If song recitals by opera stars Piotr Beczala and Asmik Grigorian sometimes came up short, Semyon Bychkov’s powerful rendition of the Glagolitic Mass instantly became one of the year’s highlights.
“Rafael Davila will sing the role of Don José in Bizet’s Carmen in tonight’s performance, replacing Piotr Beczala, who has withdrawn due to illness.”
It seems that François Girard has been watching a little too much Star Wars lately. His new production of Lohengrin, which opened at the Metropolitan Opera Sunday afternoon, reduced Wagner’s opera to a knockoff space opera, full of hackneyed sci-fi tropes and B-rated futurist apologue.
Following new productions of Tosca in 2017, Adriana Lecouvreur in 2018, and the Anna Netrebko-led Puccini orgy of 2019, New Year’s Eve at the Met has come to signify that verismo, as this school tends to be known, is still kicking.
I was reminded at the Met’s season premiere of Eugene Onegin Friday night always to expect the unexpected.
It was a meaty program. But both singers had the chops for it.
A change of pace this afternoon: Joyce DiDonato and Piotr Beczala sing excerpts from Werther.
In a steampunk moment, 21st century singers try on 19th century technology.
In May of last year tenor Piotr Beczala and soprano Anna Netrebko sang in Lohengrin for the first time under the baton of Christian Thielemann in his home house at the Staatskapelle Dresden.
Our selected Rosenkavalier video overview closes out the 20th-century selections, crosses the millennial mark, and includes the first of our performances to depart from the opera’s prescribed 18th-century setting.
Today’s Rusalka video overview covers filmed performances of Dvorák’s opera since 2010.
La Cieca’s spies in Dresden report that there were HD cameras aplenty in the Semperoper at Wednesday night’s performance of Lohengrin.
La Cieca’s familiar spirits have been turning their generally steely eyes to the Future Met Wiki, attempting in vain to make sense of impending repertoire and casting at Casa Gelb.
Polish singers are chameleons. They have to be.
The annual Richard Tucker Gala is probably the event of the year to indulge your love of verismo staples and can belto screaming.
Well that’s a terrible place to start a review, and it’s not quite fair to SFO’s Lucia di Lammermoor, but…
Your doyenne peers into the future, or, to be more accurate, into the Future Met Wiki, to reveal the latest rumors on casting and repertoire.
Susan Graham (pictured) and Piotr Beczala are the latest additions to the roster of “WQXR Presents Metropolitan Opera Spring Highlights,” at The Greene Space on Monday, April 6 at 7:00 PM.
Imagine two tenors releasing French opera aria collections at the same time without duplicating a single track!
The Met’s planned premiere of Iolanta/Bluebeard’s Castle was cancelled due to the Great Blizzard That Wasn’t.
Maestro Christian Thielemann has made his choice for Lohengrin casting in Dresden and, later, Bayreuth: “Anna Netrebko als Elsa und Piotr Beczala in der Titelpartie.”
Starting in less than half an hour, “Le Concert de Paris.”
The legend of the mermaid is ancient, and recently scientists have theorized that these legends might have arisen when humans encountered marine mammals such as whales, seals, or sea lions.
So we may all be on the same page as we discuss, following the jump is the video of the December 7 Traviata from La Scala.
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.
