Force of habit
Turmoil and injustice in the federal government; turmoil and grief in the Catholic Church: the time sure seems right for a staging of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites.
juilliard opera
Think of the children
One of the highlights, if not the highlight, of No-Met-February was an all-Ravel evening presented by the Juilliard Orchestra.
Sisters are doing it for themselves
War! Heroism! Mysterious strangers! Attempted suicide! Steadfast love! Così fan tutte, as staged November 18-21 at Juilliard Opera, had… none of these things.
Tito’s, neat
This Clemenza seemed more or less unconcerned with the opera’s political imagination, content to take Tito at his word that his rule is morally enlightened and the citizens at theirs that a benevolent dictatorship is a wonderful thing indeed.
Garden varieties
Those of us in New York City who relish 17th century Italian vocal music were offered an enticing banquet over the past few weeks.
Nighthawks
Edward Hopper’s paintings from the 1930s and 1940s are simply lousy with windows.
The final strangeness
What’s the status of the American Dream nowadays? Did it ever really exist? If it’s dead, why isn’t it gone?
No sex please, we’re German
Why is so twinkling, tuneful a score so little known?
Work on ‘Progress’
Young voices ringing out Stravinsky’s witty melodies at close quarters gives great pleasure if you are fond of this witty score and its many parodies of early operatic cliché.
Speak loudly
Do we do what we have to do? Or do we have to do what we do?
Is that how they do it?
Così fan tutte presents a considerable challenge to the modern director.
Dressed to kill
Oh, that slippery Don Giovanni—so elusive, so chaotic, so open to no end of interpretation!
Tragically Hippolyte
I had my head in my hands groaning in disbelief instead of joining in the general applause around me.
Stout fellow
There are two delights here: a delectable score too rarely heard and an introduction at close quarters to half a dozen young singers ready for takeoff, indeed already flying.
Animal, vegetable
Whatever its flaws, La finta giardinera is indeed a wise rep choice for grad students eager to cut their teeth.
Flight of fancy
Jonathan Dove’s Flight is an opera that makes excellent use of setting.
I don’t sleep, I dream
Bellini blossomed over us like a love fest.
She who gets slapped
All those who have been in a rage since the news broke this week that the Metropolitan Opera has invited Calixto Bieito to stage Verdi’s La Forza del Destino can relax and embrace the Juilliard Opera’s new Le Nozze di Figaro which opened Friday night.
Trigger warning
The Rape of Lucretia, now (through Sunday) enjoying a superb three-performance run at the Juilliard Opera’s Willson Theater (tickets are scarce; hie thee to the waiting list), was Benjamin Britten’s third opera and first “chamber opera,” composed for the tiny original theater at Glyndebourne,
Mourning becomes Iphigenia
Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide (1774), the occasion of his Paris debut, gets far less respect than her sequel, Iphigénie en Tauride.
To the vixen belongs the spa
A production as delectable as the current one (through Sunday) at the Juilliard Opera will make you wonder why Il Turco is not as well known as L’Italiana, Il Barbiere, La Cenerentola, even the odd and occasional Il Viaggio a Rheims.
Ash Wednesday
Joyce, Javier and now Julia—this week these three remarkable Js brought New York City memorable “Cinderella stories.”
Fox news
In Leos Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, the heroine is shot and skinned for her fur.
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
