On October 14, 1979 I spent my birthday attending my first all-star opera gala, thrilled at the chance to hear some of the great singers I’d only experienced on LPs, broadcasts or via my pirate reel-to-reel tapes.
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.
Today is Liberace‘s centennial!
Today is the 90th anniversary of the birth of the great American diva.
From Unnatural Acts of Opera, a duo concert with Shirley Verrett and Grace Bumbry at Carnegie Hall.
Friend of the box Andrew Whitfield (not pictured) is celebrating his birthday by slashing prices in half on everything in the Opera Depot catalog for the rest of the week.
To celebrate the 90th birthday of Pierre Boulez, our friends at Opera Depot are offering a free download of excerpts from his epochal 1976 Ring cycle at Bayreuth as well as steep discounts on all other Bouleziana.
Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of that superb American soprano Eleanor Steber.
In celebration of the 90th anniversary of the birth of Carlo Bergonzi, our friends at Opera Depot are offering discounts on their entire catalog of the legendary tenor’s performances.
Today would have been the 90th birthday of the quintessential prima donna.
On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Swan of Busseto, La Cieca invites the cher public to share reminiscences of great Verdi performances—and YouTube clips, of course!
The Met’s new Tatiana is 42 today.
The legendary verista and Verdian celebrates the (official) 100th anniversary of her birth today.
That most profound and controversial of all operatic composers was born 200 years ago today.
The evergreen singing actress was born 73 years ago in Berlin.
The legendary soprano celebrates her 80th birthday today.
The fabled verista celebrates the 103rd anniversary of her birth today.
The Prince of Regie, who’ll direct a new Vêpres siciliennes for the Royal Opera this fall, is 43 years old today.
The French countertenor is 35 years old today.
“Il Leone di Lucca” (as La Cieca has never heard the composer called) was born December 22, 1858.
It’s that date that rolls around once a year, cher public, the date we celebrate the 1993 founding of parterre box and the 1923 birth of Maria Callas.
The dynamic American singing actress celebrates the 90th anniversary of her birth today.
La Cieca wants to get a jump on this busy birthday season by offering a remembrance of Birgit Nilsson a day early.
On this, the anniversary of her natal day, May 15, La Cieca likes to think back to that moment…
La Cieca (pictured, left) celebrated her birthday early this year when she unexpectedly received the perfect gift—the following press release.
