Blog
Met Opera 2024-25 Review: Aida
New stagings always carry the weight of expectations, but Michael Mayer’s new Aida has the burden of replacing one of the Met’s most beloved productions. This staging had a fairly bumpy road; it was originally scheduled for 2020, but was axed due to corona. Now, it’s finally here, and quite remarkable. Hang on to your amulets!
An Interview With Quinn Kelsey
Quinn Kelsey sang in his first opera, Verdi’s Aida, at 13 years old, as a 1st tenor in the priests’ chorus. 34 years later, he is the king of Verdi baritones and singing the Ethiopian king Amonasro in the Met’s starry new production of Aida.
Met Opera 2024-25 Review: Ainadamar
“That. Was. Glorious,” an anonymous voice behind me gushed when the curtain dropped. Indeed, Ainadamar’s genre-fusing combination of great voices, historical elegy, and explosive flamenco dancing is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
An Interview With Elena Villalón
Fresh off her critically praised Met Opera debut in Orfeo ed Euridice last spring, Cuban-American soprano Elena Villalón now takes on Osvaldo Golijov’s exhilarating Ainadamar. She kindly took the time to answer some questions in between rehearsals.
Met Opera 2024-25 Review: Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Jacques Offenbach‘s Les Contes d’Hoffmann is opera’s equivalent of The Tortured Poets Department, only 14,592 times better. The music brims with kaleidoscopic vibrancy and the story of Hoffmann’s three loves is delightful, though dizzyingly strange at times.
Recital Review: Erin Morley at the Yale School of Music
It feels natural that Erin Morley’s first solo album, Rose in Bloom, should be nature-themed. She commands great versatility with her crystal-crisp voice, which sometimes resembles a richly filigreed silver flute, other times the ethereal otherworldliness of a glass harmonica.
