Zubin Mehta was a major part of musical life when I moved to Southern California in 1969, having started his tenure as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
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.
Video Artists International brings us back to a time when opera was carried over the airwaves by great voices—and a tire company.
Yes, the Met had Birgit Nilsson – so they let the volcano that was Gertrude Grob-Prandl‘s voice slip through their fingers.
Christopher Corwin speaks to rising bass-baritone Le Bu about his journey from Yancheng, China to the Met (with a stop in Wichita) and what important roles await him.
Tired of Turandot? “The Dancing Goddess” at the China Institute Gallery gives us a glimpse at a real Peking Opera queen.
Anna Pirozzi makes a welcome return to the Metropolitan Opera, but Turandot remains as thorny as ever.
Grand Tier Grab Bag hearkens back to the days when Sondra Radvanovsky — who is singing no Verdi at all next season — seemed like the Verdi soprano of reference.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary performances of Turandot at the Met starting next week, Patrick Dillon gives a listen to seven versions of “Signore, ascolta!” for Perspectives on an Aria.
Gregory Spears’s Sleepers Awake mystifies and delights at Opera Philadelphia.
Back-to-back casts in the Metropolitan Opera’s revivals of Madama Butterfly and La traviata offer ample opportunity for soprano-gazing.
Strong performances at Opera Naples can’t overcome the cringey nostalgia of Derrick Wang‘s Scalia/Ginsburg.
Following the announcement that she’ll make her Met debut next season, Grand Tier Grab Bag brings Italian soprano Erika Grimaldi to your attention with a duet from Manon Lescaut.
Caitlin Vincent‘s new book Opera Wars paints a persuasive picture of the problems facing opera today, though her solutions leave something to be desired.
Die Entführung aus dem Serail boldly goes where no opera has gone before at Pacific Opera Project.
The recent highly hyped studio recording of Puccini’s Turandot left me greatly disappointed.
Easily the Met’s new Sonnambula, where cast and production team delivered a gorgeously sung and well thought out concept for a libretto often derided for its simplicity.
Fine music-making meets a clunker of a production in La Monnaie‘s revival of Norma
A starry (and potentially annual) Christmas gala lights up Carnegie Hall.
I am sure many of us will post the Fledermaus gala, but it doesn’t get better than this, even in a Fledermaus gala
Tamara Wilson and Stanislas de Barbeyrac are the standouts in Calixto Bieito’s underwhelming Die Walküre in Paris
A new recording of La fiamma from Deutsche Oper Berlin sets Respighi’s score ablaze.
Second casts in Don Giovanni and Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera offer mixed blessings.
The old Nilsson/Corelli radio checks from the 1960s are a reminder that what this opera needs are VOICES.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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