Dear in headlights Dear in headlights

Two women singing an operatic love duet is virtually an everyday occurrence, but two men? Not so much.

The wedding singers The wedding singers

Caramoor imported the venerable West-Coast period orchestra Philharmonia Baroque to perform Atalanta, an obscure pastoral work by Handel.

Thrace off Thrace off

Nearly 30 years after a Handel opera last played there, Carnegie Hall presented The English Concert opening a three-year opera-oratorio project on Sunday afternoon with Radamisto.

The sun also rises The sun also rises

If you’re the sort who prefers his diva to be an unapproachable sphinx prone to infuriating cancellations while radiating ennui, I suspect that the sunny, hard-working, grateful persona of American mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato will not appeal to you at all.

Miss Mannered

Joyce DiDonato enjoys the rare cachet of having three studio-recorded operas released in the past three years while other famous divas must be content with “just” DVDs. Although two of Renée Fleming’s Violettas have found their way onto video in less than five years (why??), “the people’s diva” has only recorded one studio opera in…

Beast seller

Other than binging on seven or eight Agatha Christie novels in seventh grade, I can’t recall ever again reading another mystery novel, or what they now call “crime fiction.”  Perhaps it’s a coincidence but around that same age I attended my first opera and began subscribing to Opera News.  Hence, Commissario Guido Brunetti, hero of…