A fascinating autobiography that delivers both on the diva anecdotes and on intelligent artistic observations about the singer’s life.
Fascinating account of the role of musical theater in an uneasy context of art emerging from the conflict and resolutions of high culture and popular sentimentality in an era where elites were challenged by political instability.
Man, I tried so hard to get this commissioned as a radio drama, because I want everyone to know what a ride this book is.
Not about opera per se, Sweeney Todd notwithstanding, but I’m looking forward to reading the poignant and touching ode to Sondheim’s oeuvre by Richard Schoch.
Joseph Caldwell produced this charming tale from a year spent in Italy on the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
I think most of us have come around to recognizing John Adams‘s Doctor Atomic the masterpiece that it is.
A bleak and somber version of the familiar story by Saint-Réal, mixing facts with fiction, making it even more tragical than the Verdi opera.
Because D.M. Thomas‘s book was a famous book back in its day — I read it in the mid-eighties, yet have forgotten 90% of what it’s all about.
Astrid Varnay‘s autobiography. Entertaining, cogent. Shows wit and character. Much more than “I sang, I got applause, and everyone loved me.”
Act now to join the starry ranks of The Talk of the Town contributors for a new quarter of à propos chitter chatter!
I’m bending the rules a little here, and not only substituting TV for film, but turning the category on its head by doing Movies At The Opera rather than the other way round.
Francis Ford Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now (1979) uses Richard Wagner‘s “Ride of the Valkyries” to terrifying effect, depicting the brutality and horror of impersonal aerial warfare in the Vietnam War.
While Godfather III is definitely the weakest movie in the eponymous trilogy, partly due to a miscasting of Mary Corleone, I have nothing but praise for the wonderful, almost inspirational use of Cavalleria Rusticana in the finale of the movie.
The Talented Mr. Ripley x Eugene Onegin.
Wagner is used as incidental music or background to probably more films than any other operatic composer.
Some of you may remember the 1987 thriller Someone to Watch Over Me.
Interrupted Melody was the wonderful biographical film about the singer Marjorie Lawrence. I thought it was a wonderful blending of opera with a 1950s Movie.
Tristan transcriptions for violin, piano, and orchestra.
Jeanette MacDonald singing in her movies got the ball rolling for my lifelong interest in opera.
Greta Garbo as diva Rita Cavallini with an Italo-Swedish accent.
I love the use of the Liebestod at the end of Romeo + Juliet. It’s such a lush, romantic way to end the movie. The most Baz Lurhmann thing ever.
Impossible to pick any one film clip, but it’s hard to imagine a more evocative use of operatic music than Lars von Trier‘s Melancholia.
I think Babette’s Feast is a more or less perfect film and has been my favorite since the first time I saw it.
The thing that inspires me about Pavarotti’s performance here is that this is the piece within the opera that everyone in the audience is waiting to hear.
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.
