Ailyn Pérez as Madama Butterfly at the Teatro del Liceo, 2024 / Photo: David Ruano

Grand Tier Grab Bag

Ritorna un’altra volta

Parterre Box anticipates Ailyn Peréz's upcoming New York performances of Madama Butterfly with the Puccini role most closely associated with her

our own

I do declare

This spring's Talk of the Town is craving your operatic dominance and your submissions by January 15.

Recording Reviews

Psyché’d up

It would be difficult to find a better description for Ambroise Thomas’s newly-recovered Psyché, recently heard in a new recording from Palazzetto Bru Zane, than the one uttered by her suitors: "Charmante Psyché!"

Grand Tier Grab Bag

My sister’s keeper

Grand Tier Grab Bag highlights La Scala's opening night prima donna Sara Jakubiak with an excerpt of her Chrysothemis recorded last year.

Photo: Caitlin Oldhman

I listen to the wind of my soul

Washington Concert Opera began its 39^th season last month with Christoph Willibald Gluck’s late masterpiece Iphigénie en Tauride.

When Pushkin comes to shove

An incoherent production of Ruslan and Lyudmila at the Hamburg State Opera may dispense with the fantastical, but Glinka's magic remains.

Photo: Les Arts Florissants Messe de Minuit and Pastorale de Noël By Marc-Antoine Charpentier Conducted by William Christie Rehearsal Photographed: Friday, December 5, 2025 at 3:00 PM Peter Jay Sharp Building Howard Gilman Opera House Photograph: © 2025 Richard Termine. PHOTO CREDIT - Richard Termine

Old friends, new friends

Les Arts Florissants present two ravishing programs in Brooklyn and Manhattan. 

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

Now I’m an old believer

Big voices overwhelm Claus Guth's toothless staging of Khovanshchina at the Berlin Staatsoper.

Renata Tebaldi sings “Tu scendi dalle stelle”

When I first listened years ago as a baby opera queen to Tebaldi's 1971 "Christmas Festival," I could not get over just how enfeebled she sounded.

“Last Christmas” at the 2014 Christmas in Vienna concert

"Vesselina's Chest Voice" is my new drag name.

Joan Sutherland sings “Joy to the World”

Dear Joan with her trills and ornaments brings "Joy to the World" every holiday season. Wishing a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Charlotte Margiono sings “Joseph, lieber Joseph mein”

Christmas kitsch is great fun, of course, but Christmas can be just as wonderful without it, as this great singer proves.

Leontyne Price sings “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”

Christmas should be over the top, opulent, a little sad, utterly sincere, and ever so vulgar.