Great Scot!
A new Macbeth summons the forces of hell — and the star power of Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen — for a fiery start to the Met’s new season.
Metropolitan Opera
The mothership and mecca of opera in America—and home base for Parterre Box.
Dream a little dream of me
Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego enchants and surprises despite the Disnified treatment of its subject matter.
Three faces of Violetta
Christopher Corwin surveys the three Traviata casts — led by Lisette Oropesa, Rosa Feola, and Ermonela Jaho — at the Met this spring.
Kuda, woulda, shoulda
A strong revival of Eugene Onegin at the Metropolitan Opera and a recital by Benjamin Bernheim offered the chance to hear “Kuda, kuda” twice in two days.
Tunnel vision
Lise Davidsen, Michael Spyres, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin are astonishing in Tristan und Isolde at the Met, while Yuval Sharon‘s new production is anything but.
Doublet trouble
A messy new I puritani at the Met is a historic and historical disappointment.
Make them die through singing
Ahead of a new production opening at the Met on New Year’s Eve, director Charles Edwards and Lisette Oropesa discuss creating an I puritani that is stark and serious — and sings.
The replacements
Second casts in Don Giovanni and Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera offer mixed blessings.
Avec la victoire, l’instant du bonheur
Buoyed by a strong cast, The Metropolitan Opera continues its autumn bel canto streak with a winning revival of Donizetti’s La fille du regiment.
Ain’t no mountain high enough
A new production of La sonnambula at the Metropolitan Opera is musically charming if dramatically confounding.
Storybored
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay was, somehow, a fun night at the opera—just not one that felt specifically operatic.
Reunited and it feels so good
When Angela Meade and Michael Fabiano first sang Lucia together as students at AVA few would have predicted that they would go on to sing Turandot 16 years later.
The Queen of Spades
The final Saturday Matinee Broadcast of the 2024-25 season, live from New York
Antony and Cleopatra
The final live weeknight broadcast of the 2024-25 season from New York
Many happy returns
The Met’s mostly successful revivals of The Queen of Spades and La bohème showcase the returns of Sonya Yoncheva and Corinne Winters
Antony and Cleopatra
John Adams‘s newest opera in a live broadcast from New York
Sweet birds of youth
Buoyed by a cast of emerging stars, the Metropolitan Opera’s revival of Il Barbiere di Siviglia asserted a key trait of this ubiquitous buffo: it is a young person’s opera.
Sexual orientalization
An impressive cast blurs binaries as John Adams‘s ambitious Antony and Cleopatra arrives at the Met
Turandot
Zubin Mehta conducts a classic broadcast from 1966 featuring Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli, Mirella Freni, and Bonaldo Giaiotti
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).