Blog
Highlights of the Met’s 2025-26 Season
The Met’s opening night world premiere is one of only three new operas, marking a departure from the six new operas presented only two seasons ago, and bel canto explodes back onto the stage. I couldn’t choose only five operas to explore here, so we’re expanding to six for this year only.
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.
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.
