Grounded
A performance recorded earlier this season in New York
Metropolitan Opera
The mothership and mecca of opera in America—and home base for Parterre Box.
Die Frau ohne Schatten
The Saturday Matinee Broadcast season starts with a performance from the Metropolitan Opera
Trick mirror
A recent conversation with a friend who has loved Die Frau ohne Schatten for twice as long as I have been alive revealed that we both had some unresolved questions about the plot.
An afternoon at the opera
Il trovatore may be famous for its melodramatic plot and unlikely mistaken identities, but surely even Verdi and Cammarano couldn’t have imagined the chaos of a performance featuring two Manricos and two Leonoras.
A Christmas story
This archly traditional production of La bohème was a little shaky on opening night. It nevertheless had a full complement of sterling individual performances to take us on home.
On an evening in Roma
After an uneven gala performance of Tosca on Tuesday, I’m not sure what the Met means by “celebrating Puccini.”
Ainadamar
Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads Angel Blue, Elena Villalón, Daniela Mack, and Alfredo Tejada in Osvaldo Golijov and David Henry Hwang‘s opera
Actress of protest
Ainadamar functions on two levels: as a defiant dance against fascist totalitarianism and as an exaltation of the diva.
Five of a kind
Rare is the revival of Il trovatore that boasts five first-rate singers, and such an occasion should be treasured. And so, at the Met last Saturday, it was.
Ainadamar
Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads Angel Blue, Elena Villalón, Daniela Mack, and Alfredo Tejada in Osvaldo Golijov and David Henry Hwang‘s opera
Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Marco Armiliato conducts Benjamin Bernheim, Erin Morley, Pretty Yende, Clémentine Margaine, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, and Christian Van Horn in a live broadcast from New York
Spain and neutered
Ainadamar never quite found its identity between the two poles of conceptual and concrete.
Ainadamar
Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads Angel Blue, Elena Villalón, Daniela Mack, and Alfredo Tejada in the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Osvaldo Golijov and David Henry Hwang‘s opera
Tosca
Xian Zhang conducts Aleksandra Kurzak, SeokJong Baek, and George Gagnidze in a live broadcast from New York
Grounded
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Emily D’Angelo, Ellie Dehn, Ben Bliss, and Greer Grimsley in an opening night broadcast of Jeanine Tesori and George Brant‘s new opera from the Met
Nosedive
It’s not so much that I hated the Met Opera’s Grounded. I’m just not convinced that it should have been an opera.
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).
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
