Rubber soul
Video Artists International brings us back to a time when opera was carried over the airwaves by great voices—and a tire company.
Samson et Dalila
41 pieces since 2010.
41
pieces
17
years
Celebrate good times
Austin Opera’s 40th anniversary gala celebrated the present while gesturing boldly towards the future.
Sing out strong
Pride weekend events at San Francisco Opera and Festival Opera are fabulous starts to the Bay Area summer
Venetian blinding
West Bay Opera’s Otello punches well above its weight
Voices of spring
Chris’s Cache marks the arrival of Printemps in its many guises with three beguilingly cast performances of operas by Rimsky-Korsakov, Massenet, and Saint-Saëns
Peter Russell says you must watch Goin’ to Town
As opera and operetta “had a moment” in major Hollywood motion pictures starring the likes of Lawrence Tibbett, Jeannette MacDonald, and Nelson Eddy during the Great Depression, it made perfect sense that a canny showman like Mae West would want a piece of the action.
By Peter Russell
89 comments
A happening in Central Park
The outdoor recitals that the Metropolitan Opera presents in New York City Parks every summer are a wonderful way to showcase rising young stars and promising beginners from the Met’s Lindemann Program.
Dagonistic pluralism
To bring a well-known story to the stage, many methods are available.
Early onset dementia
Nothing says “diva” like an insane recital program.
Last dance
If it is true that there are few respectable ways for people over 40 without small children to celebrate Halloween, a performance of Richard Strauss’ pioneering horror opera Elektra belongs on the short list.
Ceaselessly beautiful
With the phenomenal cast that stacked Paris Opera’s production of I Capuleti e i Montecchi , it was easy to overlook the quirks of Bellini’s opera and get lost in the pleasures of glorious bel canto singing.
Letting their hair down
After the break the ladies stepped up their game so much that it elevated the night into legendary status: definitely one for the books!
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.
By the beautiful sea
On Sunday afternoon, husband-and-wife duo Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak presented a charming program of operatic favorites from the patio of the Château de la Chèvre d’Or in Èze, France.
Civilized pleasures
We can delight in films that make use of motif to give opera-lovers an extra little jiggle.
Group therapy
As long as women have been preyed upon, Don Giovanni has been relevant.
Keeper of the flame
Elina Garanca’s glorious Marguerite transformed La Damnation de Faust into the Met’s first essential must-see of the year.
General, not specific
While Russell Thomas admirably goes toe to toe with Otello (and Otello) in a thoughtful and self-aware way, the assumption feels like a work in progress if not an outright mismatch with his vocal gifts.
Suddenly spinto
When soprano Yihan Duan started to sing her aria, you could feel an almost electric charge that something special was happening.
Everybody dance now
Austin McCormack‘s lascivious choreography outshone a tepid and tedious staging of Saint-Saëns’s old-testament epic.
Discomfort zone
Roberto Alagna’s physical and vocal embodiment of Don José lent his particular narrative a complication I hadn’t anticipated.
‘Perles’ hearing
Alexander Birch Elliott‘ s dynamic if gauche Zurga added some pizzazz to an otherwise bland evening.
Talents of Gold(mark)
Throughout the evening I couldn’t help thinking that this1870s Biblical epic of erotic obsession and penance was what the Met should have been doing this fall rather than its misbegotten Samson et Dalila.
Bland date
With a program of Schumann, Wagner, Ravel and de Falla, mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca and pianist Kevin Murphy delivered a underdone performance at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night.
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
