Streaming and discussion begin at 7:25 PM EDT. The post The Hours appeared first on parterre box ..read more

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwkX_KbGskU Richard Tucker Career Grant awards go to tenor Anthony Léon, baritone Luke Sutliff, and soprano Elena Villalón Trevor Haumschilt-Rocha, Kathleen O’Mara, and Emily Sierra each received a Sara Tucker Study Grant More information available at the Foundation’s website, though no plans have been announced for the annual concert The post Hilley terrain appeared first on parterre box ..read more

Puccini’s large-economy-size Chinese game-show where local Princes compete for the hand of the Emperor’s recalcitrant daughter has always been my favorite. New recordings, be they good or not-so-much, have always brought my renewed appreciation for its incredible vocal writing and kaleidoscopic orchestrations. If only Puccini hadn’t died before finishing it. But that’s another tale. Also, as a child of digital sound (which was glorious, but over-bright, in the beginning) the aural experience, most likely spoiled by Richard Mohr and his RCA engineers on the ‘Living Stereo’ team, has always bee ..read more

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2FWB3h2zpU On this day in 1907 Paul Dukas‘s rarity Ariane et Barbe Bleue premiered in Paris Birthday anniversaries of composer Jean-Marie Leclair (1697) tenors Max Lorenz (1901), Richard Lewis (1914) and Hans Kaart (1920), conductor Peter Maag (1919),designer Josef Svoboda (1920), and soprano Judith Beckmann (1935) The post Broad stripes and bright stars appeared first on parterre box ..read more

I can’t bring myself to say much about the garish fiasco that is Rebecca Frecknall’s Cabaret, currently on stage in New York. Many talented people onstage deserve better. The audience certainly does. The production received a well-earned drubbing from critics, whose reviews can be easily found, so I’ll leave that to you. Instead, I want to focus on how profoundly the revolutionary 1966 show (music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by Joe Masteroff, directed by Harold Prince) has, over the last five decades, been deconstructed, rebuilt and editorialized in multiple ways—almost always to ..read more

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuS337uc-4Y On this day in 1982 Maury Yeston‘s Nine opened on Broadway //www.youtube.com/watch?v=hor-I5iLj-8 On this day in 1994 Stephen Sondheim‘s Passion opened on Broadway https:// //www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOBodAd75W8 Birthday anniversaries of composer Giovanni Paisiello (1740), librettist Luigi Illica (1857), conductor Carlo Maria Giulini (1914), and tenor and director Nigel Douglas (1929) Happy 85th birthday baritone Giorgio Zancanaro Happy 84th birthday tenor Ramon Remedios Happy 72nd birthday mezzo-soprano Linda Finnie The post In a very unusual way appeared f ..read more

This time around I’m skipping the Met’s revival of its Mark Morris production of Orfeo ed Euridice, but its composer is rarely off my mind, so Chris’s Cache offers three striking interpretations of another Gluck masterpiece Alceste from Janet Baker, Anna Caterina Antonacci, and Véronique Gens. Seven years ago, I posted on Trove Thursday a recording of the last time I heard Alceste in person: Jessye Norman’s majestic interpretation from Lyric Opera of Chicago. Unfortunately, in the intervening years I still haven’t attended another Alceste. The thrilling Baker performance has been issued on CD ..read more

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1lQJ4Oc_VY Born on this day in 1930 soprano Heather Harper (1930) //www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARLaJ2eyQrc Birthday anniversaries of composer and arranger Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1892), bass Mihaly Szekely (1901), mezzo-soprano Maria von Ilosvay (1917), tenor Carlo Cossutta (1932), and conductor Elio Boncompagni (1933) The post Shiny happy people appeared first on parterre box ..read more

The combo of a familiar property from the literary and Hollywood worlds spearheaded by three bona fide musical/opera superstars — Renée Fleming, Broadway’s Kelli O’Hara (classically trained) and Joyce DiDonato —proved an irresistible lure for audiences, though several critics demurred. Peter Gelb wisely put the opera on the schedule for a repeat the following season, so a year and a half later, it’s back and a nearly capacity audience enthusiastically received it this past Sunday. Very often works that were hits at their premiere (usually because it is an adaptation of a familiar property wi ..read more

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJzGrVRwRAM Birthday anniversaries of composers Johannes Brahms (1833) and Pyotr Ilyich Tchiakovsky (1840) Anniversary birthdays for three great Swedish singers: Born on this day soprano Elisabeth Söderström (1927), tenor Helge Brilioth, and baritone Ingvar Wixell (both 1931) //www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuisCOBaLqg //www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn6ioCr_wBg //www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fk3UvO-ywM Happy 78th birthday soprano Barbara DanielsHappy 77th birthday soprano Stefka EvstatievaHappy 73rd birthday bass Roderick KennedyHappy 68th birthday stage director Nicholas Hytner The ..read more