One startling upset catches the eye among the many winners (if that is the word) of the 2013 Parterre Box Awards.
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.
The next scheduled appearance of the Met’s Ring production has been canceled, as irrevocably as these things can ever be.
The most sensuous sounds at the Met this week come from an opera with nary a love duet.
Here, for the first time in 40 years, the CBS telecast of the April 21-22 gala honoring the retirement of Sir Rudolf Bing.
Your Wagnerian alternatives for today’s chat in La Casa della Cieca…
Finally some video of Stefan Herheim‘s Salome production shows up on YouTube.
La Cieca’s sources tell her that a planned revival of Faust at the Met in the fall of 2014 has been canceled, because who wants to see that ugly thing again, or else the leading lady didn’t feel like singing it, whichever.
Ring a ding ding! There’s a new Duke in town, and he’s jolting the Met’s Rigoletto with enough electricity to light up the Las Vegas Strip.
Always front and center with a vote of confidence, Peter Gelb told the New York Times, “Natalie is one of the great artists, but she also is somewhat fragile.”
“Danielle de Niese will sing the role of Cleopatra in this evening’s performance of Handel’s Giulio Cesare, replacing Natalie Dessay, who is ill.”
Bollywood dance numbers, kung fu fighting, simulated nudity — and rock-solid musical values — added up to a sterling Giulio Cesare at at the Met.
“I’m analytical, not wild,” Ms. Garanca told an interviewer in 2009.
Giulio Cesare at the Met proved an evening that added up to much more than the sum of its uneven parts.
Last night, La Cieca finally got around to watching that documentary about the rocky road to the new Ring at the Met, and she has a thought or two about this whole brouhaha.
Tenor Bryan Hymel has been named the recipient of the eighth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera.
“The spring season at the Met is as changeable as March weather in New York: crisp and brilliant for a day or two, and then suddenly as dismal as Thursday night’s Faust.”
“…the stage is crowded with grumbling members of the old guard who aren’t renewing subscriptions, disenchanted reviewers, vendors of vitriol on blogs like Parterre Box…”
Thursday’s Met performance of the Verdi tearjerker featured a major find: Diana Damrau, who, in her first outing as Violetta, mesmerized with her gleaming soprano and ferocious acting.
“With one of my favorite opera productions returning to the Met tonight, I’ve been considering lately what makes Willy Decker‘s Traviata so fine, so satisfying, and so worth a return visit.” [Musical America]
La Cieca thought it would be amusing to do a bit of speculation about what’s to come as we approach the middle of the decade.
It’s not often operagoers leave humming the scenery, but that was the case Monday, when the Met hauled out Riccardo Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini from the vault.
“I didn’t think anything could be campier than Adriana. But this is nothing but camp. Adriana at least has tunes.”
Vot tsar’ vash!” Here is your Tsar, the 38-year-old Ukranian bass Alexander Tsymbalyuk.
Here’s a chance for you to win two tickets to hear the winners of this year’s Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the intimate ambiance of WQXR’s Greene Space.
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.
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.