Following new productions of Tosca in 2017, Adriana Lecouvreur in 2018, and the Anna Netrebko-led Puccini orgy of 2019, New Year’s Eve at the Met has come to signify that verismo, as this school tends to be known, is still kicking.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads an epic Wagner opera concert
Yannick leads The Philadelphia Orchestra, superstars Nina Stemme and Stuart Skelton, and world-class singers in a rare concert performance that reveals every detail and nuance of this richly harmonic score. Experience the passion and cold-hearted revenge of this scandalous opera. Get tickets now!
Yannick leads The Philadelphia Orchestra, superstars Nina Stemme and Stuart Skelton, and world-class singers in a rare concert performance that reveals every detail and nuance of this richly harmonic score. Experience the passion and cold-hearted revenge of this scandalous opera. Get tickets now!
The more ignorant segments of the public and the critical establishment continue to shout praise to David McVicar‘s torpid Tosca as the greatest triumph of the reactionary since the Bourbon Restoration.
Bellini’s Norma Monday evening didn’t at all improve on the production it was replacing.
After five flops in a row, Mr. McVicar continues to win new assignments from the Met.
During its first-ever Roberto Devereux Thursday evening one felt transported back to the Volpe years: four of the Met’s biggest stars shining in an opulent (if occasionally perverse) but reassuringly non-challenging production paid for by Sybil B. Harrington.
“David McVicar, on his knee, with… Mariusz Kwiecien during a rehearsal.”
Friday’s season premiere at the Met of Donizetti’s opera about the doomed Scottish queen proved surprisingly satisfying and a genuine success for Sondra Radvanovsky.
Die Meistersinger is a bold stroke of programming, in a not particularly exciting way.
Absent from Chicago Lyric Opera’s repertory for 21 years, Alban Berg’s Wozzeck came roaring into town on Sunday afternoon in a stunning new production by Sir David McVicar.
“This throwback to the golden age of opera—superhuman singing greeted with frenzied ovations—was a function of a perfect storm of excitement.”
The Metropolitan Opera’s much vaunted so-called “Tudor Ring” of three royal operas by Donizetti got off to a bumpy start Saturday afternoon with a revival of Anna Bolena that stubbornly refused to cohere either musically or dramatically.
It is easy to become overly identified with opera—as a cleverer friend of mine once noted: being a sports fan is an interest, but if you like opera, everyone thinks of it as a crippling obsession.
Our Own JJ was only semi-amused.
The next scheduled appearance of the Met’s Ring production has been canceled, as irrevocably as these things can ever be.
Giulio Cesare at the Met proved an evening that added up to much more than the sum of its uneven parts.
True, Joyce DiDonato’s Mary spat out those fighting words in a tangy chest voice, but it was hard to believe she meant them.
It’s easiest to write reviews when there are soaring triumphs and miserable failures.
Pick a little, talk a little
Following the successful launch of the new regular feature The Talk of the Town in January, the team at the box is inviting contributions for a new quarter of operatic potpourri.
Following the successful launch of the new regular feature The Talk of the Town in January, the team at the box is inviting contributions for a new quarter of operatic potpourri.
Win Free Tickets to Nina Stemme at Carnegie Hall
“The island is only small / But the fairies inhabiting it / Welcome us all”
That means you—and your even more significant other—should you win this pair of seats. Enter now »
“The island is only small / But the fairies inhabiting it / Welcome us all”
That means you—and your even more significant other—should you win this pair of seats. Enter now »
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