three previous Met productions of Carmen
Two short theatrical works and one sacred piece from the beguiling oeuvre of the guy who didn’t write Louise
Chris’s Cache wraps up November with Régine Crespin’s Chicago Leonore; two rare Met Fidelios headed by Christa Ludwig and Hildegard Behrens; and a concert performance with Birgit Nilsson led by Leonard Bernstein, plus a final twist: excerpts of Carol Vaness in Leonore.
Three important daughter-stepmother pairs
Two problematic 1990s Donizetti daughters
Several opera companies across the globe are marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Maria Callas with performances of operas identified with her.
Five fatal Swedish/Bostonian love triangles
A veritable festival of baroque vocal music featuring two of Handel’s English works, Israel in Egypt and L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, as well as Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie.
La Cieca asked that the next installment of Chris’s Cache mark the recent passing of Michael Kaye, known to readers of this site as QuantoPainyFakor.
Chris’s Cache offers up a quintet of intriguing “forgotten” Leonora-Azucena pairings from the 1970s.
Franco Bonisolli from age 28 to 33 in complete operas by Mozart, Cimarosa, Donizetti and Massenet.
Recent discussion about the merits of Le Prophète has prompted Chris’s Cache to unearth a pirate recording of Meyerbeer’s opera with Marilyn Horne, Rita Shane and Guy Chauvet led by Charles Mackerras, along with an earlier collaboration of the mezzo and conductor: Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in which Horne goes to hell to get back Adriana Maliponte with the help of Judith Blegen.
This week Chris’s Cache features Maria Chiara, Elena Mauti-Nunziata, Rita Orlandi-Malaspina and Orianna Santunione in L’Amico Fritz, Mefistofele, Simon Boccanegra and La Fanciulla del West, respectively.
Anticipating John Eliot Gardiner’s epic tour next month, Chris’s Cache savors several versions of Berlioz’s Les Troyens.
While reading about the challenges that have faced next week’s Bayreuth opening, I realized I’m a bad Parsifal fan: while I admire the first and third acts of Wagner’s final masterpiece, I really only love the pagan second.
Opera house versions of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd featuring Bryn Terfel / Judith Christin and Thomas Allen / Felicity Palmer.
Christa Ludwig sings Kundry in Parsifal with Helge Brilioth, Thomas Stewart and Cesare Siepi conducted by Leopold Ludwig, followed by a legendary Birgit Nilsson–Jon Vickers Tristan und Isolde led by Erich Leinsdorf.
