It only just occurred to La Cieca that the opening night of New York City Opera’s 2013 season—the premiere of their new production of Powder Her Face—is February 15, a date that sounds oddly familiar somehow.
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.
Imagine if someone left Vermeer’s masterpiece “Girl With a Pearl Earring” out in the rain.
Did the ancient Egyptians invent chest waxing?
After an uneven start to the season, the Met brought its A game Friday to a superb revival of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito.
“Alden Drops the Ballo: His Milquetoast Take on Verdi’s Classic Fizzles at the Met”
Last week’s freak nor’easter set the tone for Thursday’s chilly new production of Un Ballo in Maschera at the Met.
The realization of the opera Un ballo in maschera by Verdi and the librettist Antonio Somma is almost as famous as the opera itself.
The battle of the sexes ended in an upset the other night in Le Nozze di Figaro.
Recently your doyenne engaged in an email-based interview with David Alden, director of the Met’s new production of Un ballo in maschera, opening on Thursday.
The performance at the Metropolitan Opera last night proved that yes, it is possible to kill this opera. I don’t know how they managed it, but they did.
“Like the Shakespeare play it’s based on, Thomas Adès’ opera The Tempest is set on an enchanted island.”
La Cieca predicts you won’t be seeing any puritans at the Met next season, except of course for the ones who slouch around during intermission hissing, “You call that a trill?”
Friend of the box Opera Teen (pictured, right) reacts to Saturday night’s performance of Otello.
So meandering and ragged a reading would be alarming at a first rehearsal; for a first night, it was a scandal.
La Cieca has been sniffing around her generally reliable (and fragrant) sources, and she thinks she has pieced together a list of the dozen operas to be featured in the 2013-2014 season of “The Met: Live in HD.”
In a rare last-minute change of program, the Metropolitan Opera has canceled tomorrow night’s performance of L’elisir d’amore.
“Two generations of gypsy women dominated the first weekend of the Met’s new season.”
Saturday matinee’s prima Trovatore brought an exciting and compelling show to the Met’s stage in the revival of David McVicar’s dark, Goya-esque production.
“I literally wanted to punch Sher in the face.”
So what’s the news from the Met press office this late Friday afternoon?
Matthew Polenzani will sing the role of Leicester in all performances of the Met’s new production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda this season.
Which VIP at the Met’s opening night barely lasted through Belcore’s entrance aria before hustling out the door and leaving a gaping lacuna in the guest seating chart?
After last night’s opening of L’elisir d’amore, the chirping of the first critics is heard.
“In the space of a few words, the leading role in a major new production had been reassigned. But why?”
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.
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.