The film of The Hours failed to effectively weave together the novel’s trio of threads of interiority about suicide and secondarily literary creation. I wondered if an opera would stand a better chance at achieving that? Based on Tuesday’s diva-encrusted stage premiere of Kevin Puts and Greg Pierce’s The Hours, its creators didn’t pull it off either.
146 comments
Sponsored
Deep discount on Sponsored Content ads!
parterre box, “the most essential blog in opera” (New York Times), is now offering Sponsored Content ads for only $100 a week (a discount of 75%!) through the end of 2022. Time to try out this economical and effective way to in reach your target audience through parterre box!
To conclude its triumphant season, last week the Met Orchestra performed its annual Carnegie Hall concerts under music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and once again performed superbly.
No, we don’t really need another “Orpheus” opera. Or, rather, we don’t need this one.
With composer Terence Blanchard and librettist Kasi Lemmons‘ incendiary Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the Met makes long overdue history and Will Liverman ascends to superstardom.
This was a great and happy event, but it wasn’t so much a musical one.
By John Yohalem
New productions of Aida, Die Zauberflöte, and Don Giovanni and Met premieres of The Fiery Angel and Dead Man Walking headline the Metropolitan Opera’s 2020–21 season.
By La Cieca
Joyce DiDonato’s take on Winterreise is a conceptual misstep that, song after song, frustratingly dilutes and distracts from an often rewarding musical performance.
By David Fox
Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, always with a gift for gab, is ever more loquacious in concerts, often talking directly to the audience.
By David Fox
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s opening night concert, for better or worse, was not a gala evening starring Plácido Domingo.
“Die Zauberflöte is an opera!” “No, it’s the first musical comedy!”
By David Fox
With the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Candide, they saved the best (of all possible worlds) for last.
By David Fox
Elina Garanca was radiantly present at Carnegie Hall Friday night performing a ravishingly somber Rückert-Lieder with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the MET Orchestra.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s “Music of Faith” with the Philadelphia Orchestra was a sensational concert, perhaps the best I’ve heard in more than a season.
By David Fox
Now, you would think nothing could please gaycentric La Cieca more than yesterday’s New York Times profile of the Met’s new music director…
By La Cieca
Philadelphia is a city famous for its musical institutions—so, of course, at this time of year Messiah performances abound.
By David Fox
The frequently-omniscient Future Met Wiki has recently vouchsafed a few morsels about upcoming Met seasons.
By La Cieca
Though orchestrally lavish, this “semi-staging” delivers less theater than no staging at all.
By David Fox
Yannick Nézet-Séguin‘s triumphant Elektra at the Met was the subject of parterre box’s most-read article in March 2018.
By La Cieca
Coming up at 3:15 PM, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 8.
By La Cieca
Yummy Yannick Nézet-Séguin belts out a song in a Met practice room.
By La Cieca
The Met’s magnificent revival which opened on Monday night with a superb cast under the mesmerizing leadership of Yannick Nézet-Séguin nearly converted me into a devoted Parsifal disciple.
Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin has been doing heavy lifting not only in the metaphorical but in the literal sense as well.
By La Cieca
One of the greats of classical music, Franz Joseph Haydn was a bit of an “also-ran” as an opera composer.
