Northern lights Northern lights

SoCal goes Scandi in two recent concerts, with one featuring an appearance by Lise Davidsen.

Blythe esprit Blythe esprit

Operettas always seem to be on the menu for New Year’s Eve, so Chris’s Cache joins in with a broadcast of Offenbach’s delicious La Grande-duchesse de Gérolstein featuring Stephanie Blythe in the title role.

Stuffing and licking Stuffing and licking

parterre box turns 30 on Sunday and writers from around the box are reflecting on the legacy of founder James Jorden and three decades of “remembering when opera was queer and dangerous and exciting and making it that way again”

Behold the happy pair Behold the happy pair

Beverly Sills and Renée Fleming perform 30 years apart the same work with the same orchestra in the same venue!

Rachel, Rachel Rachel, Rachel

It’s nice to see Sony Classical backing a serious operatic soprano and not some crossover refugee from Britain’s Got Talent or another syrupy Christmas album from the world’s reigning Heldentenor.

The high and the mighty The high and the mighty

Last Wednesday the 92nd Street Y presented the friendliest-ever episode of American Gladiators when Lawrence Brownlee and Michael Spyres continued their bel canto bromance with a delirious (almost) all-Rossini recital accompanied by Myra Huang.

High ‘Society’ High ‘Society’

Off-and-on since last fall my PPP (Personal Pandemic Project) has been assembling a chronology of the American Opera Society. For 19 years beginning in 1951 it presented a remarkable series of concert performances of works unperformed by either the Met or New York City Opera.

Champagne o’clock Champagne o’clock

Happy New Year, dear readers, from me, Callum, and Christine Goerke’s headband-tiara!

Have yourself a merry little widow Have yourself a merry little widow

Trove Thursday follows tradition and bids farewell to 2020 with an operetta: Lehár’s Die Lustige Witwe starring Edda Moser as a most commanding Hanna Glawari!

BASTA: Evan can wait BASTA: Evan can wait

Weekends at Aura Bar on 53rd and Ninth are typically big money makers for the morons who run the place. Jonjon and Yoni.

Out of the depths Out of the depths

“Trove Thursday” provides a live broadcast of Mozart’s rarely performed cantata Davide Penitente by Les Arts Florissants conducted by William Christie.

The gala lilies are in bloom again The gala lilies are in bloom again

Saturday night the Los Angeles Opera threw itself a party.

Out of hell Out of hell

One can only pray that “three strikes, you’re out” applies at the Met. If so, we can rest easy that Jeremy Sams won’t be getting any new assignments.

Call me Madame Call me Madame

“To play La Pompadour—what a delightful task! To be La Pompadour—what a gruesome fate!”

Piotr, principally Piotr, principally

Vanity project or not, these albums present a sensitive and talented artist showing off two little-seen sides of himself.

My God, it’s full of stars!

Ioan Holender was General Manager of the Wiener Staatsoper for nineteen years, the longest anyone has held this post, and the august institution honored him with the gala to end all galas in the final days of his administration.  With the goal of commemorating each of the 40 new productions premiered at the Staatsoper during…

Together wherever we go

La Cieca must say that, for a chick, Katharina Wagner sure doesn’t talk much. But perhaps her reticence is something of a blessing, since it prevents her from spouting such facile generalizations as “…’Die Meistersinger,’ Hitler’s favorite Wagner opera.”  

“Amor, ch’a nullo amato amar perdona”

My latest assignment from our doyenne has been to explore two of the many small opera companies pullulating around New York City. Some of these ensembles last l’espace d’un matin, while others have been enjoying a longer, healthier life.

divan decadence

Our Own Gualtier Maldè reports: Not every opera has to be a masterpiece.  I couldn’t subsist on a steady diet of Tristan und Isolde, Die Zauberfloete, Fidelio, plus Otello,  Falstaff et al.  Frankly the occasional light comic bonbon or trashy but fun melodramatic tunefest makes a nice palate cleanser.  I am talking Adriana Lecouvreur, La…