The present future
Well, when the New York Times goes into a tizzy, you know times are hard, cher public, but your doyenne is ready to ride to the rescue, hakeo don’t panic.
Metropolitan Opera
The mothership and mecca of opera in America—and home base for Parterre Box.
One million dollars!
“The Met: Live in HD concluded its tenth anniversary season Saturday with a live transmission of Patrice Chéreau’s acclaimed production of Elektra, with an estimated attendance of 48,000 in North America earning a gross of $1,037,000.”
Cold Turkey
The no-star, slapstick revival of John Dexter’s 37-year-old production of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail that opened Friday night proved James Levine’s tenure as Music Director of the Met will end in two weeks with neither a whimper nor a bang.
Bleak house
The haunted Mycenae of Patrice Chéreau’s enthralling production of Richard Strauss’s Elektra had seized its viewers in an unrelenting vise that never relaxed even at its quietly shattering conclusion.
Young guns
La Cieca will go out on limb and predict that the Met’s new music director will be Yannick Nezet-Seguin.
Bohemienne
Soprano Ailyn Pérez has been named the recipient of the 11th annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera.
Have you seen the proconsul?
La Cieca hears that Joseph Calleja will sing Pollione opposite the Norma of Anna Netrebko at the Met for opening night 2017.
Doge days
That Placido Domingo and James Levine, the Met’s inexorable septuagenarians, would team up yet again—on April Fools’ Day, no less—for a revival of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra occasioned an uncomfortable degree of doubt and dread.
I love the ’90s
“This story has been revised to correct production was Giancarlo del Monaco‘s, not Elijah Moshinsky‘s.”
The chopping block?
After five flops in a row, Mr. McVicar continues to win new assignments from the Met.
I want your Essex
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.
Chat: Roberto Devereux
Welcome, cher public, to the real-time chat for this evening’s Met premiere of Roberto Devereux, starting at 7:55 PM. Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
Chat: L’elisir d’amore
Crack open a bottle of Bordeaux and enjoy this afternoon’s “La Casa della Cieca” chat during the Met broadcast of L’elisir d’amore.
Transcendental
“Join me this Friday at The Metropolitan Opera for the next #FUN40”
Must the finals come so soon?
Without fail, all nine finalists had nice clear ringing voices. Whether they develop into great artists is another question.
His cup runneth over
As portrayed by Vittorio Grigolo, Nemorino was a manic self-absorbed, probably bipolar, stalker who—against all odds and good sense—gets the poor girl.
About a boy
These days a cadre of voluble opera-goers regularly issues dire warnings that anyone about to attend this or that production at the Met should close her eyes and just listen rather than witness yet another Peter Gelb regie “atrocity.”
Two and only
Anna Netrebko and Latonia Moore (pictured) rekindle “The Grand Opera Buzz.”
Winter afternoon’s dream
It took the better part of a decade—including two high-profile cancelations—or New York to finally hear Anna Netrebko in recital.
Anagnorisis
Ana María Martínez will sing Cio-Cio-San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on February 27 and March 5.
Seamless
“Friday night’s triumph may well leave the Met’s management wondering how it let such a gem slip through its fingers.”
Of what I dream in the quiet afternoon
Anna Netrebko‘s sold-out recital at the Metropolitan Opera House on Sunday afternoon will be broadcast on SiriusXM Met Opera Radio, channel 74.
Wise woman
Ana Maria Martinez’s tremendously impressive Cio-Cio-San dominated the season premiere of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Met.
End of the line
“Mr. Eyre’s production… was just another in a series of ugly, gargantuan stagings signaling the Met’s endemic lack of imagination or artistic ambition.”
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).