Blog
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.
Opera Onscreen: Crying and Renée Fleming in Margaret (2011)
My favorite opera scene in film is perhaps the obscurest: Margaret (2011), when Anna Paquin and J. Smith-Cameron attend Les Contes d’Hoffmann starring Renée Fleming and Susan Graham. By the end of the Barcarolle, Paquin’s character has burst in tears and reconciled with her estranged mother.
An Interview With Erin Morley
Recently, internationally acclaimed coloratura soprano Erin Morley has been piling on triumph after triumph. Erin released her first solo album this April, the floral-themed Rose in Bloom. She kindly spoke to me about her album, feminizing roles, skydiving, and more.
Met Opera 2023-24 Review: Roméo et Juliette
Romeo and Juliet reliably make you swoon and weep, but a truly worthy cast should make the “sweet sorrow” fresh each time. The cast the Met has assembled for Roméo et Juliette blows these and other standards away.
Highlights of the Met’s 2024-25 Season
On February 23, the Met Opera announced their 2024-25 season. Notably for nitpicky me, I’m excited for almost everything. It was difficult to choose, but here are the five shows I’m most looking forward to.
