According to Our Own JJ, there was skating on the ramparts of Seville last Thursday night. [New York Post]
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“After a sketchy start to the season, the Met hit its stride on Friday with a revival of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale that’s as crisp as autumn in New York.” [New York Post] (Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)
“…incest, gay baiting, draft dodging and drunken driving… it’s hard not to giggle!” Our Own JJ reviews the NYCO’s premiere of A Quiet Place in the New York Post.
Roberto Alagna, star of tonight’s pair of one-acters by Opera Orchestra of New York, discusses divorce and desserts with Our Own JJ. [New York Post]
“Saturday night’s Met debut of Vittorio Grigolo in La Boheme was promising enough to suggest the tenor may one day live up to his own hype.” [New York Post]
“At the close of Boris Godunov, a leaderless Russia churns in chaos. Happily, the Met’s new production of Mussorgsky’s masterpiece — despite a last-minute turnover on the production team — ended triumphantly.” [New York Post]
“In the Met’s Tales of Hoffmann, Giuseppe Filianoti plays a poet defeated by life. In reality, the 36-year-old singer’s brush with tragedy had a far happier ending.” The tenor talks to Our Own JJ in the New York Post.
“[El Gato con Botas] can be summed up in a single word: purr-fect.” Our Own JJ practices the art of the pullquote in the New York Post.
“Fricka, queen of the gods, modeled one of Mamie Eisenhower’s old cocktail dresses; trickster god Loge rocked a Gary Glitter jumpsuit, and the thieving dwarf Alberich sported MC Hammer pants.” Our Own JJ breaks it down. [New York Post]
Our Own JJ is dashing about like a mad crazed thing today. At 4:00 this afternoon, he’s joining Naomi Lewin at WQXR to discuss the Met’s impending season (you can listen here), then dashing over to Lincoln Center to cover the opening night Rheingold for the New York Post. In your doyenne’s understandable absence, hosting…
Our Own JJ emerges from estivation to look forward, Erda-like, toward “the” event of the fall season, plus six more must-sees.
“Though the new sound system couldn’t make Central Park’s SummerStage sound like a concert hall, the first of the Metropolitan Opera’s Summer Recital Series made sweet dinner music Monday for 3,800 listeners and their picnics.” [New York Post]
“…by any standard, Meade’s is a very fine Norma — and, as a first attempt at this Mount Everest of a role, it’s simply a miracle.” [New York Post]
Legendary diva Martina Arroyo chats with Our Own JJ about learning, teaching and The Odd Couple. [New York Post]
“The end of the world was on the program Thursday night — but for the New York Philharmonic, performing the apocalyptic opera Le Grand Macabre was a promising new beginning.” [NYP]
“Nobody dies in Partenope, Handel’s 1730 opera that ends in contentment and reconciliation. For the audience at the New York City Opera’s production Saturday night, the finale also hinted at hope for the troubled company’s future.” [NYP]
“Diva! The very word evokes tantrums, unreasonable demands — and the wrath of Aretha Franklin denied her Snickers bar.” Our Own JJ (not pictured) discusses divadom with Angela Gheorghiu in the New York Post.
“After 130 years, you’d think the Met has done everything at least once. But Tuesday was a night full of firsts…” Our own JJ, if by no means as thorough as Johnny Weird, has his own thoughts about the Met’s Attila. [New York Post]
“A German, a Peruvian and a Kiwi walk into an American theater and start speaking French: that sounds like the premise of a joke, right?” Our Own JJ reviews La fille du régiment at the Met.
“In two Verdi operas per formed less than a week apart, legendary tenor Plácido Domingo revealed that, as a conductor, he makes an OK baritone.” Our Own JJ reviews Simon Boccanegra and Stiffelio at the Met. [NYP]
“In space, no one can hear you scream — but in a planetarium, everyone can hear you sing.” Our Own JJ (not pictured) reviews Haydn’s Il mondo della luna. [NYP]
Our Own JJ scoops the world, yet once again. By two weeks, yet.
“Carmen, opera’s favorite bad girl, is sexy, unpredictable and fascinating — everything the Met’s new production of Bizet’s Carmen is not.” [NYP]
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