After success at the Met as Turandot and before a historic Medea, soprano Anna Pirozzi talks to Harry Rose about her voice, her repertoire, and where her “second explosion of career” is taking her.
Supported by an ingenious production and strong performances, Antonia Bembo’s Ercole Amante makes a successful Paris Opera debut.
Michael Spyres talks to Kevin Ng about his winding path as a baritenor, which composer he wants to conquer next, and how he makes Wagner work in his voice — and in his native Ozarks.
The Ralph Fiennes production of Eugene Onegin at the Paris Opera is just…fine.
Simon Boccanegra has never felt as foreboding or prophetic as it did at a recent performance at La Fenice.
Only the singers, led by Benjamin Bernheim, can salvage a dismal La Damnation de Faust at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées.
Second casts in Don Giovanni and Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera offer mixed blessings.
Sherrill Milnes sits down with Brendan Latimer to talk about his life, career, and what he hopes to pass along to the next generation
In the 1847 version of Macbeth, the forces of Teatro Nuovo lacked the thunderous punch this music can pack, but provided a pleasant ride
Les Brigands at the Paris Opera is an expensive joke that never lands
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.
Don Carlos returns to the Opéra National de Paris and it’s an unusually happy occasion
Washington National Opera’s second full-run offering of the season, a new production of Verdi’s perennially appealing Macbeth, premiered last Wednesday at the Kennedy Center.
As for complete recordings of Il trovatore, which was discussed at some length last week, there are at least 200 of them, both studio and live.
I’m old enough to remember when Yannick Nézet-Séguin could do no wrong.
Matthew Polenzani strode into the Park Avenue Armory’s Board of Officers Room last Monday evening and was received like a beloved friend–and indeed that is what he is to many of New York’s opera-goers.
Following the composition of Un ballo in maschera, Verdi had gone into a self-imposed retirement, at least musically; he had not composed a note in four years.
I’ve argued with myself for many years as to which was my favorite opera by Giuseppe Verdi, La forza del destino or Don Carlos. The latter finally won out especially after studying it in depth, but in the long run, it is the music of Forza that I love the most.
A revival of Peter Konwitschny’s rightly legendary Don Carlos and Dmitri Tcherniakov’s confounding new Salome: both turned out to be unforgettable!
In sum: not a perfect Simon Boccanegra—is there such a thing?—but a grand and often great one.
Old opera productions at the end of their performing life can be sad affairs.
On the train ride home I was thinking that I don’t want to see or hear Norma ever again.
On this day in 1979 the Metropolitan Opera presented a new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo.
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Don Carlos was a real feast of good singing and orchestral grandeur.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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