They were there, opera insiders said, because Chelsea Clinton is a friend of the tenor Vittorio Grigolo, who was playing the Chevalier, Manon’s true love.”
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.
Longtime Friend of the Box Zachary Woolfe (left) climbs onto the masthead of the New York Times as their new classical music editor, starting Monday.
Our Own JJ‘s take on the Massenet will not appear until next week, but for now you are invited to make do with Zachary Woolfe‘s rave in the New York Times.
“The soup is hot; the soup is cold; Norman Lebrecht got it wrong again.”
You figured it out a fortnight ago, cher public.
Finally the mystery has been solved: glamorous Joyce DiDonato and mousy Rachel DiDonato (pictured, left to right) are really the same person!
“Ms. Netrebko, 43, spoke about her willingness to take risks…”
Intendant Alexander Pereira halts the merry-go-round briefly to discuss Salzburg and La Scala with Zachary Woolfe of the New York Times.
“But,” he added, “I find it distressing to be threatened by other artists.”
There goes my very last nerve.
Javier Camerena, “as close to a rock star as the Met has produced from its male roster this season,” has big plans with the company, with at least four roles planned for future seasons.
“Rely on the flamboyant German soprano Simone Kermes to steal scenes as La Jolie.”
To celebrate the birthday of Renata Tebaldi, our friends at Opera Depot are offering a free download of live performances by this great diva.
“The cast, to a member, embraces every chance…”
After four years of delegating union talks to his predecessor, Joseph Volpe, Met honcho Peter Gelb will now lead negotiations himself.
“But like any production left out in the sun a few decades, it gradually faded into mere decoration.”
The much-anticipated Stefan Herheim production of Les Vêpres Siciliennes opened last night at the Royal Opera, and the New York Times‘ Zachary Woolfe was something less than completely bowled over.
“The title character in Barber’s Gothic melodrama Vanessa, a self-deluded, manipulative older woman, ‘keeps coming up,’ Ms. Voigt said.”
“New York City Opera… says it likely will fail in its goal to raise $7 million by Monday, the deadline it set for suspending the bulk of its 2013-14 season.”
For those of you who might have overlooked the fact that James Levine is conducting tomorrow night at the Met, the New York Times will get you up to speed this morning with no fewer than four (4) features on the return of “somebody who may be the greatest opera conductor in history.”
With almost three weeks to go, New York City Opera’s Kickstarter campaign is only $956,985 short of its goal.
“An earlier version of this post referred incorrectly to the gender of the mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton. Ms. Barton is a woman.”
La Cieca spies spotted the New York Times‘ Anthony Tommasini at the opening of the Salzburg Meistersinger, which indicates his review should be appearing by tomorrow at the latest.
And then she was all like, “Nuh-uh! Igor was so not gay,” and I was all like…
