Intimacy
Last week, a pair of terrific recitals demonstrated what kind of intimate spell a dramatic singer can cast when left alone with a piano.
Review
Hell’s kitchen
Hansel and Gretel might just be the best thing the Met has done so far this season.
Digging in the dirt
Even those of us who consider Guillaume Tell Rossini’s greatest opera understand why it has not been his most frequently staged.
Angel of the mourning
The most distinct pleasure of The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera was the polished, yet warm, performance of Susan Graham as Hanna Glawari.
Forgiveness
It was odd, if not downright uncomfortable, to watch Le Nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera.
Forever, Amber
My takeaway from this evening is that I want to hear a lot more from Amber Wagner.
“Norma,” bis
Sir David McVicar’s inept and dreary new production of Bellini’s Norma proved to be more satisfying than it had been on opening night when it returned to the Met Friday evening thanks to its new leading ladies Angela Meade and Jamie Barton
What women want
Psychology is encoded in the composer’s vocal lines more than his librettist’s words.
Medium cool
Nico Muhly has set himself the task of presenting Winston Graham’s elusive heroine Marnie on the operatic stage.
Queen of the damned
“Semiramide—a better opera than this dude expected!”
Kiss the pearls goodbye
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s spectacularly colorful and glitzy new production of The Pearl Fishers opened on Sunday.
Stranger things
Vincenzo Bellini’s La Straniera was presented at George Washington University’s dreary Lisner Hall on Sunday.
Girls on horseback
It’s a fairly traditional post-Patrice-Chereau Ring, set during the Industrial Revolution.
The pleasure of her company
It is not easy for an opera company to follow a spectacular production of La Traviata with Massenet’s Manon.
Animal, vegetable
Whatever its flaws, La finta giardinera is indeed a wise rep choice for grad students eager to cut their teeth.
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new Dane
C-major has made available the first DVD/Blu-ray of Franco Faccio’s Amleto.
We love you, Ms. Hannigan
Could Barbara Hannigan be Joni Mitchell’s classical counterpart?
Change the world – I want to get off
A dozen women or more talk and sing about all sort of important and exciting things, with “a man” near the bottom of their list of priorities.
Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes
A wonderfully committed Ailyn Pérez and Gerald Finley at Saturday afternoon’s revival abetted by Emmanuel Villaume’s passionate conducting converted me to a Thaïs believer.
Allowing the birds to nest in your hair
In the seventies and eighties Dominick Argento (who turned ninety this year) was one of the most oft-performed of American opera composers.
Look at these people: aren’t they eerie?
I’ve always believed that Follies, like life, should be relentless and inescapable.
Babylon revisited
What if you could time travel back to the first run of Giuseppe Verdi’s first great success Nabucco?
The last ruse of summer
Flotow’s Martha, a work of 1847 that was popular around the world for a hundred years.
Double Doge dare
The second DVD/Blu-ray with Plácido Domingo as Verdi’s other beleaguered Doge, Francesco in I due Foscari.
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!
