In September, Finnish National Opera gave the world premiere of Höstsonaten (Autumn Sonata), based on Mr. Bergman’s 1978 study of a troubled mother/daughter relationship.
I fucking love Renée Fleming.
I was extraordinarily happy Monday evening to encounter Angel Blue and Russell Thomas as Mimi and Rodolfo.
“It’s not easy being green”: especially if you’re the two greatest Italian opera composers.
Riccardo Zandoni’s Il Grillo del Focolare is an opera after all.
For her first CD in six years, Angela Gheorghiu has chosen Italian repertoire.
Erin Wall was an elegant, warm, and sensitive Arabella.
How on Earth will these fictitious luminaries of turn-of-the-century Swedish society keep their clothes clean?
From the perspective of current identity politics, Puccini’s Turandot is a disaster of epic proportions.
Opera Vlaanderen opened its 2017-18 season with a rare staging of Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane.
New York fans of 17th century Italian vocal music should be rejoicing this month.
Georges Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles has been knocking steadily at the door of the standard repertoire now in this country for quite some time.
Verdi’s Rigoletto returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago, a rousing performance both musically and dramatically.
I suspect that David McVicar’s new production of the Metropolitan Opera’s Norma had its most congenial showing as a totality, specifically in the HD format at the movie theater.
Matthew Aucoin’s Crossing depicts Walt Whitman’s experience serving wounded soldiers in a DC infirmary and chronicles the period’s tragic effects.
At the center of the Met’s revival of Puccini’s La bohème, one found the rich and layered talent of Angel Blue.
There is a slight chill in the air during the final minutes of La Traviata.
The 55th New York Film Festival presented the world premiere of Susan Froemke’s marvelous new documentary The Opera House in a special one-time-only screening at the Metropolitan Opera.
In Schikaneder’s patriarchal cosmology, darkness is the province of emotional women—not just the erratic fury of the Queen of the Night, but the pathetic supplications of Pamina as well.
Lyric Opera of Chicago opened its 2017-18 season on Saturday evening with a new production of Gluck’s Orphee et Eurydice in the 1774 Paris version.
Bellini’s Norma Monday evening didn’t at all improve on the production it was replacing.
No amount of scholarly diligence has kept Les contes d’Hoffmann from being the messiest of all standard-repertory messes.
This black-box recital was an aggressively Gallic affair
Tchaikovsky’s Orleánskaia Djeva (The Maid of Orleans) kicked off Odyssey’s Opera’s fifth season
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.
