Some filth or dementia from Mat Hal Some filth or dementia from Mat Hal

Who doesn’t love a slightly murky archival recording?

Maria Stuarda Maria Stuarda

A performance recorded earlier this month in Salzburg with Lisette Oropesa and Kate Lindsey

Maria Stuarda Maria Stuarda

Lisette Oropesa and Kate Lindsey star in a live video broadcast from Salzburg

Masques et bergamasques Masques et bergamasques

John Yohalem wraps up Donizetti Month at parterre box with a look back at nearly six decades of Donizetti operagoing.

A favorite Donizetti performance from Leyla Gender-Bender A favorite Donizetti performance from Leyla Gender-Bender

I’m convinced that someone else will claim this Donizetti opera before I do, but Maria Stuarda is definitely my very favorite Donizetti opera.

A favorite Donizetti performance from Lisette Oropesa A favorite Donizetti performance from Lisette Oropesa

Donizetti wrote so much great music, it’s hard to single out a favorite opera, or even a preferred aria!

Maria Stuarda Maria Stuarda

Lisette Oropesa and Aigul Akhmetshina come to blows in a performance recorded last fall in Madrid.

Castanet diva Castanet diva

Lisette Oropesa, a product of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Program, has not been seen much on the stage of the Met in recent seasons.

Nice piece of <i>Tales</i> Nice piece of <i>Tales</i>

Les Contes d’Hoffmann is something of a puzzle in which some of the pieces are missing and others been altered to fit since Offenbach died before he could complete and revise the work.

Giving head voice Giving head voice

Anna Bolena might be the earliest of Donizetti’s operas that might have name recognition to a non-specialist audience.

Queen’s evidence Queen’s evidence

Trove Thursday’s belated contribution to last weekend’s Platinum Jubilee is a broadcast from Aldeburgh of Benjamin Britten’s Gloriana with Christine Brewer and Tom Randle as Elizabeth and Essex, an opera which premiered 69 years ago yesterday.

Crowning achievement Crowning achievement

Sondra Radvanovsky is very special here!

(Some) Thoughts on ‘Don Carlos’ (Some) Thoughts on ‘Don Carlos’

In online discussion on “Favorite Opera” and cuts in opera in general, it seems Don Carlos (in its original French title) or Don Carlo (as it is better known in Italian) – with or without the “s” – generally get the most votes both as favorite and as an opera from which deplorable cuts are made.

In memoriam Pauline Tinsley In memoriam Pauline Tinsley

Pauline Tinsley, who died May 11, made few commercial recordings; Trove Thursday offers the thrilling English soprano in excerpts over nearly two decades from nine works ranging from Handel to Richard Strauss.

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.

The Lady Eve The Lady Eve

For nearly 70 years, New York City was the world capital of concert opera thanks first to the American Opera Society, then to Eve Queler’s Opera Orchestra of New York.

Leyla and the pirates Leyla and the pirates

Next month in Bergamo Plácido Domingo takes on his zillionth—and possibly final—new role, so Trove Thursday previews it by returning to the same venue 50 years earlier for Donizetti’s Belisario with Leyla Gencer and Renato Bruson, a real baritone as its titular hero.

Roberto dangerously Roberto dangerously

For those of you keeping track at home that’s four substitutions for three roles and the curtain hasn’t even gone up yet.

The three faces of Sondra The three faces of Sondra

It was a gloomy, chilly, rainy day in Chicago on Sunday afternoon, a perfect reflection of the sad and gloomy fates of the title characters in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s presentation of The Three Queens.

O for a Muse of fire O for a Muse of fire

Saturday August 17 the Merola Opera Program wrapped up its annual Summer Festival with the Merola Grand Finale concert at the War Memorial Opera House.

È la solita storia del tenore È la solita storia del tenore

While Luciano Pavarotti may have brought opera to the people, once he realized how lucrative it could be, there was a string of promoters who helped him turn all that adoration into cold hard cash.

Cri du coeur Cri du coeur

Sondra Radvanovsky returned for her 29th Met Aïda Thursday night (but only her second Aïda.)

Strange music Strange music

Just over a month ago the great Catalan soprano Montserrat Caballé died at age 85.

Bell de jour Bell de jour

Next week the Italian soprano Mariella Devia celebrates her 70th birthday so “Trove Thursday” salutes her with one of her earliest New York successes: Delibes’s Lakmé