Vittorio Grigolo in the title role of the Met’s revival of Les Contes d’Hoffman is the opera version of the charming homeless drunk.
STEMdiva status
Ahead of a special boozy, bawdy Valentine’s Day concert, artistic director of Opera Lafayette Patrick Quigley speaks with soprano Maya Kherani about her journey from MIT to rising American Baroque star.
La Cieca is sometimes asked what it is that a dramaturg does, or why it is that an opera house need a dramaturg
>”Ghastly!” — New York Observer
Ludovic Tézier is continuing to recover from an illness.
Verdi must have gotten tired of tossing and turning by now and has gone back to resting in peace.
One of the major complaints about the five year casting system (as well as the shared productions by different companies) is that operatic events are rarely surprises anymore.
Sooner or later, Our Own JJ gets around to discussing the Met’s Barbiere di Siviglia and Juilliard’s Turco in Italia in this week’s New York Observer.
“In case you missed it on Saturday, we took a look at early rehearsals for the new production of The Merry Widow, starring Renée Fleming and, in this clip, Kelli O’Hara!”
“Italian tenor Francesco Demuro will make his Met debut in the role of Rodolfo in this evening’s performance of La Bohème, replacing Charles Castronovo who is ill.”
“The soup is hot; the soup is cold; Norman Lebrecht got it wrong again.”
Every year I say I’m not going to another La Bohème because I’ve seen this too many times.
“In a fiscal year that challenged the nation’s largest performing arts organization to find a more sustainable financial model for the future, the Metropolitan Opera incurred an estimated $22 million budget shortfall for the 2013-14 season.”
The Met has just announced it is revising once again its rush ticket policy, doing away the “lottery” system in place earlier this season and instead going to a “first come, first served” online sale daily.
“In a last-minute substitution, American tenor Bryan Hymel will sing the role of Rodolfo in this evening’s performance of La Bohème, replacing Ramón Vargas, who is ill.”
You figured it out a fortnight ago, cher public.
Throw in a trio of murders and a healthy splash of vodka and you have, more or less, the plot of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
This was the kind of night that proves the haters right: sometimes opera is boring.
“Sonya Yoncheva will sing her first-ever staged performances of Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème at the Met on November 14, 20, 24, 28, December 1 and 5, replacing Kristine Opolais.
At the first intermission at last night’s Met revival of Aida, I turned to my companion and said, “So… what about the Aida? I thought she was supposed to be good.”
Sonya Yoncheva will make her North American role debut as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata at the Met this January.
It was a night a-tingle with excitement at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Join the party, cher public, for the free web broadcast of Macbeth tonight starting at 7:15. Of course, La Casa della Cieca will be buzzing!
That miracle of the internet age, the slow leak, has begun.
“Norwegian mezzo-soprano Ingeborg Gillebo will make her Met debut singing the role of Cherubino in this evening’s performance of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, replacing Isabel Leonard, who is ill.”
A Baroque Valentine’s with Opera Lafayette | Feb | DC & NYC
Celebrate love in all its guises with tender ballads, amorous duets, cheeky verses, and bawdy drinking songs plus food, cocktails and wine.
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.