15 Favorite Operas and 15 More: Reflections on the Love of a Lifetime By Pauline Park I have been listening to opera and attending opera performances since 1979, when I discovered this ‘exotic and irrational entertainment’ through an album of Mozart arias by Margaret Price and Joseph Losey’s film of “Don Giovanni.” Since then, I […]
Conchita Supervía & the Golden Age of Opera Conchita Supervía (December 8-9, 1895-March 30, 1936) was one of the great opera singers of all time and one of my favorites. Supervía’s life was tragically cut short in childbirth. It’s only too bad that so few of today’s opera lovers know of her, because Supervía’s vibrato — unlike […]
“Maria Stuarda”: the Metropolitan Opera’s New Year’s Eve Gala 2012 a very informal non-review by Pauline Park Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda” was chosen for the New Year’s Eve gala at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time on 31 December 2012; it was a rather disappointing experience, I regret to say. The basic problem is that “Maria Stuarda” […]
In “The Queen’s Throat,” David Koestenbaum writes that opera queens are distinguished by their propensity to keep lists of operas that they’ve seen. So here’s my list of operas that I’ve seen and/or heard live or recorded: 1607 L’Orfeo (Claudio Monteverdi) 1640 Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (Claudio Monteverdi) 1642 L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Claudio Monteverdi) […]
…an 18th century-style double-keyboard French harpsichord of the sort for which most Baroque keyboard music was written… “Music for a while shall all your cares beguile” (from “Oedipus”) is one of my favorite songs of Henry Purcell, widely considered the greatest of English composers. Music has always been an important part of my life, and […]
One of my favorite places on earth: Frying Pan Creek in Mt. Rainier National Park… Awhile back, a friend of mine suggested I do ’25 Things’ on Facebook, but I was a little reluctant to do that application on Facebook (too much like a chain letter), so I’m doing it my own way, here on […]
Renée Fleming in Rossini’s “Armida” The Metropolitan Opera’s 2009-10 season is anything if not eclectic, representing a judicious mix of old warhorses and operatic rarities. The new season will feature eight new productions – four of which are being billed as “company premieres” – and 18 revivals. Among the “tried and true” are new productions […]