The Metropolitan Opera will be streaming Les Dialogues des Carmélites by Francis Poulenc for free next Friday, Sept. 20, starting at 7:30 p.m. You won’t want to miss it. The opera is […]
OPERA
Goethe’s Tortured Hero, Set to Massenet’s Music
Werther was originally rejected by the Paris Opera as too ‘gloomy’
Jules Massenet’s music has never moved me. It’s too thickly orchestrated, and his choice of dramas too extreme. Werther, easily Massenet’s best opera, filled with romantic melodies and dissonant outbursts, bears the […]
OPERA
Met’s Falstaff Is a Feast for Eyes and Ears
Verdi’s complex score is perhaps his greatest
Giuseppe Verdi was 77 when he began work on Falstaff, his last and arguably his greatest musical achievement, and his only successful comedy. More than 50 years earlier, he had lost […]
