“Rachvelishvili sang Carmen, the role of her 2009 breakthrough, hundreds of times, and was scheduled to ring in 2024 as Bizet’s classic antiheroine in the splashy premiere of a new production at the Met.”
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.
Zachary Woolfe reflects on the legacy of parterre box founder James Jorden and three decades of “remembering when opera was queer and dangerous and exciting and making it that way again”
Zack Woolfe of The New York Times remembers James Jorden
New York Times Classical Music Editor Zachary Woolfe (pictured) joins #KikiKonversations with Karen Slack.
On the day of the Super Bowl, I attended a near-sold-out screening of the Paris Opéra’s recent production of Rameau’s 1735 opéra-ballet Les Indes galantes at New York’s Alliance Française.
Robert Lepage promises a more “urban” take on the work.
“Can the Diva Who Once Ruled the Met Make a Comeback?”
Our Own Joel Rozen in Slate ponders the good gay vs. bad gay politics of Zachary Woolfe‘s New York Times celebration of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
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…
“I think that if it’s not [Bernstein’s] worst, it surely reflects his worst tendencies…”
“Mr. Luisi won praise replacing Mr. Levine time after time, particularly in a costly version of Wagner’s Ring cycle—though, perhaps in a sign of the situation’s delicacy, the two conductors have never met in person.”
“Few operas better represent a moment such as ours, when stability and long-held certainties are hard to come by, particularly in regard to sexuality.”
Longtime Friend of the Box Zachary Woolfe (left) climbs onto the masthead of the New York Times as their new classical music editor, starting Monday.
Our Own JJ‘s take on the Massenet will not appear until next week, but for now you are invited to make do with Zachary Woolfe‘s rave in the New York Times.
Intendant Alexander Pereira halts the merry-go-round briefly to discuss Salzburg and La Scala with Zachary Woolfe of the New York Times.
Javier Camerena, “as close to a rock star as the Met has produced from its male roster this season,” has big plans with the company, with at least four roles planned for future seasons.
To celebrate the birthday of Renata Tebaldi, our friends at Opera Depot are offering a free download of live performances by this great diva.
“But like any production left out in the sun a few decades, it gradually faded into mere decoration.”
The much-anticipated Stefan Herheim production of Les Vêpres Siciliennes opened last night at the Royal Opera, and the New York Times‘ Zachary Woolfe was something less than completely bowled over.
Onegin, which opens the Met’s season on Monday, has taken an unusually precipitous tumble…
Our Own JJ debuts in the pages of the New York Observer.
And then she was all like, “Nuh-uh! Igor was so not gay,” and I was all like…
Longtime Friend of the Box Zachary Woolfe (pictured) sits down with Marc Scorca of Opera America for a “Conversation about Opera in America,” implausibly enough.
“I’m analytical, not wild,” Ms. Garanca told an interviewer in 2009.
